The Confidence Effect

16

Learning to Bounce

When we are rigid, unyielding, and stiff, we break; when we are flexible, mature, and open to change, we bounce. Vernice “FlyGirl” Armour, America’s first African-American female combat pilot whom we met earlier in the book, explains “the bounce” this way: “I think an important piece when your confidence is shaken is to assess what happened. What happened and how do you fix it, so it’s less likely to happen the next time. It doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen again, but how can we lower the chances of it happening again? And if it’s something we really want, are we willing to go through it or risk it happening again because we know that we have to move through the failure to get to the success?”

In this chapter, I reveal ...