The movie “Apollo 13” contains one of my favorite scenes.

The goal is to land on the moon. While in flight, mission commander James Lovell, played by Tom Hanks, informs mission control in Houston that a fire in the oxygen tank has disabled the spacecraft. Safe return of the crew is doubtful.

Back at mission control, the NASA director huddles with a PR advisor. “It could be the worst disaster NASA has ever experienced,” the director says.

Flight Director Gene Kranz, played by Ed Harris, overhears his boss’s prediction. “With all due respect, sir,” he says, “I believe this is going to be our finest hour.”

And it was.

The Mackinac Center has written down a handful of values that we use to shape our workplace culture. One of the values is optimism. Here’s how we describe it: “We think better times are ahead of us and that we can make Michigan a better place to live. We face the future with optimism and good cheer.”

Optimism is a choice, not a byproduct. Optimism is most necessary when little exists to justify it.

The Mackinac Center team grounds its optimism in several assumptions: Each person has dignity and should be free to maximize his or her potential. Government exists to protect individual liberty. The free-market recommendations we offer can be — should be — enacted. Not only enacted, but celebrated, because the ideas will secure opportunity and prosperity. We are focused on Michigan policy because we have chosen Michigan as our home. We won’t save America without fixing Michigan.

We choose to see economic developments, political trends and new technology through an optimistic lens.

I’ve wondered whether optimism affects public policy. Do optimistic people embrace different policies than pessimists do? A few years ago, the technology analyst Dan Wang wrote an essay arguing that optimism drives innovation. Economists, he said, should consider optimism as human capital. Long-term investment, risk tolerance, exploration: They all require optimism.

Every physical object around us, says my friend John Tillman, exists because someone had a vision and took risks to make it or move it. If that’s true for the economy, the insight can be extended to groups of people as well.

A pessimistic organization huddles in upon itself, defensive and fearful. It exaggerates risks and overcompensates for them. It sees the world through a scarcity mindset and assumes that someone else’s gain comes at a cost. The pessimist is an expert on the problem but rarely discusses solutions.

You can spot the optimistic organization because it presumes that others act with good intent. Its people are generous with time and resources.The optimist is not blind to uncertainty or risk, but nevertheless works hard because the future is worth shaping. Optimists prefer persuasion over domination. They attract followers and collaborate with allies.

Our state faces immense challenges right now. You don’t need me to detail those challenges. We are proud to work with friends like you to secure a brighter future for Michigan.