Confidence is a skill that can be acquired, improved, and applied by following these steps. You can't win as an entrepreneur or business owner without full confidence in your own ability, as well as in your solution and business model. As an angel investor in startups, I always look for this self-confidence, no matter how innovative the solution or product is. Of course, you can be overly confident or unrealistic in your expectations, without the skills or plans to run a business. Unfortunately, I have seen more great business ideas sabotaged by founders with self-doubt, fear of failure, and uncertainty,…

Confidence isn’t a trait you’re born with. Just like the muscles in your body, it’s something we build and get better at every day with continuous practice. There are several ways to work on building confidence in the long run, such as knowing your values and practicing positive thinking. But sometimes we need to display confidence right in the moment. Here are some of my favorite psychological tricks to instantly look and feel more confident in front of other people: 1. Reverse negative assumptions Without realizing it, we often make assumptions about the skills we lack. Let’s say you’ve always…

An increasing amount of research is being devoted to the reasons why some people never seem to get Covid — a so-called never Covid cohort. There are multiple anecdotes of Covid cases being discovered among couples, families or groups of colleagues who have mixed closely, but where not everyone has become infected. This could be due to a variety of factors, ranging from prior infection with a similar virus to genetics. One of the great mysteries that has emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic — and one that's still being investigated by infectious disease specialists — is why some people catch…

Paul Schoemaker Making the right decision depends on collecting the relevant data. But even good data can lead you astray if your critical thinking skills aren't sharp. Our increasingly uncertain world places a great premium on critical thinking, which is about asking the right questions, challenging assumptions, seeing more angles and being aware of thinking biases. For instance, put yourself in the shoes of NATO leaders as they ponder Russian threats to Ukraine. Or closer to home, should supply chain managers rethink their adherence to just-in-time inventory in view of protracted supply gridlocks? And, do you consider current high US…