I wanted to start with a cliche sentence like “confidence is the key” but I was afraid of losing my credibility before I even start establishing it. I did some research on the dynamics of confidence and intelligence and as expected, the results revealed that confidence is more valued and prized in the world than intelligence is but this isn’t the real catch here. I am not about to delve into details about confidence itself but instead, ask the real question, “will confidence change the world?”.
The main reason that confidence is associated with intelligence is because of how attractive a trait it is. Confident people radiate their energy in any room that they walk in and they make it apparent that they know who they are and what they stand for. This is nothing short of impressive because humans are constantly involved in the struggle of self discovery and confident people appear to have solved the mystery already. There is no denying that this does not go unnoticed and confident people are able to capture attention and ensure that they are heard and their ideas are communicated.
However, research has also revealed that many confident people tend to be ignorant in their confidence and overestimate their true potential. As communicated by scholars, confidence is preferred over intelligence due to its power of influence. This influence can allow people to share their ideas and add to existence knowledge in the world as opposed to a person who may not be confident enough about their wisdom to spread it across. The real dilemma is that confident people may be the loudest but not always the wisest.
You hear the thoughts of a person who has the confidence to reach the podium, hold the mic and give a speech. This person may not be a professional at the subject or might even get certain facts wrong but since, this person rules the stage, you lend them your ears. Another person in the crowd may be well aware of the ignorance in the arguments posed by the speaker and could be equipped with most comprehensive counter arguments but the fact that this person lacks the confidence to walk the stairs leading to the podium completely invalidates their intelligence. The world needs more people on the stage because ideas must be spread and not contained within individual minds but the greatest of ideas are sometimes trapped in the minds of those who choose to stay silence.
Despite this, confidence remains secondary to intelligence. If you participate in a play, what is the first thing that you are required to do? Learn your lines. Even if you know how to act and have given some of the best performances in school, your instructor will still expect you to learn your lines before you are even allowed on the stage. Similarly, a confident person may know how to communicate well but if they have nothing substantial to communicate, does their confidence help change the world? It simply doesn’t. Speaking is an art and many do really well at it but will all speech help create new knowledge or challenge existing knowledge? In fact, most speeches only rephrase ideas that have already been communicated in past instead of giving a new perspective on world affairs.
We teach ourselves ways to become more confident and it is a journey that matters but it must go without saying that confidence should go hand in hand with intelligence. No idea is worthless but banter done with confidence cannot be treated as words of wisdom. Only a balance between confidence and intelligence can lead to a positive change in the world. Our primary goal should not simply be limited to learning how to speak more eloquently but also to speak about issues that matter, to speak about values that we believe in and to speak when we know what we aim to communicate. Then, it matters most to learn the ways of communicating and becoming confident so that people would pay attention to us. The world is in chaos because many people have so much to say but they stay silent while others lack creativity and ideas yet speak continuously.
Comments