Greatness Requires Self-Belief—Not Permission

A note to young leaders.

If you wish to achieve anything great, you will need self-belief – lots of it.

There’s a story about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, likely apocryphal but nonetheless true.

A young guy went up to Mozart and said: “I’d like to write symphonies.”

When Mozart replied, “You’re too young” – the young man protested: “But you were young when you started.”

“Yes, but I wasn’t running around asking people for advice on how to do it. I was too busy writing symphonies.”

Stop seeking other people’s permission or endorsement. Nike is right: “Just do it.”