“Sometimes Confidence Matters More Than Competence.” By Shikrot Deborah Dandak
I once had a friend from high school tell me that she believed almost everything I said, even without evidence, because I never sounded like I doubted myself.
That sentence followed me around for days.
Not because I lie convincingly, but because she was right about something bigger: people trust certainty. Even when they probably shouldn’t.
The older I get, the more I notice that confidence behaves like a cheat code in professional spaces. The person speaking the loudest in the meeting is suddenly treated like the smartest person there. Someone says an average idea with enough conviction, and everybody starts nodding like they’re witnessing a TED Talk. Meanwhile, the genuinely intelligent person is quietly sitting in the corner rewriting their email three times before sending it.
A lot of workplaces, classrooms, interviews, and creative spaces reward presentation before substance. We pretend merit alone rises to the top, but that is not always true. Sometimes visibility rises. Sometimes charisma rises. Sometimes the person who simply looks like they know what they’re doing gets the opportunity first.
And honestly? That realization is both inspiring and terrifying.
Because confidence is strange. People can hear it before they verify it. They can see it before they question it. Confidence changes posture, tone, eye contact, timing. It makes uncertainty look temporary.
That’s why some people walk into rooms carrying half the skill but twice the certainty, and somehow leave with the internship, the leadership position, the audience, or the opportunity.
Meanwhile, talented people shrink themselves accidentally. They add “sorry” to sentences that never needed apologies. They speak like footnotes in conversations they should dominate. They wait to feel fully ready before showing up, not realizing that half the people succeeding around them are improvising with frightening confidence.
Confidence without competence may open doors, but only substance keeps them open. The real lesson is not to choose one over the other, but to build both. It is not enough to quietly possess ability while waiting for perfect readiness. Sometimes, growth begins the moment we learn to carry our competence with enough confidence for the world to recognize it. Being capable matters, but what nobody says out loud is that confidence is often what gets people to listen long enough for competence to matter at all.
ABOUT SHIKROT DEBORAH DANDAK
Shikrot Deborah Dandak is a Communication and Multimedia Design student at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), specializing in Radio/Film/TV and Journalism, and pursuing a minor in International and Comparative Politics.
She is a creative in media with interests spanning journalism, directing, film production, screenwriting, and scriptwriting, using storytelling as a core form of expression.
She also has a strong passion for fashion and fashion modeling, where she explores identity and visual creativity. In addition, she is the founder of Red Dragon, an entertainment brand centered on event hosting and creative production, blending media, culture, and style into dynamic experiences.