Pride

Ever heard of the saying: pride comes before a fall?

Confidence in oneself is one of the most important ingredients to success. The term self-confidence has been used as a derogative term because it doesn't suit the vast majority. A minority of the people in the world are true success stories. And a minority of the people have true self-confidence.

Without true self-confidence, it is difficult to achieve success; hence the fall.

Indeed, pride, while it might seem similar to self-confidence at first glance, is possibly the most different thing from self-confidence that exists in this world. You could even say that pride is inversely proportional to self-confidence.

The higher the level of one's pride; the lower their self-esteem is.

However, it is not impossible to reverse this situation. All the person in question has to achieve is a reasonable level of proficiency in a certain situation or ability; be it his finances, or even a talent in sports or music.

It is a (not)widely known fact that everyone is an exhibitionist at heart. And I do not mean in the sexual sense, which is doubtlessly what most people's minds jump to, the moment they chance upon the word exhibitionist. Everyone wants to showcase their talents, and everyone wants to show that they are the best. Nobody is as interested in anyone as much as themselves. However, through the years, after repeated setbacks, many have re-adjusted their definition of success. While for few, success still means winning, for some, success means being average. For some, success means not being the worst. For some, success is simply not losing.

It is a widely known fact that passion is the true secret to success. Your parents will always tell you to find the passion in your studies. The truth is, nobody knows exactly how to "build" passion. Until today. Allow me to inform you about the true secret to building passion.

As can be seen from two paragraphs above, there is an innate desire in every being to excel, and to show the world their accomplishments. In other words, people do not truely develop passion for their jobs. Steve jobs does not have passion to make the iphone; he has the passion to show the world that he is the best at what he does (making the smartphone). Kobe bryant does not have passion in basketball (he did when he was young, but after thousands of hours of shooting the ball, his "natural" passion for the game, well, naturally died out); he has the passion to show the world that he is the best at the sport.

Therein lies the secret; to develop passion at something, you need to become good at it. And the better you get at it, the better you will become. This is somewhat known as the tap theory; it is difficult to open the tap at first, but once the tap starts flowing, you can't stop the flow; once you get good, you just get better at an unstoppable rate. Hard work is not the secret to success at all. Hard work only gets you started; it makes you "sort of" good at what you are aiming for. Once you get past that stage, passion kicks in and brings you all the way to the top. It isn't hard work when professionals work for 24/7 on their job to achieve their goal; that is the passion flowing.

Passion means success. And self-confidence is both a by-product and a necessary ingredient for success.

And pride cometh before a fall.