Its not a way to live.
Its not a way to do big things.
Its a way to fail big.
Ryan Holiday Instagram
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Updated 8 years ago,June 27, 2017
You have to believe in yourself, they say.
If you dont, who will?
The problem is that its bullshit.
I dont believe in myself.
Many successful people dont and didnt.
Because it isnt necessary.
Ryan Holiday Instagram
They dont need to have faith in themselves.They have evidence.
A few years ago, an interviewerasked Jay Zabout his incredible self-assuredness.
Its a good question.
He does seem like a person with unending faith in themselves.
How else could he rap the things that he raps?
How else could he have gone from the Marcy Projects to Madison Square?
The truth is it wasnt self-belief that got him there.
People dont realize Ive put a lot of my life into what Im doing right now.
I didnt just have a hit record and get lucky.
I have confidence because of the work that Ive put in, and Ive put in so much work.
Thats the hard way.
People prefer Rick Rosss line inThat Waypeople prefer his way.
On a regular basis, I get emails from people who are trying to do big things.
They are convinced they have some multi-billion dollar idea, a genius pitch, some brilliant artistic concept.
In gradual relief as the evidence comes in, reassessed at every turn.
Liddell Hart compared two different types of generals.
It is poise, not pose.
When I left what was a very good job to writemy first book, I didntbelieveI could do it.
That would have been absurd.
What would that belief have been based on?
I had never done it before.
What I did have was evidence of my own capacities.
I hadworked as a research assistanton other books.
I had writtenon a regular basisfor many years.
I had sketched out a full outline of the book I wanted to write.
I knew I wasnt a quitter.
That I was a fast learner.
No more, no less.
I remember about halfway through the manuscript, I sent itto someone I trustedand then met with them.
The first question out of my mouth was, So, is this a book?
I wanted objective feedback.
I was willing to accept the verdictor work to get the verdict I wanted.
Eventually I would taste that fruit that Hart was talking aboutthe sweetness of gradual accomplishment.
The immense gratification of looking at something you created and thinking, Where did that come from?
And being able to answer that it came from you.
It deprives you of all the pleasure of the actual accomplishment.
Hope is not a strategyfor writing a bookor starting a company.
Its not something to bet your career on.
It is a recipe for potentially catastrophic failure.
Napoleonbelievedhe could take Russia (and so did Hitler).
Cheneybelievedwe would be greeted as liberators in Iraq.
Trumpbelievedthat being president would be easy.
Kanyebelieveshes the Steve Jobs of fashion.
What evidence did they have for these assumptions?
But they couldnt listen.
They had too much faith in themselves, too much certainty in what could not be seen.
it’s possible for you to lose your faith.
You cant lose facts.
And instead of tasting the sweet fruit of gradual accomplishment, they drank the bitter brew of abject failure.
The Shermans of the world, their rise was more gradual but it was based on what was real.
His famous March to the Sea was military genius but hardly some flash of inspiration.
And it worked and it saved America.
(I have all the rank I want, he would say).
Thats the other part of it.
It just means theyll keep doing it until, eventually, they dont.
Is that what you want?
Who do you want to listen to?
The hustlers who sell hope as a product?
Or the doers who dont traffic in any of that?
As crazy as it sounds,you dont need to believe in yourself.
Thats not whats holding you back.
you better assemble a case that proves you’re able to.
you’re gonna wanna do the work that stands as evidence for what youre capable of.
So you’re free to walk by sight, not by faith.
Thats how you actually end up achieving the things that other people are too busy believing they can do.
