Sometimes in life we are persistent in choosing a wrong choice, as for example when we are persistently confident in tax evasion.
Many people have been very optimistic, that tax evasion and bribery would maintain their financial prosperity vivid, but after a certain time all those people prove to have been wrong and have to face the severe consequences.
So, sooner or later, in times when people persistently follow a wrong, illegeal or immoral manner, being optimistic about the outcome of their decision always proves to be disastrous to themselves. At the end, I think that obsessive, passionate optimism, can indeed turn out harmful to one's self.
On the other hand I don't think that people can ever benefit from being pessimistic, at all. Pessimism is the root which grows the tree of desperation, and a desperate person is harmful to his/her surroundings in many ways. There's always got to be some hope in our hearts for the better. People are not made to be desperate, people, within the human nature, are made to be evolving and improving within their own entity and towards their environment and surroundings.
The ideal condition is being always rational with a wide logical awareness of the conditions that affect ourselves and have a moderate or strong tendency to optimism, a tendency which turns life sweeter, a life worth living.