There are two kinds of people in the world:
- Those who divide the world into two categories
- and those who don't

When I heard an executive described as someone who was "often wrong but never in doubt," it occurred to me that there was another category of people: those who were often right, but always in doubt.

I'm in the second category, which is one of the many reasons why I'll never be an executive.

We definitely place a higher value on those in the first category, perhaps because there is already so much uncertainty in the world. Having confidence also enables one to motivate teams to overcome seemingly insuperable obstacles. Still, as a recent HBR article described, CEO over-confidence has lead to many corporate disasters. Three words will suffice here: AOL Time Warner. OK, while I'm at it, here are two more: Bernie Ebbers.