Will_Heath

Self-confidence can and often does co-exist with experience and skill, in fact it is quite hard to have the first without the second.

Since I was brought into this conversation, I'll post my viewpoints in the same manner.

In sales, beginners are not confident at all, they may have a false sense of bravado but that is soon shattered when a few rejections come. Confidence comes with experience, knowing that you can preform, knowing that you can overcome objections, knowing that your past successes and failures have prepared you for the obstacles ahead.

Now lets change the wording of the above paragraph a bit....

In bonsai, beginners are not confident at all, they may have a false sense of bravado but that is soon shattered when a few trees die. Confidence comes with experience, knowing that you can preform, knowing that you can overcome problems, knowing that your past successes and failures have prepared you for the obstacles ahead.

What gives one this confidence? Healthy trees, back-budding, ramification, designs starting to take shape, approval from your peers, a few awards, etc? It is success that brings confidence, confidence to talk about what you know, to know what is wrong and what is right, to try new things, new species, new techniques, to talk about what you have learned and to question what does not fit in. Most of all it brings a new form of confidence, the confidence to learn more.

There is nothing wrong with confidence, the problem may very well be those who interpret it as arrogance.


Will