I think the most important thing about playing is to walk out with confidence, look the people right in the eye and say 'Here I am,' and go and do your thing. As soon as they know you're confident, they're confident. As long as you adjust to them you're not in trouble. You should eyeball them, find out what they want, and give it to them. They didn't pay to come out and look at the tapestries.
Interpretation
Confidence in one's abilities influences how others perceive you.
This quote by Les Paul emphasizes the critical role of confidence in performance and interaction. It asserts that projecting confidence not only helps in asserting oneself but also encourages the same confidence in others, thereby enhancing the overall experience and connection in any performance, whether it be artistic, professional, or personal. By understanding the audience's needs and adjusting accordingly, one can create a more impactful and engaging moment.
In practice
Use this quote before giving a presentation to boost your confidence.
Now I need to take a piece of wood and make it sound like the railroad track, but I also had to make it beautiful and lovable so that a person playing it would think of it in terms of his mistress, a bartender, his wife, a good psychiatrist - whatever.
My chops were not as fast... [but] I just learned more on what was in my mind than what was in my chops. I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it's the right one, and it will probably whip the guy with twenty notes
..I wanted to create music that was so different that my mother could tell me from anyone else
In speaking to you men of the greatest city of the West, men of the state which gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men who preeminently and distinctly embody all that is most American in the American character, I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.
Most people are fast to stop you before you get started but hesitate to get in the way if you're moving.
I've won every single event there is to win as a wrestler, and I still continue to come back every single year. The hard part for me is, 'OK, how long can you do this?'
The future was uncertain, absolutely, and there were many hurdles, twists, and turns to come, but as long as I kept moving forward, one foot in front of the other, the voices of fear and shame, the messages from those who wanted me to believe that I wasn't good enough, would be stilled.
If you want to know where you'll be five years from now, listen to what you're saying about yourself today.
The only way to define your limits is by going beyond them.
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