How many of us had our hopes risen by the England football team at the World Cup only to end up feeling deflated after their loss against Uruguay?

The defeat eventually knocked the Three Lions out of the tournament after Italy’s woeful loss to Costa Rica the next day.

But you have to admire the team spirit and belief of the nation, players and manager, ever hopeful the Italians would win their next two games and we would win ours, adding in a few goals of course. Unfortunately it wasn't to be.

Just imagine where we could all be if we took this approach. Would the economy recover much quicker through the power of positive thinking?

I think George Osborne must come from the Roy Hodgson camp of self-belief, saying at a conference last month “if only we have the self-confidence, we’ve already shown what we can achieve on the economy”.

That did get me thinking. Bank of England governor Mark Carney recently said: “I will not hesitate to take further action to cool Britain’s booming housing market and stop the economy from boiling over.”

I wonder what the impact would be if he had said: “If UK companies continue to drive more exports and investment in new plant and machinery which will drive more jobs and create more employment opportunities, we won’t need to cool Britain’s booming housing market as we will all be able to afford the mortgages.”

Or if instead of announcing employers will have to contribute to workplace pensions, what would have happened if the Pensions Minister Steve Webb said: “It will become mandatory for all employees to invest in a national lottery ticket, then there is the possibility that they may win substantial amounts of money, therefore they can invest and when they retire will be self-sufficient”?

Hmmm.

Let’s be fair to Roy. Over the years we haven’t really invested in homegrown young talent, instead opting to buy foreign players. Perhaps now they will see we need to apply greater efforts at home.

The same could be said about business. We do need to start to invest in our young people otherwise where will we find tomorrow’s business leaders?

If you want to achieve anything in this life you have to plan, prepare and work hard for it and then you won’t find yourself at the mercy of others.

That could have helped England fare better in Brazil but it could equally apply to us all.