Confidence Game

"Confidence is infectious." (Of this, I am sure)

The author of that quote is my 28-year-old son, and he dropped it as we met with a very well-known TV and radio personality, who is closer to my age and a longtime friend.

My friend lost his job earlier this year, and his lack of confidence is recently acquired.

Our business can do that to you.

For at least 20 years, most ownership and management has actively worked to devalue your contribution to their success. After all, that way they can pay you less.

It gets harder and harder to believe in yourself when every message you hear is "you can't."

Look, there's enough bad news in the world. The odds are already long enough.

There are enough people ready to pile on when they see someone stumble and fall.

You have it within your power to be different, to stand with the fallen, to reach down and try to help them back up.

I know, because I saw it.

You see, at that meeting with the well-known TV and radio personality, we were sitting outside, at a Starbucks, and a young Hispanic guy hired to paint the railing couldn't help but overhear our conversation.

When the tables near us cleared, he walked up, handed the personality a little scrap of paper with his name and phone number on it, and implored him not to give up, to come back, to face his fear.

He spoke quietly of his own struggles, his own fears, his own failures.

He offered to share courage when my friend needed it.

So don't tell me we can't do the same.

"We can all be angels to one another. We can choose to obey the still, small stirring within, the little whisper that says, Go. Ask. Reach out. Be an answer to someone's plea. You have a part to play. Have faith." -- Joan Wester Anderson