One thing that I was blessed with is self-confidence.
I learned from an early age that if you do something with enough confidence and conviction, very few people will question whether or not you’re supposed to actually be doing the thing in the first place.
Of course, I can’t deny the role that being white, blonde, pretty, and (for most of my life) skinny played in my ability to get away with more than your average teenager or young adult. But, having grown up in predominantly white spaces, I can pretty definitively say that confidence is the difference between getting away with it and no one even questioning why you’re doing it in the first place.
Now, as a 30 year old woman, I’ve experienced a few things in my life that have sufficiently shaken my confidence. Being rejected from every college musical theater program that I applied for, trying and failing to find a job in the arts for years, and, most recently, gaining a significant amount of weight, to name a few. Confidence isn’t a fixture in your life, even if you have more of it than the average person. It ebbs and flows, and sometimes is more difficult to rediscover than other times. In fact, I feel like I’m just now regaining my full confidence after gaining more than 50 pounds in 2020.
Four years later, I finally feel like I’ve found my way back to the full expression of my self-confidence, and I’ve spent quite a bit of time reflecting on the role that confidence plays in entrepreneurship.
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We tend to think about entrepreneurship as a set of hard skills that come together to create a successful business. It’s why selling courses has historically been pretty easy–if you can learn how to do this one thing, then you’ll be a rich, successful, sought-after entrepreneur.
In a way, it’s true. No matter what industry or field you’re in, early entrepreneurship necessitates at least a baseline of understanding and ability in systems, strategy, marketing, design, copy and content writing, customer service, sales… the list could go on.
But the soft skills and character traits that signal potential success in an aspiring entrepreneur are criminally overlooked.
After four years of entrepreneurship and a lifetime of unearned confidence, I can say that being able to trust yourself and your abilities, make decisions and stick by them, and be your own biggest fan is the most valuable soft skill that a would-be business owner can have.
You have to believe in yourself without wavering, because no one else is going to believe in you. Not at the beginning, at least. And nor should they.
Authority is earned, and if you have the ability to walk into every room like you belong there (even if/when you don’t), you can earn that authority faster just by being confident. No one will question whether you should be there in the first place. But you can’t question it, either.
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I see so many new and aspiring online service providers who enter this field because they want the money and freedom that was promised to them by a coach or course creator. I know for a fact that these things are possible, but I also know that they won’t come as easily or quickly as promised.
Building a business is grueling, thankless work.
Technically speaking, the world doesn’t need another copywriter or social media manager or web designer. Does that mean that there isn’t space for you in the industry? Of course not, there really is room for everyone to be successful.
What it means is that no one will beg you to start your business. No one will hold you to deadlines or force you to do a good job on client projects. No one but you will force you to push the boulder up the hill. Nope, not even your business coach.
No one will force you to believe in yourself when there is no money coming in, inbox zero, and nowhere to turn but inwards. That’s where unwavering confidence comes in.
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In the online business space, you will constantly be inundated with messaging telling you what you HAVE to do in order to succeed. Follow these steps, take this course, post this content… it doesn’t work. It might help, but it’s better to learn early on that there’s not a cheat sheet. There’s not a fast track. There is only believing in your abilities, making firm decisions, trying new things (and failing at those things more than you succeed), and maintaining your confidence in yourself and your business.
So what do you do if you didn’t come out of the womb with unwavering self-confidence like me? Fake it ‘til you make it, of course. Works every time.
