Confidence

Confidence is trust or faith in a person or thing. Having confidence in oneself (self-confidence) can grant one more courage, and thus confidence is often viewed as a key to happiness and inner fulfilment. However, although confidence is often encouraged and celebrated, it is not vital to success. People who are cautious and analytical can achieve as much success as bold and impulsive people. Extroverts are not always confident, and introverts are not necessarily lacking in confidence. Yet, confidence, especially self-confidence, is often viewed as a positive trait.

Self-confidence is generally seen as having the courage to talk in front of a large number of people, the willingness to try something new, the willingness to go against what others are thinking or doing, and/or the willingness to explore what has not been explored. One who is confident is not necessarily loud and brash, or always ready to do reckless things in front of other people.

There are several dimensions to confidence. Confidence Club, an online resource, defines confidence in terms of 5 subcategories - social confidence, peer independence, physical presence, stage presence and status confidence.

Negative Aspects
Although confidence is usually viewed as a positive trait, it can also be a negative trait. Exaggerated pride or over-confidence in oneself can cause one to overestimate one's own abilities. This could lead one to take up tasks that one cannot succeed at, or appear arrogant and conceited in the eyes of others.

Having too much confidence in another person or thing can lead to similar problems; confidence in another person can lead to overdependence on them, as well as disappointment if they prove to be undependable. Another example of this is a confidence trick (Also known as a 'con' or a 'scam') in which as 'con artist' or 'con man' uses other people's confidence in him to trick them.