Confidence

If a leader does not believe in him, no one else will. But confidence must be acquired. At every stage there must be a steady build-up of assurance, a conviction of competence based on training and the gradual accumulation of experience and skill. Two thousand years ago, Hannibal believed that he could lead an army of 60,000 men and scores of elephants over the Alps through blinding snowstorms to attack the Romans in the most daring march in military history. That confidence in himself was planted and nurtured by his father, the great Carthaginian general Hamilcar, who trained his son in tactics and strategy until as a combat leader Hannibal had no equal in the ancient world.