December 2, 2003 - Walk Like You Have
A Pair
by
Bill Snow
The late, great, Chicago rock
band Urge Overkill trolled Chicago’s dingy bars when our fair city was a
preverbal backwater territory. What was striking about the band was the fact
that they decided to look and act the part of mega-rock stars -- when they were
still nobodies. Long before Quentin Tarantino’s decision to make their cover of
Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" the soundtrack to Uma Thurman’s
near fatal heroin overdose, Urge Overkill figured if you looked like you were
“someone,” people would eventually think you are actually someone. They decided
fame could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In other words, walk like you have a pair. Have some confidence!
I bring this up because I was recently a panelist at a business plan evaluation
symposium. The CEO of the presenting company gained my interest when he said,
“we have a great success rate in closing new business.” After all, this is what
you want to hear from entrepreneurs, that they know how to sell and get people
to give them money. That they have confidence.
The CEO proceeded to shoot himself in the foot when he added, “but I don’t know
how we did it. Luck, perhaps.”
Ahhrrgggghhhhh! Have some confidence! I find nothing wrong with an entrepreneur
touting his incredible sales ability. This CEO would have been better off
saying, “We have a very strong track record of closing sales. I know that 9 out
of 10 sales calls we go on will result in a sale, because we do our homework, we
only deal with decision makers, and we screen to make sure they actually need
our service and they have the ability to pay for it. I don’t waste my time with
companies that don’t need our wares, and I don’t waste my time with those who
cannot pay. I’ve always had this ability, and better still, I have a knack for
teaching my employees to do the same thing.”
That sounds better than, “I dunno,” doesn’t it?
The CEO’s self-deprecating style may have been a sop at false modesty. Or
perhaps his sales success (to date) has been due to dumb luck. Neither is a good
thing. In business, as in life, false modesty is a disingenuous trait, and while
it is definitely better to be lucky than good in some things (golf, for
example), asking investors to bet on you because you are lucky is not a good
thing! Self-confidence speaks volumes.
Resiliency
Self-confidence is different from luck because confidence means you are
resilient. Anyone who’s played craps knows how quickly luck can leave you. When
Sinatra sang, “Luck Be a Lady Tonight,” he was signing about a pair of dice, not
a dame!
Self-confidence means you have the ability to pull yourself up from the floor
after you’ve been decked or after your biggest client has fired you.
Self-confidence is the ability to pull yourself out of bed and face another day
of risks and disappointments, because you truly believe if you work hard enough
and plan well enough, you will be successful. Self-confidence means you believe
in yourself, in your abilities, and your vision, even when others cast doubt.
Luck is not resilient. Luck runs out on you without warning. Business models
predicated on luck are doomed to fail. Think about how long it would take to
have your business plan rejected by investors if you said, “Our sales model is
based on luck.”
Ironically, when you are successful, the knee-biters of the world will snipe at
you, saying you’re lucky. It’s been said before: Luck is the intersection of
preparedness and opportunity. In other words, your hard work and preparation put
you in a position to be “lucky.”
Confidence is contagious
I love playing poker against someone who is convinced he’s going to lose his
money – because he invariably does. Anyone who plays poker is a keen study of
body language. You’re looking for “tells,” that is, nonverbal cues that tip you
to the hand of your opponent. People who are convinced they have no chance of
winning simply emit an aura of negativity, and become easy targets to defeat.
Those who believe they will win, the self-confident ones, emit a different aura,
and even if they are holding a poor hand, they are going to control their
actions and do nothing that “tells” other players the truth about their weak
holdings.
Someone who believes he is born to lose, will lose. He has no chance of winning.
Someone who believes he can overcome any odds stacked in front of him, stands of
chance of doing that.
Belief in yourself, believe that you will pick yourself up off the floor if you
get knocked down, and more importantly, communicate this confidence to your
troops with every action. If you lack confidence, you will be surprised how
easily other people will be able to read your “tells.” If you truly believe in
yourself and your business, your employees will pick up on this attitude.
Confidence is contagious. People want to be with winners, but they need a reason
to believe. Give them that reason to believe in you and the opportunity, and
they will find the confidence to believe in themselves. Getting into any game,
be it poker or business, with the attitude that you’re going to lose, is a sure
ticket to failure.
Overconfident?
If I had to choose between overconfidence and lack of confidence, I’d choose
overconfidence every time. At least with overconfidence you have a chance of
success. Those lacking confidence will rarely win.
Don’t be afraid of touting yourself, your company, and the skill set of your
people. If you don’t believe the people in your organization are the best, bite
the bullet and get rid of them. You have to believe in yourself, you have to
communicate this to everyone, and you have to communicate you believe in your
team. It’s the only way.
If you are waiting for someone else to tell you that you have deep reserves of
self-confidence that you don’t know about, you’ll be waiting a long time.
Self-confidence starts with you. The rest will follow.
Has your company been profiled by Bill Snow? Send
an email to introduce your company:
bill@billsnow.com
About the author
Bill Snow runs this site. If you haven't figured that out yet, I can't
help you. |