QUOTE : Something I know about seemingly confident people, and especially people who work in large companies, is that often they’re more afraid of making a mistake than they are of wanting to do something right. (That’s especially true for managers or CEOs in their mid-forties, and even truer if they’re men.) That’s because they’re afraid of being pounced on if things go badly and afraid of the hit their self-esteem will take if they screw up.