All you need is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.
Mark Twain












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Surviving a failure gives you more self-confidence. Failures are great learning tools.
Jeffrey Immelt










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It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.
Charles Darwin


















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I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endevours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
--Henry David Thoreau











Photo by Rich Moffitt.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience by which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I can take the next thing that comes along.'
--Eleanor Roosevelt








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Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.
--Rita Mae Brown












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30-Day Confidence Building Challenge: Professional confidence is a work in progress

Confidence imparts a wonderful inspiration to its possessor.
--John Milton

To start this challenge I want to do something that's kind of arrogant: I want to question the esteemed Mr. Milton.

Now, I'm sure it's true. And I know it to be true personally. When I'm confident in my work, I'm more inspired, I'm freed up, I'm on fire.

But.

Here's the thing: When I started freelancing, I thought I had to be confident before I sent the query, made the phone call, brainstormed story ideas. I was obsessed with what the editor would think on the other end of the email and what the source would think on the other end of the phone call. I needed them to choose me. I needed for them to hire me so I could get the confidence.

And since I believed that I had to be confident first, I was stuck. Paralyzed.

I see this with my clients all the time. Especially freelancers who are new to journalism, but also freelancers who've been in the industry for years, we believe that confidence is a prerequisite. We don't understand that you get the confidence by doing the work.

That's what this challenge is all about. With all due respect to Mr. Milton, it might be easier to be inspired when you're confident, but you can find your way to inspiration and action before the confidence kicks in. Then, by doing the work, by doing the thing you're scared of, your confidence grows. Then you get assignments. Then inspiration comes a little easier.

So I want to challenge you for the next 30-days to consider the possibility that confidence isn't an essential state. You aren't either born confident or your screwed. You gain confidence by doing things you didn't think you could.

You gain confidence by:

• Querying a market you've always dreamed of querying. (It's nice when they email you back.)
• Writing up the query for the story you've been dreaming of writing for three years.
• Walking up and introducing yourself to the editor at the conference.
• Having lunch with that freelancer who intimidates you, to whom you're convinced you could never compare.

What you find is that the editor, the freelancer and the person on the other end of the email are just people. You find that you can do things you didn't think you could. You change your mind about yourself. You aren't stuck and paralyzed.

You're inspired.

Photo by J.J. Verhoef.

“A brand is no longer defined only by advertising-driven perception. Rather it is defined by the customer’s experience in buying the product; satisfaction in using the product; and the services wrapped around the product with positive consequences.”
Andrew Cohen, Founder, Exposed Brick











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An image is not simply a trademark, a design, a slogan or an easily remembered picture. It is a studiously crafted personality profile of an individual, institution, corporation, product or service.
--Daniel J. Boorstin





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"A brand that captures your mind gains behavior. A brand that captures your heart gains commitment."
Scott Talgo

Photo by aussiegall.

"If you don't get noticed, you don't have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks."
Leo Burnett

Photo by Indigo Goat.

Brand inside is more important than brand outside for sustained success.
--Tom Peters

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The primary focus of your brand message must be on how special you are, not how cheap you are. The goal must be to sell the distinctive quality of the brand."
-- Kerry Light, Brand Strategist

Build brands not around products but around reputation.

--Richard Branson

Photo of Richard Branson by tobybarnes.

“Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.”

–Vernon Howard

Photo by ManojVasanth.

"Everybody has to be able to participate in a future that they want to live for."
--Dean Kamen












Image by HikingArtist.com.

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success."
--Napoleon Hill

"Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive -- the risk to be alive and express what we really are."
--Don Miguel Ruiz














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"Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time." Marabel Morgan

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"Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time." Marabel Morgan