Confidence.
How hard work builds conviction and confidence.
Hi.
Reading time: About 5 minutes
I recently had a conversation with my cricket coach who is someone I have huge respect and admiration for. It was a great meet to catch up with him and the conversation actually sparked a lot of interesting things for me which has given me so much to think about.
One of the things we spoke about is confidence. For me personally before going to my university the way I played was more of a guy who is scared of getting out. Due to this fear of failure and lack of confidence I used to not perform as good in matches as I used to in practices. One of the reasons I am figuring out is that I used to be nervous as the cricket I played in Mumbai mattered and could result in me becoming a professional. The stakes were high. When I went to university I knew my hopes were over. For me cricket became something fun instead of something serious. I knew the level of cricket would come down and I knew that I would be very good in comparison to the people in my university. I had nothing to lose in this university. I could simply do what I wanted to do when I batted. Surprisingly this improved my confidence. I became much better and took many more risks. I backed myself. I played shots I never imagined I would.
I have definitely been a new player in my university and I like to think better. I have become confident and my attitude towards the game has really flipped. Now whatever reason that I stated above is true but there is one more very important reason for this confidence.
When I said that I knew I would be very good in comparison to the people in my university. It sounds arrogant doesn’t it? But to me it was reality. I had the belief and I had it for valid reasons. In the two years before I joined my university I worked very hard. There were only two things going on in my life, cricket and reading. I knew that the work I put in did not amount to me becoming a professional cricketer but I also knew that there was no way that it did not amount to me becoming a very good player in a university.
I asked a question to my coach regarding this and he said something down these lines which is why I came with the above realisation. That my confidence is because of the hard work.
One of the players who I had trained with for some time went on to play IPL and he played with confidence that I have never seen. But that confidence came because he trained very very hard. For him there was only cricket. Unreal amount of effort was put in for that kind of confidence to come.
This is something that can be true for not only athletes but any person in any field. Confidence comes from the work that you put in.
If I am an investor for example, my conviction comes from the work that I put in. If I have read annual reports, con calls, broker reports, done channel checks and thought a lot about the company then your confidence or conviction in holding that company during some situation which temporarily is bad for your company is going to be much better than the others. This is what makes investors money. Conviction in what you are holding.
“I don’t remember many periods of self doubt, particularly after I left aberdeen. i had worked hard and served a footballing apprenticeship that, from the time I started playing to the time I left Scotland had lasted more than 29 years, and I had achieved considerable success at Aberdeen. These experiences helped harden my inner beliefs and strengthened my confidence in my own conviction.”- Sir Alex Fergusson.
These are a few thoughts from my Dad,
“- [[Confidence]] in my ability to play cricket v/s confidence in what could happen to a technology trend say like AI in future. What is important to have is [[self-confidence]] - confident about things under our control. Which essentially means the process of the craft.
Both are very different.
- In first case hard work, disclpine and delibrate practice helps confidence and it is vital for good perforamce
- In second case despite more hard work will surely build confidence but it stands a risk of being over confident.
- Confidence should be about onself to do the work needed in each craft. Confidence in what could happen outside your control is fatal mistake.
- Confidence is sports is seen in the body language.
- Confidence in investing show up in ability to think and act contrary to crowd and social chatter
- At the end self-confidence is all about how invested and passionate one is about the "process" of the craft detachded from results. If one has worked hard, applied rigor and passion to process and spend enough time getting incrementally better at the process. Dogged incremental improvements as Munger would say. ”
The important thing to note is in your confidence in the things that are in your control. It is very easy to be confident in outcomes. But the confidence I am talking about is the confidence in the process. I can be confident that I will hit a six to Dale steyn but that confidence comes not because I know how Dale steyn bowls but it comes from my ability and the hard work I have put in to have the ability.
In investing the same thing can be said. You can be confident about the process. You can read everything you want to read but in the end you have to also acknowledge the unknowns. Be confident in your ability but also acknowledge the other things which are not in your control. It is luck.
The more skill involved in the game the more confidence the better. But if luck plays a huge role like it does in investing confidence has to be coupled with humility that somethings are out of your control.
Anyways these are just thoughts I have on something which changed who I am as a person it may or may not help you. But definitely there is one thing for sure. I know very few people who can fake their confidence without hard work.
Thank you for reading,
Samvit.