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Dionysus, I think it's all about feedback. You won't find too many confident or arrogant people who haven't had positive feedback in their life.
There are areas I'm extremely confident in, yet others where I feel like a blundering fool. Call it constructive criticism if you will, but as long as it isn't DAMAGING it keeps things in perspective. I am aware of my faults and limitations-this is what keeps me from being arrogant.
My SEEDS of confidence were a fair ration of intelligence, capability, personality/charm, talent and throw in self pride (At least enough pride to take reasonably good care of myself and not present myself to people like a slob. Though I did go through a sweat pants stage, remember? LOL) To varying degrees I think we all possess a mix of these and other things I haven't considered this early a.m.
If you are isolated and don't get feedback, you can't know or LEARN what others consider positive about you. Arrogance, to me, stems from limited exposure to a wide variety of people. If you are surrounded by people who "look", think or act as you do, of COURSE you will get positive feedback, too much in fact. There isn't balance from an opposing perspective. This, I think, is how some people become arrogant. he sad thing is, your initial feedback comes as a baby from your family. If it's negative you suffer. If it's over zealous (like the kids who are told they are perfection and beyond compare) it can lead to arrogance OR total despair when they realize they are not the next rising star in our universe-they are just your normal kid with a lot of potential. There is something inside of some people that can't be defined so easily. These are the ones who against all odds rise above the heavy handed criticism or the unwarranted applause and retain humility. This, I can't begin to explain but we've all seen it and know it exists.
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