Powerful Tips for Greater Self-Confidence

Self-confidence is one of the most important attributes you can possess, even more so than your physical appearance (also important) and the amount of money or connections you may have.

A self-confident person gets more done, doubts less, and instills enthusiasm in others-the sort of enthusiasm necessary for launching brands, closing deals, and creating growth at your company or in your personal life.

In the romantic realm, a certain amount of self-confidence is also very attractive. Self-confident daters tend to date more attractive and selective partners. Those with low self-confidence, on the other hand, often "settle" for someone who is not exactly what they want.

The first step to massive self-confidence is to realize you are equal to everyone else. You aren't "superior" to others, but you are also not inferior to them. Equal-every one of us is here for a reason, and each of our paths are different. I would not trade my life experience with Bill Gates' or Brad Pitt's experiences-I am on my own path, they are on theirs.

The second step to self-confidence is to realize most of your fears are completely and utterly unfounded. If you screw up a few lines of your sales pitch or get nervous around someone you want to ask out, know that even "failure" is not much of a failure. You won't be fired or banished from your industry if you mess up a few lines. The girl won't slap you in the face if you act nervous around her. In our mind's eye, we often perceive a "worst case scenario" that is actually so much WORSE than a legitimate worst case scenario would be.

We fear embarrassment so much, but why? Only those who put themselves out there, confidently and continuously, eventually taste the sweet nectar of success.

You need to ask her out to get her number; you need to make the sales pitch to get the sale. We tend to forget that action is very important-we listen, instead, to timid people who have not accomplished anything in their own lives. These people, the bystanders, instill in us all sorts of false myths about success and failure.

Failure is only the failure to act. Success is effort. It's really that simple. I have never regretted pitching a client, asking someone out, or investing in a new business idea. Some of my ideas have made me a lot of money; others have winded up being big losses and "embarrassments".

Despite this certainty that some of your projects will succeed and others will fail, I only consider one thing in my life to be a "failure". Do you know what that is? It is the feeling of "I wish I had tried" that occasionally swells up in my heart.

Trying and failing is so much more beautiful and rewarding than not trying and never knowing. If you are sitting on the sidelines, waiting for your life to begin, you will regret it.

Have no regrets. Lead the life you were born to live and go forward with complete certainty that each turn in your path is a part of the journey, not a mere mistake or roadblock. We get what we deserve.