Confidence: The surprising truth about how much you need and how to get it

We're told that the key to success in life and business is confidence: believe in yourself and the world is your oyster. But building confidence can be a challenging task. And, as leading psychologist tomas chamorro-premuzic argues in his first book for a general audience, confidence can actually get in the way of achievement, self-esteem is nothing without the competence, the core skills, to back it up. Confidence is feeling capable. Competence is being capable. None of the figures whose success is put down to supreme self-belief. Barack obama, madonna, muhammad ali could have achieved their goals without the hard-won skills and years of training behind the confidence mask. Successful people are confident because of their success and not the other way around. On your way to the top, self-doubt will improve your ability to learn from your mistakes, be critical of your own weaknesses and master skills in problem areas. Whether you want to improve your social skills, get a promotion or t