There is no bigger cliché in business psychology than the idea that high self-confidence is key to career success. It is time to debunk this myth. In fact, low self-confidence is more likely to make you successful. Sure, extremely low confidence is not helpful: it inhibits performance by inducing fear, worry, and stress, which may drive people to give up sooner or later. But just-low-enough confidence can help you recalibrate your goals so they are more realistic and attainable.
在商業心理學中，高度的自信是事業成功的關鍵，這是老生常談的問題了。是時候打破這個神話了。事實上，缺乏自信似乎更容易讓你取得成功。當然，極度缺乏自信也是不行的：因為恐懼、擔憂和壓力會限制你的表現，最終，驅使人們放棄。但是，適當的缺乏自信會幫助你重新確定自己的目標，使其更加現實，更容易完成。
If your confidence is low, rather than extremely low, you stand a better chance of succeeding than if you have high self-confidence. There are three main reasons for this:
如果你缺乏自信，而不是極度缺乏自信，那麼，比起那些自信滿滿的人，你將擁有更多取得成功的機會。下面就是支持這一論點的三個主要的原因：
1.Lower self-confidence makes you pay attention to negative feedback and be self-critical:Most people get trapped in their optimistic biases, so they tend to listen to positive feedback and ignore negative feedback. Although this may help them come across as confidence to others, in any area of competence (e.g., education, business, sports or performing arts) achievement is 10% performance and 90% preparation. Thus, the more aware you are of your soft spots and weaknesses, the better prepared you will be. Indeed, success is the best medicine for your insecurities.
1.缺乏自信會讓你注意到負面的反饋，進行自我批評。大多數人深陷自我積極態度的偏見之中，因此，他們更願意聽到積極的反饋從而忽略了負面的回應。雖然在所有的競爭領域，例如，教育、商業、運動或者表演行業，相較他人，高度的自信會幫助他們取得成功，但是成功是10%的表現加上90%的準備。因此，更好地了解自己的弱點和不足，準備也會越充分。沒錯，成功是治癒安全感匱乏的一劑良藥。
2.Lower self-confidence can motivate you to work harder and prepare more:If you are serious about your goals, you will have more incentive to work hard when you lack confidence in your abilities. In fact, low confidence is only demotivating when you are not serious about your goals. If you really want what you say you want, then, your low confidence will only make you work harder to achieve it —because it will indicate a discrepancy between your desired goal and your current state.
2.缺乏自信會督促你更加努力地工作，做更多的準備。如果你對自己的目標很認真，在你對自己能力缺乏自信的情況下，你往往會更有動力去努力工作。事實上，只有你對自己的目標不認真的時候，缺乏自信才會產生消極的作用。如果真的想得到你說你想得到的東西，那麼，你的不自信反而會讓你更加努力地工作去得到它——因為不自信會讓你意識到你渴望的目標和你現在的狀態之間的差距。
3.Lower self-confidence reduces the chances of coming across as arrogant or being deluded: Indeed, people with low self-confidence are more likely to admit their mistakes —instead of blaming others —and rarely take credit for others' accomplishments. This is the most important benefit of low self-confidence because it points to the fact that low self-confidence can bring success, not just to individuals but also to organizations and society.
3.缺乏自信降低了自大和失望的可能性。確實，缺乏自信的人更容易承認錯誤，而不是抱怨他人，而且他們很少把別人的讚揚太當回事兒。這是缺乏自信最大的好處了，因為它告訴了我們一個事實：缺乏自信會帶來成功，不僅僅是對個人而言，對於公司和社會也同樣適用。
In brief, if you are serious about your goals, low self-confidence can be your biggest ally to accomplish them.
總之一句話，如果你對自己的目標很認真，缺乏自信會成為你實現目標的最有力的盟友。
（編輯：何瑩瑩）