How many times have you not acted on an idea, because you didn't have confidence in your ability to do it? If you're like most people, it's probably more times than you care to admit.

Lack of confidence is a very poor excuse for inaction. After all, how can we be confident in our ability to do anything, if it's something we haven't done before? Confidence is the last thing that comes. It is strictly a byproduct of our actions.

If you want to build confidence, you have to start out with "Commitment." It's our commitment to something that gives us the "Courage" to act. Once we have acted, we acquire confidence.

I get apoplectic when I hear about school systems who are busy teaching children self-esteem, rather than how to read, write and think. Of course, the reason is, it's a lot easier to give people a short term "feel good," than it is to do the hard work of making them into outstanding students. Unfortunately, "doing the easy," rather than "the hard," is why most people are not successful.

But how can a child feel good about themselves, in the long run, if they can't compete with the better students. Teach a child to read, write, think and excel in school and the self-esteem will take care of itself.

Do you remember your first sales call? Were you more confident before you walked in the door or after? I'm sure your answer is; after. How could it not be, since you had never done it before? But the commitment to the fact that this was not only what you had to do, but wanted to do, gave you the courage to act. After it was over, you probably said, "Hey, that wasn't so bad. I could do this again." Now, you had acquired confidence.