You won’t succeed in business without a healthy dose of self-confidence. Here are 30 reasons why natural self-confidence is so critical in business and entrepreneurship.
- Being low on confidence in a business meeting means that fear and anxiety will get in the way of delivering your point in the best way.
- You’ll be excited to go out of your comfort zone to see what’s out there. Confidence allows you to take off the blinkers and look at other opportunities you wouldn’t have spotted before.
- You won’t be demotivated or disillusioned by set-backs and will be ready and able to find ways through.
- Nerves are fine, but coupled with low confidence they can be crippling. Feeling both nervous and confident is a great way to make sure you perform at your best.
- Just 7% of your communication is down to the actual words you use. 55% is visual non-verbal (i.e. body language) and 38% is vocal non-verbal (i.e. tone of voice, rhythm, etc). People always pick up on conflicting or negative signals, while confident non-verbal communication speaks volumes.
- Confidence makes it okay to experiment. It sets out the playing field in a way that makes it okay to try things out to see what works best.
- Real confidence means that you’re fully prepared to take responsibility for what you do, there’s no need for blame and fault.
- Confidence brings self-honesty with it – there’s no more lying to yourself about what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and whether you’re on the right road.
- Networking becomes easier because you don’t have to worry about how you’re coming across or what other people think of you – you can connect openly and honestly without fear.
- You’ll be ready to ask for help when you need it; you’re assured enough to know that asking for help doesn’t hurt you, it helps you.
- Second guessing yourself stops – you don’t need to anticipate everything and constantly ask yourself “What If?”
- You’ll know that your fears are part and parcel of the process of building a great business and see them as an ally rather than an enemy.
- You’ll know the difference between real doubt and imagined doubt, and you’ll be primed to deal with anything that’s real.
- You won’t feel like you can’t pick up the phone or send that email because the guy on the other side won’t want to hear from you. Other people are part of business-building.
- An easy, natural confidence makes it simpler for other people to trust you, your words and your offering.
- You’ll be able to openly admit when you’re flogging a dead horse, and adjust your game accordingly.
- You’ll have a more rounded view of who you are and what you can do, rather than being confined by titles or job descriptions.
- When conflicts arise you’ll be able to deal with them objectively and in the interests of your business, rather than taking it personally.
- Suggestions, recommendations and even criticism from other people all have their place in improving how your business operates – they don’t take away from what you do, they add to it.
- You’ll be able to create a business with the right people involved, rather than assuming you have to include whoever you can get or giving in to low expectations about who you can work with.
- You’ll understand that partnership and joint venture opportunities aren’t a threat to your customer base and business, they’re a valuable addition that can open up another market for everyone involved.
- With natural confidence you’ll be better able to establish good rapport with colleagues, clients and contacts.
- You’ll have complete trust in your own skills, strengths, experience and talents rather than doubting whether they’re good enough.
- Relationships are at the heart of any business. If you don’t have confidence in your interpersonal relationship abilities your business is flawed from the outset.
- You won’t be scared to look at the numbers – finance might not be your bag but it doesn’t frighten the life out of you.
- Confidence gives you the scope to set challenging objectives for your business, rather than setting easily met targets that don’t stretch or grow you or the business.
- You’ll be able to spot those old sabotaging behaviors and stop them, the ones that always prevented you from playing big and succeeding.
- You’ll understand that building a business is sometimes a long game and won’t get put off when things don’t all happen at once.
- You’ll know the things that truly matter to you, and will shape your business in line with those things rather than cutting corners or following a meaningless path.
- Being confident makes it easier to think in terms of what you can do rather than what you can’t do.
That’s the tip of the iceberg – what have I missed?



My head nearly exploded recently. It wasn’t pretty.










