Confidence It Is Then

Whenever I’m told, “Nothing is going to go wrong,” I always wonder if that’s delusion or confidence talking.

Only once have I had it clarified with the additional phrase of, “but if something does go wrong, I’ll make it right.”

And I Live Even Farther Away

My grandfather used to say (for real, this time) that he’d “take that car to California” to express his faith in the reliability of a vehicle. (And given that the distance involved from where he lived was around 1500 miles, this was no small expression of confidence.)

I still say this for the same reason.

And I Relearn That Lesson On A Regular Basis

Years ago I watched a stand-up comedian tell a joke that made the entire audience groan, and his response was, “I know, but I don’t care.  It’s my favorite joke, it stays in the act.”

I learned a lot that day.

Easy To Define, Also Easy To Do

The line between the virtue of confidence and the vice of overconfidence is actually easy to define.  When you’re so sure of your skill that you can’t see that you’re about to make a mistake, that is overconfidence.