It is an argument as old as the words behind it. The great line between Confidence and Arrogance that we all seem to constantly be watching out for whenever we take on any endeavor. Nobody wants to look like a show off. Nobody wants to be a coward either though. So what is the real difference between being Confident and being Arrogant?

To answer this you must first look at the root and fruit of the two. Confidence is characterized as the good-natured feeling of self-assurance and a general belief that we can accomplish something. It pushes us to move forward despite risk and through this, achieve goals that seem impossible. Confidence is built through the acknowledgements of one's past successes and working towards something builder through them. People who are confident are proud of their achievements but do not use them as tools of self righteousness to gloat on. They instead use them as tools to continue on to bigger goals knowing that they can accomplish them just as they have done with smaller goals. Arrogance is a whole different animal. It is the act of thinking that you are bigger and better than those around and you and gloating over this idea while not actually facing any challenges. Arrogance is generally caused by insecurity and refusal to recognize weaknesses to build off of. Arrogance leads to people making cocky decisions that result in failure or belittling others over false senses of superiority. To summarize, they are the positive and negative qualities that come with self-assurance. So what really makes some people Confident and others Arrogant?

Weakness. Now this answer may seem counter intuitive at first. Confidence and Arrogance are all about strength and personal accomplishment! How could the difference between them to be weakness?

To put it simply, Confidence and Arrogance at their hearts are the responses to personal weakness and failure. Confidence is the ability to look at failures and acknowledge them as what they are: a chance to grow. People who are confident will look at their past and ask how things can be done better when they see both their accomplishments and their failures. They do not hide their weaknesses. They embrace them and try to change them. Arrogance is the opposite reaction. Arrogant people look at their past failures and will refuse to accept them as personal blunders. They blame others for them or try to completely forget them instead of learning from them. They see any achievement as a perfect moment that could not have gone better. This leads to them handling situations the same ways over and over again. Those who are Arrogant are almost guaranteed to fail more than those who are Confident due to this inability to adapt.

So next time you are about to take on that great challenge remember that you know exactly where the line between Arrogance and Confidence lies and what that line is. That line is your ability to look at everything wrong with your past failures and successes to ask what can be done better. Keep thinking of that and you will always be on the right side of the line.