NoAngel. Thanks for yet another thought provoking essay!
Cassie: Your response is spot on as always!
I believe that Adam will continue to remain humble in the spotlight of life. The fact that he doesn't take himself too seriously will help, as will the fact that he seems to make a practice of looking for the great things that others are doing and consciously recognizing their talents and achievements.
As someone mentioned, Adam has great parents. And he definitely has earned his confidence through competence and practice and feedback. But as a parent of three creative and artistic children, a musician, a filmmaker and a graphic designer, and as a
teacher of gifted children for over twenty-five years, I also believe that in some ways, exceptionally confident people like Adam are often also born with an innate propensity to believe in their own vision and an innate capacity to lead with their ideas.
I don't mean to say that they don't go through the angst of adolescence or feelings of self-
doubt in their lives, but that they have a certain energy and drive and internal confidence about leading with new ideas that allows them to feel less concerned with what the world
thinks is cool and more centered and excited about putting out what they think is cool. In Adam's words, a belief that they can give people what they don't even know they want,
LOL. It may also be linked with a certain level of optimism.
I do think it is rare to find that type of confidence, which happily promotes the ideas of self, (the flaming headress,) combined with humility, the trait that recognizes that every
person's ideas and feelings and experiences are just as worthy of respect as your own. That takes some wisdom, the kind that often comes from the trenches of life. And yes, good parents, who teach and model those values, can help as well.
Imagine if everything had just been easy for Adam, relatively speaking, if he had just been born tall, handsome, charismatic, and talented. He very well may not have been the grounded shaman take us to the moon Adam we know and love today.
Confidence comes in so many different ways and from so many different places. It can be innate; it is developed through life challenges; it is developed through years of practice
and competence; it flourishes with love. There are so many aspects to it, and Adam's name is on each one. That is one of the many reasons I find him so inspiring.
One of the others is, of course, the
legs....
)
