The Principle Of Absolute Trust

Don't believe in yourself as long as you're not a hundred percent sure that the outcome will favor you.

A novel I liked a lot is "Warlock", by Wilbur Smith. This time, I'll stop over one certain fragment which I reread today and I consider it very important.

One day, pharaoh Nefer Seti invited the beautiful princess Mintaka, whom he was in love with over his head, to a duck hunt. They agreed to have a contest: whoever kills more ducks will be declared the most skilful hunter.

Nefer, determined to impress the princess and very confident in his skilful hunting abilities, decided to use spears instead of the bow and arrow, being certain that she wouldn't have the strength and skill to handle the heavy weapons, thus having an advantage.

The first flock of wild ducks came unexpectedly, each bird having a distinct mark on their beak. They made a wide circle on the sky and then started to descend in a line. They spread their wings and then plunged, quickly losing altitude, passing over Nefer's boat and then over Mintaka's boat.

Nefer calculated very accurately his time, then, suddenly, he stood up and threw his spear towards the leading bird, but he only succeeded in wounding its wing. The duck fell into to the water and swam quickly so it couldn't be caught. Nefer missed a great chance.

The way to maintain a solid reputation lies in the alignment between your true identity and your projected image, especially in a competitive context marked by the tendency toward self-overestimation.

From the princess’s boat, two arrows rose in succession toward the flock of ducks, and the sound of the double impact echoed clearly across the lagoon. Immediately after that, two birds fell inertly, with their wings spread and heads hanging, cleanly killed, in the air, in the moment they were hit by the arrows. They fell in the water and remained there, floating still.

Nefer instantly realized that only an experienced archer could have hit two ducks, one after the other, in such a short time, at that height and speed. Mintaka was more than a princess, she was a cunning hunter.

From that moment, Nefer, completely dopy, first by his miss and then by the unexpected skills displayed by Mintaka shooting with the bow, he moved his attention to the boat she was standing in. In stead of focusing on his own performance, he constantly looked over to see what happened in the other boat. The results were as unsatisfying as they could be. Losing his sense of measure, disoriented and feeling humiliated, he threw the other spears directly, without concentrating, either to soon, either too late, until his hand grew so tired that he almost sprained his wrist.

In the end, Mintaka was declared the victor. Nefer overestimated his abilities, ignoring an apparently minor fact — the impact of emotionality — because he did not know how to assess psychological reactions. A woman is a complex nature, difficult to understand. Therefore, overestimation is the trait of those who expect a grand destiny, living only through the grandeur of a promising longevity, without taking the unforeseen into account.

Do you need a lucid self-evaluation to protect yourself from the illusion of superiority, so as not to turn moments of utmost importance into a misguided tendency of direction?

Who knows, perhaps if his mind had not gone astray, if in the depths of his being there had not existed from the very beginning that sense of superiority, Nefer might have won the contest. But seeing the princess’s skill, he was seized by a deep fear, one that pierced to the marrow of his bones — the fear that he would no longer be able to impress her. Lost in dark thoughts, he grew increasingly careless and began to miss shot after shot.

That is what happens when you start from the false idea that the impossible has no right to manifest itself. Nefer believed, without a shadow of doubt, that hunting was a strictly masculine pursuit and that a woman could not possibly possess enough experience, dexterity, intuition, and poise. But he did not know the princess at all and had no way of realizing that, in fact, she had been training daily for many years, had taken part in numerous hunting expeditions, and handled the bow better than many men.

And Mintaka knew how to profit from the advantage that she had, the ability, the experience and the training. Thus, the winner is the one who knows how to take advantage of his qualities and the opponent's weaknesses.

What do we have to learn from Nefer's experience? That we cannot assess something as impossible if we lack enough information on that something, be it a person or an action. Should we have absolutistic convictions, based on false prerequisites, we risk failing in everything we have set our minds to and even shame ourselves. We will never be able to reach a superior level of performance if, when we see a light at the end of the tunnel, we strongly believe it's a train.

Can you develop your self-esteem by mastering the tendency to see success as an absolute rule, orienting yourself towards the authentic values ​​of an independent person?

Nevertheless, the impossible occurred ! And when Nefer saw himself facing reality, which was totally different from what he expected, he suddenly got out of "fuel". Disorientation decreased his performances, slowed him down and made him careless. Which lead him to failure. Reality beat him.

When you want to assess your chances compared to your opponent, always gather as much data on it as possible, as well as on its performances. Don't star from the prejudice that you are the best. Sure enough, there are situations when you don't have enough information and you cannot obtain them. In this case, it is necessary that you develop your abilities and competences in good time, as you never know who have to deal with.

A leader thinks at the level of the honor of serving only one ideal: to not leave anyone behind. At the opposite pole, an independent man has as a life ideal the honor of presenting himself alone as a bold hero, the only one responsible for the smooth running of things.

An independent person can be more valuable than a leader because, relying solely on their own experiences and objectives, they keep full focus on their own target. Remember that a tiger is a far more skillful hunter than a lion precisely because its success does not depend on the involvement of the group.

The values of an independent person, grounded in a balanced self-image, are discretion, nonconformism, predictability, perseverance, and subtlety in interpreting the consequences of their own actions.

The Principle Of Absolute Trust could be formulated as follows: "Don't believe in yourself as long as you're not a hundred percent sure that the outcome will favor you."