Aaron Taylor is in the College Football Hall of Fame, won a Super Bowl, and has been on national television for over 14 years. Yet when asked where he feels most confident, he doesn’t mention any of those. He says: “I feel confident in circle” — meaning spaces where he has permission to be his fully authentic self.
“One of the things that I’ve learned about me is for me to feel safe there has to be this kind of emotional game of you show me yours and I’ll show you mine but I go first. And what I’m finding is when I can share and express who I am fully, there’s nothing to hide. And when there’s nothing to hide, there’s nothing to hide.”
This reveals a profound truth: confidence is not the result of accumulating achievements. It comes from the absence of hiding. The man who won Super Bowls felt like a fraud the entire time because he was performing, not being. Achievement-based confidence is always conditional and fragile. Authenticity-based confidence comes from having nothing left to protect.
Joe Hudson connects this to the athletes he coaches who discover they can access their body and emotional intelligence off the field the same way they accessed it on the field — and it becomes a “superpower” in business and life.
Related Concepts
- Confidence is connection to yourself
- Competence does not lead to confidence
- Imposter syndrome means not being yourself
- Can’t be seen if not being yourself
- Focus on how you want to feel not what you fear