True confidence comes from knowing more than others, not from attitude alone. Jim Collins' Good to Great shows that deep knowledge lets you develop contrarian insights, command higher value, and withstand criticism. Learning what others won't is how you gain a real edge.
In Good to Great, Jim Collins makes an excellent point about the best confidence coming from knowledge, coming from understanding, as opposed to just pure bravado. I know plenty of people who will put on a brave face and say, "Hey, let's go for it." I talk to investors kind of frequently who keep on talking about the importance of attitude and energy. And attitude and energy are important, and they should be backed up with knowledge. So what I encourage people to do is go know more and then gain confidence around those things things that they know that other people don't, so they can then go and be successful in the market. The trick is, when you do that, you're much more likely to be contrarian because you know something other people don't. That's where the market value is. So that confidence is important because you basically bear being disliked. When you are confident about the things that you know that the rest of the market says just ain't so, that is when you have the greatest career and market opportunity.
