False modesty kills
Posted on July 7, 2010 by Tom
“I’m not sure if this is what you wanted?”
“It’s no problem if you don’t like it.”
“It’s not really what I do best, but I tried.”
Or the best one: “Naaaah, it’s not that good really, other people can probably do a better job.”
If you’re not sure if it’s what he wanted, why did you gave it in the first place? If it’s not really what you do best, why did you take the job? If someone else could do a better job, why did your boss employ you? And why don’t we ask ourselves these questions before we send an e-mail, talk to customers, to potential clients? You try to be modest, but you’re actually doing yourself wrong and it can really hurt yourself!
People often mistake modesty with some sort of false feeling of fake modesty, trying to sound not too overwhelming, too overly confident because it might frighten prospects of. Little do you know that chances are you’re in fact scaring them of because you sounds scared. Scared to take on the project, to do the job. But that’s what they hired you in the first place, someone or something told them that you are the right man for the job. And if you’re not, no problem, but give a sound and confident reason why not.
And if you think you’re not good at anything, what are you waiting for? With this much information being shared, so many incentives, all that knowledge that’s available for absolutely no extra cost. What are you waiting for?
