Whilst many people who know me may think that I’m confident, I’m not! I am, however, lucky to have a good sense of self-belief – and I’d like to let you know how the two differ, in my experience.

I can act in a confident way because I communicate with many types of personalities in my day job. I have a clear voice and know the needs of my clients well. But this is partly an acting role, since like many of us, I battle with underlying anxieties which for much of the time I consciously keep at bay.

I am fortunate in that I have a strong sense of belief in myself, and I acquired this useful tool when I was very young. I think the foundations of this must have been formed when I learned to walk and talk, relatively late compared to other children. I was aged three and remember thinking “I will walk!”

But I know quite precisely when my sense of self belief really developed: it was during the rare times I spent time with my late father…

My dad fascinated me, not least of all because he was deaf and was abandoned as a baby. He’d endured a tough early start and luckily for me he didn’t believe in wrapping any of his children in cotton wool! He recounted to me how he set up his company, and as many times as he could, readily told my siblings and I some of the tasks he did to achieve the results he wanted.

I was privileged to observe him talking to his clients and I admired the ways in which he ensured that their work would be delivered in time. He used to say “under promise, and over deliver”. I was a captive audience, noticing his incredible personable skills.

And then one day, following a traumatic beating by three nasty school girls, I visited him to seek some sympathy. I got none! He simply sat me on his lap, I was eleven at the time, and told me to copy him. He spoke of the bullying he had endured and in that short fifteen minutes, I realised that he too was posing as confident, when really he simply had a strong sense of self-belief.

In life, we meet all manner of people and my advice is to copy the useful traits of those you admire. I have followed this principle throughout my life and of course there are many humans that I’ve borrowed from!