Confidence is a very valuable trait that any business person or freelancer should have. It makes you go to different places and have more opportunities to grow your business. But then, you might be getting too confident.

Overconfidence is a common problem. Being pessimistic isn’t good, that’s a no-brainer, but being overconfident isn’t good either. Here are two reasons why:

1. You fail to deliver on your promise

That’s what happened to you many times in the past. You failed badly to deliver on our promise because you promised too much. That lesson taught me to be more careful and realistic next time. As they say, better to under-promise and over-deliver. That will wow your clients.

2. You may blame yourself too much

Blaming is never a good thing, and this is the other side of being overconfident. When you are overconfident about something and fail, you may blame yourself too much for the outcome. You think that you can do almost anything so that’s why you blame yourself. And that is not good for business.

Here are the tips on how to avoid being over confident:

Don’t give yourself too much of a credit

Be careful not to credit yourself too much when you are successful. Remember that you’re just probably lucky or you’re just blessed to have a good and dynamic team behind you.

This doesn’t mean that you didn’t work hard. After all, successful people are those who capitalize on good fortune with hard work. But without hard work and the skill to grab opportunity as they come, things won’t mean much either.

Understand the project

When you’re about to take on a project, dig deep into it to understand the breadth and scope of the project and realize the amount of time, effort, talent you need to put in. Be on the lookout for potential pitfalls. Talk with your team. Taking the time to really understand the complexity of a project helps you avoid unpleasant surprises later on. Surprises should be avoided as much as possible.

Have a buffer

Even after you comprehend the complexity of a project, you still need to have a buffer for surprises. Give yourself extra time and resources for unexpected things that might come. But be careful not to give yourself too much of a buffer. Otherwise you’ll be thinking too much and you’ll miss out on the competition and fun in business.

Be prepared for setbacks

Some people are too confident in themselves that they can’t think of the possibility of failing. That’s the most irrational and stupid thing that you could do. Be realistic. It’s good and commendable to be so positive about things and to hope for the best, but you should also know that failures come. So be prepared for failure. Doing so will help you recover quickly. Create a plan B for failure. This will take time as you need experience to know how things happen in a certain industry, but once you get the gist, you’d be able to succeed in anything you do.

Your thoughts

What do you think? Have you been too confident in the past? Do you think that you’re too confident now? What would you like to add?
Let us all know in the comments!