The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

October 29Confidence and Doubt

Your moonlight, as I have told you, though it is a reflection of the sun, allows of bats and owls and other twilight birds to flit therein. But I am very glad that you can elevate your life with a doubt, for I am sure that it is nothing but an insatiable faith after all that deepens and darkens its current. And your doubt and my confidence are only a difference of expression.

Henry David Thoreau—Familiar Letters (1865)

If you had no doubt, you were certain something was going to work, c'mon, how fun could that really be?

You're gonna have doubt; you want doubt, because otherwise someone else would just do it in place of you. Your doubt is a sign that the thing you are doing just might be worth doing.

Thoreau encourages his friend to elevate his life with a doubt, and that's precisely the point of view all entrepreneurs need to carry into the battle against their fears.

You possess the confidence to be wrong, patient, and brave simultaneously.

“And your doubt and my confidence are only a difference of expression.”

Challenge Question

1. What do you want instead of doubt? What value would that add to your life?