“The counterfeit innovator is wildly self confident. The real one is scared to death.”
– The War of Art, Steven Pressfield.
This quote carries with it so much unsaid, and yet understood.
Artists and innovators and those that put their talent out on the line each day are NOT supremely confident. They are aware of all the dangers, pitfalls and disasters that can befall them with one misstep. They are confident only in that knowledge, and prepare for those contingencies with hard work, consistent effort and skill won through long hours of rigorous practice.
The fraud is blissfully unaware of the hard work, efforts and skills needed, as they simply take what they need from the creators, and ‘cut ‘n paste’ it into their lives. Of course they are arrogant, it cost them nothing and they think the true artists to be fools for letting their work be stolen so easily. The frauds are the cheap seats away from the action on the field and in very little danger of much of anything. But they claim the victories won as their own, and declare themselves to be the winners.
Frauds are, by design, the most confident of all. Impostors are only winners on the surface.
For they do not know what it feels like to be on the edge, a moment away from failure, and without a net.