Self confidence according to dictionary is realistic confidence in one’s own judgment, ability, power, etc. Self confidence is such a delicate sense of assurance one usually builds brick on brick through experience and not by any amount of learning. It gives a feeling to keep head high and fight against odds. To sum it up in short Self confidence isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, its about learning to dance in the rain.
Given below is a short story of debt ridden company owner -
A business executive was in deep debt and couldn’t see a way out. Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on a bench, head on his hands, wondering if something could save his company from bankruptcy.
Suddenly an old man appeared before him. “I can see that something is troubling you,” he said. After listening to the executive woes, the old man said, “I believe I can help you”.
He asked the executive his name, wrote out a cheque, and pushed it into his hand saying, “Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time.”
Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come. The business executive saw in his hand a cheque for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!
“I can erase my money worries in an instant!” he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the uncashed cheque in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought.
With renewed optimism, showing the cheque he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.
Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the uncashed cheque. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.
“I’m so glad I caught him!” she cried. “I hope he hasn’t been bothering you. He’s always escaping from the rest home and telling people he’s John D. Rockefeller. ” And she led the old man away by the arm.
The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he’d been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him. Suddenly, he realized that it wasn’t the money, real or imagined, that had turned his life around. It was the self-confidence given by the old man to dance in the rain made it work.
“The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor. The one, who kneels to the Lord, can stand up to anything.”