I’m not sure if I had confidence. I think I thought I was smart enough but I also felt knocked down a lot by the smarter people around me. I always felt like I was behind and I didn’t know enough. So I always felt insecure based on that. I felt like I had so much to learn and so far to go. I would see people who were much more fluid in social circumstances. I thought, “How is she so quick? How did she know to say just that right sentence that made everybody laugh?” And then years go by.
Now I’m the one coming up with the quip that everybody loves. I realize now that it was just years of experience that I was looking at and thinking that it was some naturally made talent. It is a skill honed over decades. So I think you have to have a little bit of patience. People just don’t give themselves enough room. They are so self-demanding and self-critical. You just have to realize that it doesn’t all come at once but it does come. If you focus your energies on a direction, you will move in that direction, and it will come. – 40-something, media, entrepreneur and investor