Self-Confidence

No matter how intelligent, successful and beautiful a person may be, without self-confidence, they are screwed, because self-confidence is not a product of the approval of society, it's a product of the approval of oneself, by oneself.

This is why I never contest or ask anyone to vote for me to validate what I do. I am not saying it is bad, such validations can be a form of encouragement to do more but it is simply not my thing.

If you spend your life waiting for such validations, no matter what you achieve or do right, you'll never be satisfied, because you'll always believe that you are not good enough. In fact, you will only end up upsetting yourself, that award wouldn’t have been important if you all didn’t attach much importance to it. We must also understand that Facebook is a large community. That you are popular in your timeline does not mean you are popular on Facebook. Facebook does not revolve around you, your timeline does. There are millions on Facebook who do not know we even exist. The anger, to be honest, is misplaced.

People are good at what they do simply because they are, if you are good or not, a nomination or an award won't change that. I am a simple person with simple ambition, I just do my thing, share my views and opinions like everyone, I am not interested in any contest. All the recognition I received in my 24 years of existence was honorary or strictly on merit, and it must continue to be so.

As history has shown us, many great ideas died because they were born in the minds of people suffering from fear of not being validated or recognized. Be like that quiet student in class who gets straight A's but rarely raises their hand to contribute to discussions, even when their classmates laugh at them, they know what they are and continues to prove that. It's the courage to not allow what people think of you to be what you think of yourself. It's to know the value you have, and to not make allowance for anyone to make you believe otherwise.

If you can acquire this thing, this important thing called self-confidence, then yours is the earth and everything in it.