Abilty/Confidence

Chap Go Meh was yesterday, therefore many shops were closed including the cybercafe that I always go to. Since I'm not at work until Sunday, had no net access yesterday. And yes, that was dull.

Last night I watched American Idol. I don't normally watch it, but I was bored and I had little to do. It was rather interesting actually.

What struck me about it was how bad some of the "contestants" were. Okay, while I'm not star material, I can carry a tune and sing okay enough (especially when I'm slightly drunk, hey it's all part of the karaoke scene). Some of these people couldn't sing to save their lives. Even worse than that, when the judges (esp. that Simon Cowell guy, I thought he was unnecessarily harsh at times) tell them that they suck, they act all upset and shocked and insist that the judges are tone deaf or something like that. I mean, surely they've heard themselves sing right ?

Okay to be fair, you can't fault them for their guts. The whole point is, while it is admirable to try and reach for your goals, you gotta be realistic.

Heres the lowdown.

People, American Idol (and all it's franchises and similar things) is a SINGING competition. Therefore, the necessary prerequisites are a) One must be able to sing in tune and b)One must do it well. If one can't do neither then what business does one have entering a competition like that. I mean, that's like entering a shooting competiton when you haven't even touched a gun, never mind shoot one. Or entering one of those cooking competitons when you can't even boil water. If you can't do it well and people mock and laugh, it's your own fault.

This brings me to something I'd like to call the Self-Help Myth. Anyone ever read one of those self-help books? You know the ones that say, confidence is the key to success bla bla bla. Funny how many of the books don't really highlight ability/talent. Not much mention of graft and hard work. The most important determinator of success is confidence. Guess what, no it aint.

Sure we have to be confident in our abilities. Without it, we'll just sit at home and hide in a corner, because we're too afraid to try anything. But what I saw last night, was a whole bunch of people trying to replace lack of ability with confidence. I'm confident therefore the judges will see that confidence and be impressed, they say. I'm confident so I'll be successful and blow the judges away. After all, all the newspaper columns and the self-help books say confidence is the key, they think. Once again, dudes, it's a SINGING competition. Also, get real.

The world can be really harsh. Even if someone has talent/ability and is confident, there's still a chance they would fail (I know this first hand). And not just in singing competitions. Applies to all the situations we go through, like job hunting. If you can't fly a plane, obviously you can't be a pilot no matter how confident you are.

The point of my entry today, confidence is not enough. I think, in order to make it in whatever, first prerequisite is ablity. Second is confidence. Third is graft. And the final thing is the X factor, Luck. And not being deluded also helps :).

Nothing guarantees success. Nothing. All we can do is try within the best of our abilities.

Ain't life grand....

Have a good weekend.

mac