Confidence: How Much You Really Need and How to Get It

by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

“I can’t remember the last time I finished reading a book and wanted to applaud…. Life-changing.”—Heidi Grant Halvorson, PhD, author of Focus
 
If you picked up this book because you want to increase your confidence, you are not alone. Like most people, you probably think that being highly confident would make you more likable, more employable, and more successful. But you’d be wrong.

In this paradigm-shifting book, world-renowned personality expert Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic reveals that, beyond making you feel good, high confidence has no genuine benefits, and it may even be self-destructive. Low confidence, however, helps us make realistic risk assessments, protects us from disastrous situations, and encourages us to become more competent—which is the real key to achievement. Intelligent and thought-provoking, Confidence shows you how to make your insecurities work for you in every facet of life.
 
“Maybe you have always intuited…that all the talk about boosting self-confidence and raising self-esteem is not the answer to success or happiness. This charming and thoroughly fact-based book will give you the evidence to back your wisdom, that being kind and competent works best.”—Elaine Aron, PhD, author of The Highly Sensitive Person and The Undervalued Self

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help

272 pages, Paperback

Published October 28, 2014

About the author

Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is an international authority in psychological profiling, talent management, and people analytics. He is the CEO of Hogan Assessment Systems, Professor of Business Psychology at University College London (UCL), and visiting Professor at Columbia University. He has previously taught at New York University and the London School of Economics.

He has published 8 books and over 120 scientific papers (h index 41), making him one of the most prolific social scientists of his generation. His work has received awards by the American Psychological Association and the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences.

He is also the director of UCL's Industrial-Organisational and Business Psychology programme, and an Associate with Harvard's Entrepreneurial Finance Lab.

Over the past 15 years, he has consulted to a range of clients in financial services (JP Morgan, HSBC, Prudential), advertising (Havas, Fallon, BBH), media (Yahoo!, MTV, Endemol), consumer goods (Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser), fashion (LVMH, Net-a-Porter), and government (British Army, Royal Mail, National Health Service).

His media career comprises over 70 TV appearances, including the BBC, CNN, and Sky, and regular features in Harvard Business Review, the Guardian, Fast Company, Forbes, and the Huffington Post. He is a keynote speaker for the Institute of Economic Affairs and the co-founder of metaprofiling.com, a digital start-up that enables organisations to identify individuals with entrepreneurial talent. He lives in New York.

Reviews

[Rawan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a very nice book, It's gives me another prospective about self confidence, I see it in a different way and I realize the cause of a lot of phenomenon of why there is a lot of unqualified leaders and presidents like Trump for example. Why it's better to be less confident than over confident. In conclusion the book is very useful and it is worth reading.

[Beth Melillo]

Competence is the only way to increase your confidence.

Somewhat repetitive in places, but a good reminder that in every domain of life, confidence is increased by competence, and competence requires (hard) work and effort.

[Munera · Rating 1 out of 5]

i don't like this book, it didn't help me at all. Only made me more anxious. i think it would help narcissistic people.