Gordon, Richard and Sandy -

I just spent the weekend helping a highly educated and skilled woman friend of mine regain her confidence.

A journalist for 25 years (with awards and books to her credit) she's working for a totally neurotic woman who is actively sabotaging her work efforts because of a personality conflict. The "big boss" of the company is a male who hates to confront anyone, so makes things worse by condoning the hateful actions of this woman supervisor.

Anyway, my friend is an excellent writer but was totally down in confidence because old tapes of her mother saying "women stay home and let the men support them" and other such morale killers were running in her head.

This in spite of years of success, both professionally, entrepreneurially, and as a single parent. She has run an internationally successful internet venture and has hundreds of loyal friends. Yet an on the job coordinated assault of negativity has undermined all previous successes. Hopefully, we turned her mood around this weekend and she'll counterattack using Sun Tsu's "Art of War" tactics today!

My point? We all have chinks in our armor and must guard against assaults by the paranoid, neurotic and jealous destroyers of the world. Confidence can be fragile if not strengthened and renewed on a continual basis.

So both your posts were right on, Richard and Gordon. I've recommended that my friend visit SOWPUB and learn SQ 1. She'll benefit from the WE posts, and we'll benefit from her knowledge as well.

Take care, Bob