Deborah Weidenhamer, founder and president of Auction Systems Auctioneers & Appraisers Inc., in Phoenix, routinely lectures M.B.A. students on entrepreneurship, and she says they are hungry for information about confidence. "They've been inundated with case studies of successful companies," says Weidenhamer. "And successful companies have these stories of incredible perseverance, taking risks that make no business sense. But no one's taught the students how to do that. They can read financials. But they don't know how to work off of sheer guts and willpower."
Weidenhamer is right about the paucity of such material. A check of the indexes of management books at Barnes & Noble, for instance, turned up no listings for confidence. Our interviews with business leaders, however, did uncover a few universal truths on the subject, as well as some practical advice on the care and feeding of the entrepreneurial ego.
What exactly is confidence?
Confidence is like one of those perfumes that react differently with each individual's body chemistry to produce something unique. The only point on which everyone agrees is that without confidence, nothing happens.
Kenny Kramm, founder of FlavorX Inc., in Bethesda, Md., describes confidence as "perseverance; the knowledge that I will never give up." Jim Sharkey, founder of Linac Systems, in Lakewood, N.J., refers to "the assurance that I am being absolutely honest with myself." To Jane Sydlowski, founder and president of American Megacom, in Livonia, Mich., "confidence is synonymous with preparation." Jim Wanner, CEO of KeyMark, in Greenville, S.C., is among those who single out external influences, specifically "good people and good information." And Patrick Martucci, chairman and CEO of United Asset Coverage, in Naperville, Ill., insists that confidence is about one thing: clarity. "You don't have to be correct," explains Martucci. "You have to be clear. You have to choose clarity over certainty."
The most-cited descriptions of confidence involve courage (tolerance for risk, the ability to manage fear, the possession and strategic leverage of balls). Next come references to goals: focus, vision, and -- most often -- clarity. (The clarity proponents are especially persuasive.) Mentioned often -- but less often than the others -- are perseverance, persistence, and determination. A few people describe themselves as stubborn or even insane, but we're probably expected not to take that seriously.
Rich Harshaw, cofounder and CEO of Y2Marketing, in Desoto, Tex., says that confidence is simply "knowing you can make crap happen." OK, maybe that's not Emerson, but Harshaw knows a lot more about entrepreneurship than Ralph Waldo did. Harshaw once shuttered a successful consulting business -- eliminating all his clients in the process -- and plowed every cent of his and his partner's money into a riskier national venture. Both his company and the marketing program he sells run on a commando-style philosophy of guts and glory that he calls BBO, or "big brass ones." Harshaw gives this example: "In 1996 we met up with a seminar promoter who said that for $7,000 he could make us prominent in the seminar circuit. Back then my partner and I were making $3,000 a month apiece. But I went down to the bank with a check for $7,000 -- one of those fake-looking checks that credit-card companies send you to get you to run up your credit-card bill. I didn't tell my wife about it until three years later. The seminar thing didn't work out. But I did make one contact that turned into $85,000 the next year."
Doesn't that smack of bravado? Not to Harshaw. "It isn't bravado when it works," he says.
Where does confidence come from?
The science on confidence, unfortunately, is thin. Generally, it falls under the purview of the self-help movement rather than psychology. But research in related areas -- such as narcissism and self-doubt -- suggest that confidence has many obvious nurture and a few still-hazy nature components.
Temperament, for example, which is determined by chemicals produced by the brain, makes a "small contribution" to confidence, according to Jerome Kagan, a professor of psychology at Harvard. "There are a proportion of people -- maybe 10% or 15% -- who inherit a biology that makes it easy for them to feel tense, uncertain, unsure," explains Kagan. "Another 20% have the opposite temperament. These are the General Pattons of the world, the astronauts."
Robert Arkin, a professor of psychology at Ohio State University, who has spent 20 years studying under- and overachievers, explains matters differently. "For a confident person there's probably more going on internally," says Arkin. "Their brain is fired up but in a way that's focused on the environment, not on themselves. The Zen philosophy suggests that you empty your mind of thoughts about self. That's what people with confidence do."
Whatever nature gives you, of course, is modified by experience. Not surprisingly, conversations with confident people turn up no shortage of supportive parents and schools bursting with inspirational teachers, coaches, and debate-team instructors. Entrepreneurs who spent significant time watching their successful parents work were especially grateful. Greyhawk's Berman recalls tagging along with his father, "the world's greatest salesman," on calls for a clothing manufacturer in Kentucky. "I would sit there and watch him cut deals, and I thought, 'My God, so this is how it's done," says Berman. FlavorX's Kramm can still recite Calvin Coolidge's celebration of perseverance, which his mother framed and hung in the living room of his childhood home. "My parents don't give up on anything, which is why I don't give up either," says Kramm. "They own a pharmacy, and at times it was really tough, but they stuck it out when all the other pharmacies were selling to chains. When I was growing up, we worked together as a family. I saw their persistence every single day."
