Why Confidence and Success Don't Always Correlate
As I grow older, I am starting to think there is an inverse correlation between the certainty of knowledge and success.
The people that I know are most successful in business recognize that there are many paths to success, that everyone's path is going to look different, and that everyone's path will have peaks and valleys. Usually, they have no idea whether or not any given entrepreneur is going to "make it."
There are people that I've bet on that have failed spectacularly and businesses that I passed on that ended up doing quite well (looking at you, CoSchedule). The reality is I probably don't know if your business concept is a good idea that will be successful or what you will ultimately need to do to be successful. I don't even know what I need to do in my own business to achieve our company's target growth goal of 25% this year.
There are also entrepreneurs that are still on their path toward financial independence (especially those selling coaching services, mastermind groups, and courses) that seem to have an unusually large amount of confidence for the level of success they've achieved. They see the presentation of confidence and knowledge as a marketing tool, but that confidence isn't always warranted.
If you hear a piece of business advice in a book or a podcast or if someone gives you advice about your business that they are absolutely sure of, make sure to ask yourself "what qualifies this to give advice?" and "what level of success has this person actually achieved?"
It's always good to get feedback from all sorts of people, but remember that no one (even you) knows completely what you need to do to be successful. If someone knew the exact steps to make your business achieve significant success, they probably would have done it themselves.
(Note: Not referring to anyone specifically in Sioux Falls. The specific person that inspired this coach is a 26-ish-year old "business coach" that drives a fancy car (possibly rented?), has a nice watch and lives in a southern state.)