The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance – What Women Should Know

by Katty Kay

In the most basic terms, what we need to do is start acting and risking and failing, and stop mumbling and apologizing and prevaricating.

Perhaps most striking of all, we found that success correlates more closely with confidence than it does with competence.

With diligent effort, we can all choose to expand our confidence. But we will get there only if we stop trying to be perfect and start being prepared to fail.

“The trick is not to overthink it.”

Do men doubt themselves sometimes? Of course. But they don’t examine those doubts in such excruciating detail, and they certainly don’t let those doubts stop them as often as women do.

They have the skills; what they lack is self-belief, and without it they can’t turn their desire to run into the action of running.

Enjoy getting your hair and nails done. Just because you’re working in a man’s world, she laughed, doesn’t mean you always have to look like them.

Gaining confidence means getting outside your comfort zone, experiencing setbacks, and, with determination, picking yourself up again.

They are brave enough to be not only different, but to be themselves.

Do it, learn, and move on.