The line between confidence and arrogance is not always easy to draw. Where confidence is a feeling of self-assurance springing from demonstrative knowledge and skills, arrogance projects an exaggerated sense of our importance.
Sadly, confidence and arrogance can become all-too-comfortable bedfellows. Unless we hold ourselves in check. We have to remember that what matters most to people is what we stand for, and not what we have accomplished. As a rule, we all tend to follow confidence and resist arrogance in leaders.
The more successful we are, the harder it is to remember this. Use the following anecdote as a reminder. Famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright once offered testimony in a legal case and was asked by the opposing attorney to state his name and occupation for the court. Wright, never one for modesty, gave his name and then described himself to the court as the “world’s greatest living architect.” Present in the courtroom was Wright’s wife Olgivanna, who later chided him for being so immodest. Wright’s response: “You forget…I was under oath.”
Where confidence is a feeling of self-assurance springing from demonstrative knowledge and skills, arrogance projects an exaggerated sense of our importance.
Sadly, confidence and arrogance can become all-too-comfortable bedfellows. Unless we hold ourselves in check. We have to remember that what matters most to people is what we stand for, and not what we have accomplished. As a rule, we all tend to follow confidence and resist arrogance in leaders.
The more successful we are, the harder it is to remember this. Use the following anecdote as a reminder. Famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright once offered testimony in a legal case and was asked by the opposing attorney to state his name and occupation for the court. Wright, never one for modesty, gave his name and then described himself to the court as the “world’s greatest living architect.” Present in the courtroom was Wright’s wife Olgivanna, who later chided him for being so immodest. Wright’s response: “You forget…I was under oath.”
