The confidence myth: Why waiting to feel ready holds women back

I’ve noticed there’s a belief that women often carry quietly: I’ll do it when I feel more confident. And it sounds perfectly reasonable on the surface. I’ve heard things along the lines of: “I’m sort of starting a business. I’ll do it when I’ve done enough preparation, or when things aren’t so busy.” We’ve all said some version of this. I know I have. Inherited expectations Over 25 years of working with women founders, leaders, and high achievers, I’ve seen that one thing holding them back is the confidence myth. Most women I know aren’t simply lacking self-belief. They are tuned into inherited expectations they’ve never stopped to question: expectations about how prepared you should be before you begin anything and how much you should know in advance. This goes deeper than confidence. It’s about recognizing which expectations are truly yours and which you’ve been living by without consciously choosing them. There’s a tendency to think you start out being confident. But in reality, you end up confident. There’s something else I’ve noticed: Women often feel they need to be completely ready before they put themselves forward, whereas men appear more willing to give it a try and work…