17 Dec 2025 · 4 min
Brian Johnson breaks down confidence as antifragile trust in yourself that strengthens through setbacks. Real confidence isn't a feeling you chase; it's earned daily by doing what you say you will do.
October 21, 2023.
November 14.
November 10–12 in Austin.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Arete 1 degree micro chapter from my new book, Arete Activate youe Heroic Potential. We're focused on Objective 2 right now, forging antifragile confidence. Here's one of the micro chapters from that Objective confidence, what it really is, and how to create it. It's time to define another one of my favorite words, confidence. Etymologically, the word confidence comes from two little Latin words, con and fidere. The word literally means with intense trust. Intense trust in what? Not that everything will go perfectly. That, of course, is crazy. We need to cultivate an intense trust in ourselves such that it doesn't matter what happens, because we know that we are the type of people who can do what needs to get done, whether we feel like it or not. We need to intensely trust ourselves such that we know that we can not only handle whatever life throws at us, but we can get stronger as a result. Enter antifragile confidence. And guess what? That level of intense trust and the true grounded, heroic antifragile confidence that comes from it is like every other form of trust earned. You need to earn that trust in yourself all day, every day. You know how to do that the same way you earn trust in any relationship. You do what you say you will do. I hope you enjoyed that. Arete plus one degree from my new book, Arete Activate youe Heroic Potential. The book will be shipped on November 14, right before Black Friday. In time to make it the perfect holiday gift, perhaps. I wanted to let you know that we have some special giveaways if you think you might like to pre order the book and even more goodies if you think you might want to give the book away this holiday season, here's the deal. Pre order one copy and get a free Advanced reader copy of the ebook today. Pre order free 3 copies and get a free advanced copy of the ebook and the audiobook and a limited edition Arete coin that we'll send to you. Pre order 10 copies of the book, bless you and get all of that plus an autographed advanced hardcover reader copy sent to you immediately inside the fancy Arete VIP box, which is packed with other goodies including this Arete T shirt, a Heroic t shirt, and 10 free annual heroic memberships for your gift recipients. You'd be able to give them a book and a year's worth of Heroic for free. If you pre order 25 copies, you'll get all that plus a free ticket to our launch event party in Austin November 10th through 12th and you'll get a personal voice memo. Thank you. And a high five from me if you're feeling inspired to order over 50 copies of the book. We've been blessed to have a lot of CEOs and corporations do that. We'll give you a huge discount. Just let us know all of this you can learn more about at Heroic U.S. book. Heroic U.S. book of course, you can order the book on Amazon. Barnes and Noble Independent bookstores will be everywhere you can buy a book, Hudson's Airport stores, et cetera. And let us know, of course, when you've done that and purchased a copy or three or ten or more if you feel inspired to do so at Heroic Us Book. I appreciate you and I hope you love the book. I'm super excited about it, super proud of it, and I hope it helps you and your families transform your lives.
