How I differentiate arrogance and confidence

Many a times, people confuse themselves with arrogance and confidence. What are their similarities? How do we differentiate between them? Just why do people mistake between them? The divergence between confidence and arrogance has been a long running debate between people. Many believe that both of them are more or less the same whereas others believe there are significant differences between them. I, on the other hand, believe that people’s perception characterize confidence and arrogance.

The necessity to differentiate between confidence and arrogance arose mainly because they hold similarities between them. Confidence and arrogance both involve being in one’s abilities. Both the confident and arrogant are aware of their areas of strength; both of them are optimistic about their results, and mostly acquire success. But, one’s confidence becomes arrogance when he/she start being ignorant of their own weakness and feel a need to brag about their strengths. Both the confident and arrogant know they’re skilled, but the arrogant only feels smart when everyone else feels stupid whereas the confident feels competent from the inside.

Actually, arrogance and confidence are both in the same state of mind but in different degrees. Still, there exists a fine line between them. Confident people prove their competence by their actions, not by their words. If people find themselves constantly trying to impress others around them by stating their self confidence, they have clearly crossed the line into arrogance. Buddhism also states that arrogance makes people insecure whereas confidence gives people peace of mind. Arrogant people strive to be correct all the time. They neglect other’s ideas and opinions, without considering the fact that it might be true, just to prove that they are the best. A confident person says “I can do it!” whereas an arrogant person says “No one else can do it!” Confidence attracts followers whereas arrogance drives people away.

The mistake made between arrogance and confidence can be mutual. An arrogant person can be reckoned as a confident one or a confident considered as arrogant. As I mentioned before, it really depends in people’s perception. When a person says “I’m not arrogant, I just happen to be right”, some believe it to be self-confident whereas some think its plain arrogance. Consequently, the same person can be found to be both arrogant and confident, at the same time, by different people.