Which Comes First, Success or Self-Confidence?
The relationship between success and self-confidence is a complicated one, and how it plays out within each of us can have far-reaching implications for our lives and careers. One leads to the other, but in which direction? In thinking about this, I am reminded of the following:
“The Nanodegree program got me to where I wanted to go. It not only gave me the skills I needed, but it gave me confidence in those skills.”
This is a quote I return to time and time again. These words come from Ryan Waite, a Udacity student who challenged himself to rise above difficult circumstances and build an incredible career for himself. He’s done exactly that, and his story has been an inspiration to so many.
I love this quote for its nuanced expression of why skills are so important, and how having them not only gives you proficiency, but confidence.
There is a theory out there, expressed by many thinkers, that success can be a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. In some renderings this is literally a “visualize success to achieve success” approach. I prefer to think of the idea as having more to do with what Ryan so succinctly identifies — the symbiotic relationship between achievement and belief.
When you achieve something, you affirm yourself. To affirm yourself is to believe in yourself. To believe in yourself is to believe you can achieve. When you believe you can achieve, you try. And when you try, you can achieve. And so the cycle continues.
The converse can of course occur as well. If you fail, it is easy to lose faith in yourself. When you lose faith in yourself, you question your ability to achieve. When you don’t believe you can achieve, you often don’t try. When you don’t try, you don’t achieve, and this deepens your self-doubt. And so the cycle continues.
Of course you want the positive version of this for yourself, but the cyclical nature of the relationship between achievement and belief makes for a sort of “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” scenario, and so the question becomes, what’s my point-of-entry into this cycle? How do I develop the kind of self-confidence that leads to the kind of success that builds the kind of self-confidence that I’ll need to be a success?
Skills.
The answer is skills. The accrual of skills is a tangible achievement. A skill is demonstrable, measurable, trackable. It is concrete, and better yet, it’s enabling. You learn a skill, you know you have a skill, you can now do something with your skill. To master a skill is to enter the virtuous cycle of self-confidence and achievement.
Think about Ryan’s quote again:
“The Nanodegree program got me to where I wanted to go. It not only gave me the skills I needed, but it gave me confidence in those skills.”
Ryan knew he needed to get himself to a better place. He also knew he faced terrific obstacles. So he focused on learning skills. Here’s another quote from Ryan:
Building my confidence was really important, because of what I was up against. I didn’t have a bachelor’s degree. Others did. I knew I’d have to work harder, and I knew I could. But I also had to believe I could succeed.
This is how skills can start the wheel of success and self-confidence turning.
And so, the answer to the question posed by the title of this post is in fact “neither.” Learning skills comes first. After that, success and self-confidence naturally follow, in a constantly self-reinforcing cycle that can continue to dynamically inform your ongoing achievements.
~
This post was written by Christopher Watkins, Senior Writer, Udacity
