Thursday, July 21, 2011

Cultivating Confidence-Robin's Story




Confidence: A feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities.

When my long-time friend, Jackie, asked me to contribute to Cultivating Confidence, I immediately went out and started asking people “what makes you feel confident?” I learned for some it is their appearance, some get it from their success and others from their intellect. For me, confidence came when I learned to be self-reliant and independent.

When I turned 15 years old, the first thing I did was find a job. I couldn’t wait to go to work. I wanted to earn my own money to buy whatever I wanted without having to ask for anything from anyone. Don’t get me wrong, I had wonderful parents who took great care of me but money didn’t grow on a tree and I didn’t like asking for things that weren’t essential. Once I began earning my own income, I found myself becoming more and more independent. Even though I still lived at home, I bought my own car, paid for my own clothes and even had braces put on my teeth. The ability to do that on my own gave me great confidence.

My senior year of high school I decided to join Business Professionals of America (BPA) so that I could go to school half a day and work half a day in an office environment. The program director placed me in a secretarial position with a local law firm as well as enrolled me in a number of BPA competitions. Good grades never came easy for me (which is why I rarely got them) but the world of business did. I excelled in my job and won regional, state and national business awards. Confidence boosters!

After I graduated from high school, college didn’t appeal to me. I wasn’t fond of school work and it seemed asinine to pay thousands of dollars to do it; risky I know. I knew what my strengths were so I set out to join the business world equipped, not with a college degree, but with a ton of confidence in myself and my ability to succeed. 20 years later I have helped build a very successful pipeline consulting company, which we sold in 2009. Today my time is spent building a new company called Big Little Fudge (a natural transition I know). The thing is, I knew absolutely nothing about pipelines or how to manufacture a food product. What I did know was that I couldn’t do either one unless I became an expert in them. With knowledge comes confidence, with confidence comes . . well . . anything you put your mind to...

5 comments:

  1. Wow. You bring tears to my eyes. You are a talented and amazing woman, Bob. We can all take a lesson from you on knowing your strengths and playing to them. Much love and admiration to you, my friend.

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  2. Angie Emison HendersonJuly 21, 2011 at 8:32 PM

    Robin, I had no idea! You rock girl! Thanks for sharing your story.

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  3. well said robin...that last line is so very true...you know i have an engineering degree from a&m but chose to be a pharm rep and now a business owner myself, my degree didnt help with either job choice but my successes are much greater bc i have the knowledge i need to make things happen! You are such an inspiration and have created things your kids will be so proud of someday!

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  4. Having lived next door to you for a bit and watching you in BPA, Confidence was and is still the perfect word to describe you.. Its odd that I use to live next to you and Jackie.. and I just wanted to be like you both! You both have gone from girls I looked up to, to woman that are AMAZING!

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