"It always seems impossible until it's done."
That famed quote from the legendary South African President Nelson Mandela is one of my favorites. No matter what goal I'm trying to achieve, nothing seems nearly as insurmountable as what Mandela managed to do — dismantling apartheid in South Africa and peacefully transitioning the country to majority rule. And yet, he did it. One step at a time, with no guarantee that he would succeed.
There are a lot of factors that go into making a successful entrepreneur, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that belief in yourself is one of them. Confidence is what allows you to overcome obstacles and survive setbacks. It's also contagious — if you believe in yourself and your mission, others will, too.
Such confidence may seem like something you either have or you don't, like brown hair or an aversion to cilantro. But that's not true — it can be built. Here's how.
Related: 10 Things You Can Do to Boost Self-Confidence
As humans, we tend to be overconfident in our abilities. As Harvard Business Review put it, "we want to feel good about ourselves not only in terms of our accomplishments but also in terms of our aspirations.........