Today is Monday, so this post is on self confidence.
Mark Twain once said, “all you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, then success is sure.” I love this quote. To me, it says “you’ll be amazed by how much you can accomplish (success) if you don’t know (ignorance) how hard it is to accomplish it.” If you don’t know that it’s hard, or impossible, to do something, you are more likely to be able to do it.
Here’s an example from my life. When I was a junior in high school, the local paper sponsored a writing contest. The winners got to spend two weeks at Kent State University during the summer participating in a seminar sponsored by the High School Press Institute. Only two students from all of the high schools in our county would win the contest. I decided I was going to win – because winning was the only way I was going to get to go to the seminar.
Funny thing is, I thought that two students from each school in the county were going to be selected. In other words, I was ignorant about the difficulty of winning. I was sure that I was one of the two best writers in my high school. I figured I was sure to win if I wrote the best essay I possibly could. I wrote a kick ass essay, sent it in and waited to hear that I had won.
I won. However, I was shocked when I realized I was one of two kids from the whole county to win. It was just like Mark Twain said, all I needed was ignorance and confidence. I was ignorant of the difficulty of the competition – we had about 25 high schools in our county. It was 25 times more difficult to win than I thought. And I was confident. I knew the competition in my school, and was pretty sure that if I wrote my best essay, it would be better than the essays of the other kids. (I knew this, because I was editor of the year book and newspaper and regularly edited their writing.) My ignorance allowed my confidence to flourish, and I wrote well. Had I known that I was in a county wide competition, I might have been more tentative in my writing – and I might not have won.
This is just a quick story to illustrate Mart Twain’s quote. The common sense point? When you are faced with a challenge, focus on your skills and talents, not how difficult it is – and you’ll be likely to succeed.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense. Check out my other blog: www.CommonSenseGuy.com for common sense advice on leading people and running a small business.
I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.
Bud
PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open. Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.
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