Amazon.in:Customer reviews: Confidence: The surprising truth about how much you need and how to get it

This book is very insightful and really turns a lot of what we think about confidence on its head. Reading it has made me realise that many people I know who are much more confident than me are really self delusional and lacking in self awareness and they maintain their (unwarranted) confidence by lying to themselves. I no longer find it desirable to be one of them and, after reading it, I actually feel a lot better about myself because I am the kind of person who has good self awareness and a realistic view of their own competence, which as Chamorro-Premuzic tells us, is the key to real self improvement.
This book has really changed my mind. I no longer think that it’s important to raise your confidence at all costs but rather that it’s important to have realistic self views and to focus on improving competence so that your confidence naturally goes up in line with your competence. I also don’t take my low confidence in certain skills as a sign that I am somehow defective as a person but rather as a sign that this is what I need to work to improve next.

Kostas Zoulias

Competence Vs Confidence. How does the extraversion culture misleads people and creates generations of narcissists

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 9 June 2015

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The author is a known personality profiler and at the same time an academic and a businessman. He analyses competence versus confidence and he supports the concept that the confidence movement and the related "can do it" attitude can play a negative role in the outcome of people's efforts, at work or personal life. The idea is that overconfidence misleads people regarding their real abilities, makes them set unrealistic objectives and influences them against preparation and real work effort.
The book is at the same wave length as "Quiet" by Susan Cain but there is a lot more scientific background in it. Dr. Chamorro's claims are supported by scientific research at a greater extent than in Mrs Cain's book.
Since every book speaks to the individual, I think that books like these, encourage people that are "true and real" that ther attitude could be the most effective one and that there is success for the humble.

One person found this helpful

J. Bruce

Extremely useful book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 30 December 2013

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I found this book extremely useful in debunking many of the myths around 'confidence' being the sole (or primary) driver of success. Dr Chamorro-Premuzic speaks to anyone who has been told that their lack of confidence is a negative attribute; he sets out a valuable insight as to why we should strive primarily for competence (rather than confidence)and provides some practical tools as to how we might achieve this. I found his writing very accessbile and entertaining (for example, his use of references to current, well-known personalities) and I really felt as if he was on the reader's side throughout. In many ways, this is the book that I've been waiting to read for a long time, and I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this area.

3 people found this helpful

Tay Kwang Ming

An intriguing and well-documented look at the benefits of low confidence

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 4 May 2014

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Easily accessible and compellingly argued, this book establishes the often overlooked benefits of low confidence. To look at it in a simpler way, all outcomes in life come with their pros and cons, and it is not any different for low and high confidence. In this book though, low confidence consistently trumps high confidence and the author outlines it with interesting case studies and research / studies.

Though the book's subtitle gives the impression of yet another self-help book, I cannot recommend this book enough. It IS compulsory reading for anyone who has long suspected that there is a difference between confidence and competence or that confidence is far more constrained that it appears to be. Finish this book, and you will gain some personal growth.

2 people found this helpful

S. Wang

Fantastic book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 21 March 2014

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Anyone wanting to be more confident should read this book. First, Dr. Chamorro-Premuzic is absolutely correct that competence is what matters most, and that people ultimately value competence more than confidence. It's a basic point, but one that is often lost in today's world, and people struggling with confidence issues are those who perhaps need to be reminded the most. The other great thing about this book is that it teaches those with low confidence to work with what they have, that is, to use their low confidence as a tool to become more competent (and eventually more confident as well). That is really Dr. Chamorro-Premuzic's most outstanding insight--that low confidence, properly used, is very useful.

Adam Clarke

Intriguing look at confidence, competence, and success.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 4 July 2015

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Great book. It offers interesting insights into the connection between competence and confidence, as well as providing guidance on how to use these insights to improve one's career, social skills, relationships, and health. Critically, the ideas are substantiated by abundant psychology research. This book therefore represents a significant step forward for psychology-based personal development, which is an area that I think deserves more attention from psychologists.

Cliente Amazon

Grandioso!!!

Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on 20 January 2016

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Finalmente una voce fuori dal coro di coloro che predicano che se hai confidenza in te ...il successo è assicurato.
Queste sono le facili promesse che ci rimbombano nelle orecchie cui seguono, però, scottanti delusioni.
Per l'autore, infatti, la confidenza è il risultato della competenza e non il contrario!
Purtroppo molti sono invece i narcisisti incompetenti, la cui competenza non aumenta anche perché sono convinti di essere già al top.

Come recita un antico koan giapponese, è la consapevolezza di non essere all'altezza che mi fa salire ogni giorno più in alto!

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W. P. Gardner

Good book, terrible title.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 10 November 2013

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You must change the title. I will tell you what the title should be: _Competence Beats Confidence_. That is the book's central message, which it delivers very clearly.

I wouldn't have read this book if I had not read about it in Lucy Kellaway's column, because it sounds like a self-help book for salesmen, and there are a thousand in that genre. What the book will NOT tell you is how to have more confidence. It will tell you that low confidence is actually valuable and that people with low confidence are more likely to be competent, and to be continually improving their competence, than people with high confidence.

11 people found this helpful

cedric riyal

Totally flips the field of study

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 19 April 2014

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I have plenty of self help "You can do it" books, but this is the first I've read that brings science and facts rather than mantras.

One person found this helpful

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