Knowledge and Confidence
Why people who know a lot are always confident, but not vice versa? What are the primary sources of knowledge? How to build a foundation for confidence? The following article answers these and some related questions.
Knowledge is Confidence
No matter how confident you are in yourself, it has a limited impact on the actual situation and communication with the customer. True confidence is not only a feeling but also many other things: understanding of the situation, communication, soft skills, and, most of all, actual knowledge in the area in question. Today we will check what actual knowledge means.
Knowledge is an organized structure of theories, facts, real examples and use cases, and other things that build a complete picture in some specific area. Having the full view of this picture can help resolve multiple issues in different situations, and, consequently, you can share your knowledge with other people. Such an approach is simple, transparent, and efficient.
However, getting this knowledge is not an easy task. Let us check typical sources of knowledge that you should use to build the complete picture.
Primary Sources
The first common source is academic theory. It includes books you have read, the knowledge you gained from training, consulting or advisory sessions, and other places of purely academic knowledge.
The second typical source is experience. It is what you have tried to make, get some result, and learn from it. Experience includes both positive and negative outcomes, as by doing something wrong, you can also understand what you shouldn’t do.
The third widely used source is the advice of experts. No matter how good you are in some area, there are always people who know more than you. It is worth asking for advice if you want to save time, get an expert opinion on solving the issue and find the shortest and easiest way to achieve the result.
Knowing these sources, we can check how to build a foundation for confidence.
Building a Foundation
When you are confident, you always know what to do, when to do it, and how. But where is this knowledge came from? It is what knowledge gives you in return to spend time learning different things and trying to use them in real life. It is your foundation for confidence, and you have built it yourself!
When you are confident and have enough knowledge, you can share it with others. Sharing shows others your confidence and expertise and spreads the news about you as an expert in some areas. Such an opinion strengthens the confidence of other people in you.
The most crucial trait of a confident person is the ability to deliver an excellent result. In most cases, it is not that important how exactly did you do that and where your knowledge came from. Everybody can validate the result, and if it is good, it also maintains confidence.
When you have knowledge and confidence, you can achieve pretty much anything. Set the goal, get the knowledge, solve the issue, and become confident!