But why? Why do positive beliefs lead to positive outcomes, and why do
negative beliefs lead to negative outcomes? Because your beliefs determine
what you see. If you believe that you can build a network of supportive
people, then you will be looking for supportive people. Because you will be
making distinctions, you will gravitate to the right people and you will shun
the wrong ones. You won't try to do things that can't be done, you won't try
to organize meetings that people aren't going to attend, and you won't try to
wake people up who would rather stay asleep. On the other hand, if you don't
believe that supportive people exist, then obviously you won't be looking for
them. If you believe that people are all manipulative operators, then you will
be looking for games and schemes and angles, simply asking yourself which of
them best fits the needs of your own manipulations. When people cannot imagine
creating the world they want, and believe themselves to be living in a finite,
zero-sum world instead, they build a culture of competition and back-stabbing
instead of the positive culture they need. They act in ways that cause their
beliefs to come true, and then they conclude that they were right all along.
It is only when people believe in a decent world, and are out looking for the
elements of it, and watching for the outlines of it to emerge from the
fragments that they've gathered along the way, that they have a chance of
getting it.

Phil Agre