There is no bigger cliche¹ in business psychology² than the idea that high self-confidence is key to career success. It is time to debunk³ this myth. In fact, low self-confidence is more likely to make you successful. Sure, extremely low confidence is not helpful: it inhibits⁴ 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 attainable⁵.

在商业心理学中，高度的自信是事业成功的关键，这是老生常谈的问题了。是时候打破这个神话了。事实上，缺乏自信似乎更容易让你取得成功。当然，极度缺乏自信也是不行的：因为恐惧、担忧和压力会限制你的表现，最终，驱使人们放弃。但是，适当的缺乏自信会帮助你重新确定自己的目标，使其更加现实，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，而不是极度缺乏自信，那么，比起那些自信满满的人，你将拥有更多取得成功的机会。下面就是支持这一论点的三个主要的原因：

1.Lower self-confidence makes you pay attention to negative feedback and be self-critical:Most people get trapped in their optimistic biases⁶, 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 competence⁷ (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.缺乏自信会让你注意到负面的反馈，进行自我批评。大多数人深陷自我积极态度的偏见之中，因此，他们更愿意听到积极的反馈从而忽略了负面的回应。虽然在所有的竞争领域，例如，教育、商业、运动或者表演行业，相较他人，高度的自信会帮助他们取得成功，但是成功是10%的表现加上90%的准备。因此，更好地了解自己的弱点和不足，准备也会越充分。没错，成功是治愈安全感匮乏的一剂良药。

2.Lower self-confidence can motivate you to work harder and prepare more:If you are serious about your goals, you will have more incentive⁸ 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 discrepancy⁹ between your desired goal and your current state.

2.缺乏自信会督促你更加努力地工作，做更多的准备。如果你对自己的目标很认真，在你对自己能力缺乏自信的情况下，你往往会更有动力去努力工作。事实上，只有你对自己的目标不认真的时候，缺乏自信才会产生消极的作用。如果真的想得到你说你想得到的东西，那么，你的不自信反而会让你更加努力地工作去得到它——因为不自信会让你意识到你渴望的目标和你现在的状态之间的差距。

3.Lower self-confidence reduces the chances of coming across as arrogant¹⁰ or being deluded¹¹: Indeed, people with low self-confidence are more likely to admit their mistakes - instead of blaming others - and rarely take credit for others' accomplishments¹². 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。确实，缺乏自信的人更容易承认错误，而不是抱怨他人，而且他们很少把别人的赞扬太当回事儿。这是缺乏自信最大的好处了，因为它告诉了我们一个事实：缺乏自信会带来成功，不仅仅是对个人而言，对于公司和社会也同样适用。

In brief, if you are serious about your goals, low self-confidence can be your biggest ally to accomplish them.

总之一句话，如果你对自己的目标很认真，缺乏自信会成为你实现目标的最有力的盟友。