“The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.” From The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
I have always been a confident person, especially when it comes to things I’m good at. Learning where to draw the line between confidence and cockiness is something I developed in my golf game, helping me play my best. The two may get confused by those on the outside, but I know exactly where I stand on that delicate balance.
Does this mean I was a counterfeit innovator? I would say so. Improving on something I was already good at is refinement, not innovation.
Seeing as how I am scared to death, and have never experienced more self-doubt than during the last month, Pressfield gives me hope. When I’m learning something new, innovating as it were, that same confidence isn’t there.
I have experienced some successes: I have built websites, improved my ability to write, and have met deadlines. Yet the confidence that I can do the tasks hasn’t grown the way I thought it would. Every project has broken me down, without restoring my confidence to the level it was before I took the project on. It takes more than one repetition to become good at something, and yet I have been constantly moving from one thing to the next, without time to really dive in on any particular subject. Is this what Pressfield means by innovation? Building and shipping things without having the time to refine and perfect them?
If it is, I’m Pressfield’s type of innovator, scared to death.
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