Coach Wooden isn't simply saying that optimism helps—he's describing something subtler: the *act* of making the best is what actually creates the best outcome, not merely thinking positively about circumstances. There's a circularity here that matters: your effort to improve a bad situation doesn't just change your mood, it materially changes the situation itself. When a parent loses a job and channels that disruption into finally starting the side business they'd always considered, they're not just reframing disappointment—they're genuinely transforming their prospects through the very work of adaptation.