Embrace Confidence Beware Arrogance

I have often written about the upbringing that most of my generation had, where confidence was seen as too close to arrogance by many older people. We were told not ‘to blow your own trumpet’ and many of us kept that approach throughout our lives, or at least I have. The interesting thing is that I see that arrogance, which our elders were afraid of, around me all the time. Almost all of the politicians and higher ranking managers I have seen or worked under are convinced they are amazing people who have a real gift. The only gift they actually have is self-confidence that has gone full speed into arrogance. They must know it deep down because otherwise they wouldn’t seek to make those they are in charge of miserable especially if they indicate any disagreement. You see it in the US and the UK at the moment where certain politicians try to turn people against each other and deliberately try to make the lives of people they disagree with as difficult as possible.

Given all that I have said you would think that I would be a total believer in the approach my parents’ generation took, but the opposite is true. I think that the way forward is to encourage young people to have confidence in themselves from a very early age. My theory is that if we do this, they will be able to handle success in a more balanced way. When you expect to succeed, I feel you are more likely to handle that success well. The generation who were told not ‘to blow your own trumpet’ are, I think, afraid that someone will take their success away and act accordingly.

So, if you are younger than me and you are still reading this, be confident in yourself and treat your success as a reward but don’t use that success to subjugate others. My generation have failed the world around them in so many ways but if we can bring up the next generation to handle their success with good grace and good judgement we may finally help the world.