How confident is too confident?
Case for Confidence
As people look at qualities - a self aware, balanced, consistent and "confident" demeanour is generally considered a good thing to have.
In competing for jobs, confident candidates have a definite edge over iffy-whiffy ones. Even my old b-school looks for the essential dose of confidence in incoming candidates (experience shows that quite a few cocksure smart-asses are masquerading as confident leaders of tomorrow)
It might seem that more the confidence the better it is...............................:-) well obviously there is a counter-argument
Case for Caution
A dash of doubt helps us keep our feet on ground. Small doubts lead to the ever useful sanity checks. If people were too sure of things....there would never be the second..third...and final draft....refining would be non existent - people will never take a good look from two steps back, and make the obvious correction.
Our insecurities save us from taking risks that we cannot afford to take. They make us evaluate and re-evaluate our options, till will settle on the right one (remember when you were choosing colleges, jobs, wives and swimming trunks...you were ever so cautious)
HMM!!!
So, where are the boundaries where the confident become foolhardy and the cautious become indecisive?
What is the point where the "fearless march into the uncharted territories" should convert into the "race to save your shit-scared ass"?
I have thought about it ...a lot......... and my temporary conclusion is .....confidence and caution are not mutually exclusive....In fact, to claim further , "confidence" and "caution" are not ever desirable things.
What are desirable are
1) Peace..a calm head, which knows the consequences of actions
2) Patience ...so that we don't panic at short term loss or get carried away by short term gains
3) Wisdom to know the right from wrong
If we have these three things....the apparent conviction of "confidence" and safety of "caution" would not be missed...
In the end I can confidently say that "confidence" is a non-issue....or maybe it is..
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Alam baba has arrived :) What I really liked is the supersized bold font - that's quite cautiously confident, I must say.
Agree that the 3 qualities listed are desirable. But i think some amount of confidence is required for us to make a decision. otherwise all of us will never be able to make decisions. What say?
what is confidence?
confidence = peace+patience+wisdom!!!
Post a Comment