13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck by ASHWIN SANGHI

Author:ASHWIN SANGHI [SANGHI, ASHWIN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789384030575
Google: MYU2BQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Westland
Published: 2014-11-07T10:28:15.083000+00:00

8

CONFIDENCE

Lucky people develop their confidence and communicate

Raise

✓

Attitude

✓

Recognize

Approach

✓

Respond

✓

Awkward and shy during my teenage years and always overweight, I remember attending parties with the nagging fear of not knowing anyone, of having to sit alone in a corner nursing a drink. I inevitably ended up doing precisely that.

During my last few years in school, some teachers forced me into elocution, debates and dramatics. Though I was initially nervous, my self-confidence increased with every successive competition. I eventually reached a stage where I actively sought opportunities to speak (and had to be gently reminded to shut up).

So what is the solution to acquiring confidence? It’s simple. Conquer fear.

Overcoming fear—of any sort—allows one to open up to the flow of opportunities. Bertrand Russel, the British philosopher and mathematician, observed, ‘To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.’

In the book Maximize Your Potential: Grow Your Expertise, Take Bold Risks & Build an Incredible Career, Michael Schwalbe of Stanford University explains why fear gets in the way of luck. It involves the mental duel that occurs each day between risk-taking and the fear of failure.

Citing the work of psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Timothy Wilson, Schwalbe explains the ‘impact bias’. The impact bias is our tendency to greatly overestimate the intensity and extent of our emotional reactions. The net result of this bias? We expect failures to be more painful than they actually are, so we fear them more than we need to.

Consider legendary investor Warren Buffet, who had a fear of public speaking:

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett was petrified of public speaking. He would pick his college classes carefully to ensure that he would not have to address the class.

Buffet joined a public speaking course but never attended any of the sessions. ‘I lost my nerve,’ he said in an interview later.

He wasn’t alone. Countless famous people, including Bruce Willis, Tiger Woods, Julia Roberts, Anthony Quinn, Jimmy Stewart (even Sir Isaac Newton!) had issues with public speaking.

At twenty-one, Buffett started his investment career and realized that he simply had to overcome his fear of public speaking. Buffett signed up for a Dale Carnegie course with many like him who were scared of ‘getting up and saying our names.’

Fast forward to the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders. Each year, more than 35,000 shareholders descend upon Omaha. It is but obvious that Buffet is the star attraction. Buffet not only speaks, but manages to sing, dance and pose for photographs!

My point: it is possible to overcome fear and shyness. By doing so, we become much more capable of seizing opportunities.

In Julius Ceasar, William Shakespeare wrote:

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

It is often fear or shyness that prevents us from seizing the moment; from setting sail at the precise moment when the tide is just right. And as Shakespeare says, the tide waits for no one.

Another reason for fear can be explained by the ‘Monte Carlo Fallacy’.

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