...you know how this one ends.

It can be lumped into the category of cliches that you're tired of hearing along with "If you don't love yourself, you can expect someone to love you." and "The grass is always greener on the other side."

Not only is the "If you can't sell yourself, then you can be expected to sell a product" a cliche, but it's also true on more than one level.

Of course, selling anything from a car to a premium iced coffee is about selling yourself as a reliable source, first. As I said before in my communication post, a dentist with bad teeth won't get much of a score on the reliability meter. You must relate to the customer enough so that they trust you. Why should they buy a car, a truck, a anything from you?

But before you even extend your hand to shake the hand of a customer, you will have had to sell yourself to the Hiring Manager. Unless you inherited your job, or fell into it, but you're very lucky if you fell into a job that no one thought you'd be good at. Surely you were hired because someone believed in you because of the way you present yourself.

But before you even extend you hand to shake the hand of your new boss/co-worker, you will have had to sell yourself to someone way higher on the food chain. The 1 person who has complete and total control over your destiny. Your #1 fan. Your #1 critic. The hardest person to sell on your skills and worth.

Yourself.

If you don't believe you're good at what you're applying for or doing, then chances are, that's going to shine through on your interview. I say interview because isn't that what it is when you go to inquire about a job? And isn't that what a customer is doing when you're selling them a car? Interviewing you? Seeing if you pass the test? 

But if you go out of the gate thinking that you won't be able to do anything, then chances are, you're right. 

Everyday, I give myself a pep talk. "We're going to do X, Y, and Z today. You can, because you have everything you need to get it done. And what you don't have, you'll find."

No matter who my 2nd in command boss is at any given time, I'm always my own boss. I tell myself what to do, and I have 100% control over what I do, how I do it, how I utilize my resources. Gone are the days when I can blame something that I did (or didn't do) on lack of information given. Here are the days where I am responsible for my own results.

Something this simple has made a tremendous difference. Because the world is filled with people bringing others down and taking our spark, it's important that you invest some spark and self-confidence in yourself. You could wait for someone to do it for you, and you might argue that it means more to hear nice things about yourself from other people. But then I'd ask you to what level you value your own opinion of yourself.