Believing in yourself is an unfair advantage.

And you should take advantage of it.

I had a conversation about confidence the other day, with a friend who’s confidence isn’t at all matching her real competence. She has a 3,5 year degree, and still doesn’t believe that she can practice, and so on. So we talked a bit about confidence, where it comes from and what it does for us.

I told her my story of how I’ve been buffed up ever since I was a little child by almost everyone around me. My teachers in middle grade elementary school told me I’d one day become something big. In high school and gymnasium, I was told that I’d become prime minister one day. My coaches in football said I could go pro.

All of these interactions create a boost, an unfair advantage in confidence. Unfair in the sense that everyone should have it, or at least the brilliant people.

Because confidence takes you a lot further than you might think. A lot of the jobs that I’ve had, I’ve managed to get because I’ve been inclined to say yes, rather than no. Not only to the things that I actually know how to do, but just as well the things I have no idea of how to execute.

At 19, I took a job as a project manager, which in turn turned out to be a job where I was responsible for 3 employees, and myself. I’d never sent an invoice, even less had I had a conversation about performance with someone working for me. But so I did, and that’s just a small blip.

I think there are a bunch of people who undeservedly have a great ego or confidence. And I think there are an even greater bunch who undeservingly have a small one. Simply because reality isn’t matched with confidence. There’s no necessary parallell there.

What I can do to even things out is to continuously try to instill confidence where I think it’s appropriate. Give that boost that I was given.