personality
Three women and their ways to be more self-confident
Not everyone is born with self-confidence
© Shutterstock
What do women do to gain more confidence? How can we support others? These three power women talk about their very personal ways to become more self-confident.
Mutual support, long conversations about visions and role models, but also looking deep inside – there are many ways to increase self-confidence. We talked to three women about how they would become personally self-confident, what obstacles they had in their way and what have become the cornerstones of their belief in themselves.
A diary and loud self-marketing
Tijen Onaran, Founder and CEO of Global Digital Women
Tijen Onaran
© Urban Zintel
Confidence wasn’t always easy for me. I was definitely not born and handed out business cards of mine. Fortunately, I was often thrown into the deep end and had strong women as bosses who said to me: ‘If you don’t trust yourself to do that, we trust you now.’ That always helped me, as well as a good dose of youthful naivete. It helped me a lot that I was actively looking for mentors. I looked around to see which people I admire and who my role models are and then looked to see who would like to meet me now and then. These are exactly the people who stand by my side in the event of setbacks, build me up and say: ‘It will go on!’
My most important ritual for lasting self-confidence is that I keep a kind of diary. And whenever I have a bad day or need a boost in confidence, I read this through. I also think it’s very important to talk about your successes. Yes, I am grateful, but I am where I am because I am good and because I have worked hard. And you can be proud of that and you should be completely open to it. ”
Turn supposed flaws into strengths
Nane Meyer, Head of Beauty & Fashion at Brigitte Online
Nane Meyer
© Ilja Gaus-Gerbeth
“Self-confidence, I have learned, doesn’t necessarily come by itself. When I was a child, I developed a strong fear of loss through the death of loved ones. The fact that I was able to literally spit on the head of many classmates in primary school and never outwardly conforming to current “norms”, put an additional strain on my self-confidence in the teenage years. But I have learned to reverse this supposed flaw. My size, feminine curves and distinctive hairstyle are my trademarks today and create a high level of recognition that I have for myself I only surround myself with people who do me good and consistently cut lazy friendships or wickedness out of my life. I had to learn that, but experience has shown that this act of self-love is crucial to my happiness. Every experience, regardless of whether it is positive or negative, shapes us and our fellow human beings an has to be brave to face them, and then the self-confidence grows little by little. ”
Secret recipe: jumping into cold water
Katja Urbatsch, founder and managing director of Arbeiterkind.de
Katja Urbatsch
© Arbeiterkind.de
“As the first member of my family with a university degree, my path was not always strictly mapped out. I was very much shaped by experiences of success, but also moments of failure and the way I dealt with them. With the support of those around me, I discovered and used potentials, but also learned to reinterpret alleged defeats. When others believe in you, it strengthens self-confidence tremendously. This often-quoted leap into the deep end, so just take all courage and trust that it will work out, runs like a red thread through my life. Sometimes you get pushed, by the support of friends or family, and then you realize: ‘Hey, I can swim!’ When I look back on the last few years today, I keep looking at these successes and I’m proud and happy. This is my trick to inspire confidence again and again. ”