If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honours the timid.

When you enter with boldness you are going on the aggressive. You’re playing offence instead of defence. This may be one of the most important laws for young men and women of our generation because a lot of them are soft, entitled and undisciplined. Most of us who have grown up in the “western world” have been extremely privileged with the abundance of resources we have free easy access to. The majority of us have not experienced any wars, economic collapses or extreme suffering. I reflect on my younger self with disappointment at how soft I was. Only for the last couple of years have I been actively attempting to mitigate this tendency. Hopefully, this piece can assist you in that process as well.

Consistently backing down and retreating in the face of confrontation or challenge gives the aggressor autonomy and power over you. Recognize if you possess the habit of retreating and compromising as other’s walk all over you. You can learn the hard way as I did, or you can embody the lesson contained here and start living it.

Think of an athlete you admire, if they enter that game with anything less than total confidence in themselves and their team, than they’ve already given their opponent the advantage. You can see it in a person’s eyes and body language.

We live in a time right now where it’s never been easier to run and create your own business and lead the life of an entrepreneur, the following quote applies to that life.

“Great enterprises are only achieved by adventurous spirits, they who calculate with too great nicety every difficulty and obstacle which is likely to lie in their way, lose that time in hesitation which the more daring seize and render available to the loftiest purposes.”

Boldness Strikes Fear; Fear Creates Authority

1. The bold move makes you seem larger and more powerful than you are. If it comes suddenly, with the stealth and swiftness of a snake, it inspires that much more fear.
2. By intimidating with a bold move, you establish a precedent: in every subsequent encounter, people will be on the defensive, in terror of your next strike.

Going Halfway with Half a Heart Digs the Deeper Grave

1. If you enter action with less than total confidence, you set up obstacles in your own path.
2. When a problem arises you will grow confused, seeing options where there are none and inadvertently creating more problems still.
3. Retreating from the hunter, the timid hare scurries more easily into his snares.

Audacity Separates You from the Herd.

1. Boldness gives you presence and makes you seem larger than life.
2. The timid fade into the wallpaper, the bold draw attention, and what draws attention draws power.
3. We cannot keep our eyes off the audacious—we cannot wait to see their next bold move.