Of course you are in equal footing with the person standing next to you. If he has the confidence you admire and you loath for not having the same confidence then don't get caught with the idea that you can't be like him. In fact, if you just set your mind to gaining confidence then you are sure to be like him someday. It is best to make a child realize how special and how worthy he is. After all, he would eventually replace us. Imagine if you have created a child who knows nothing about handling his sense of self. If you would expose a child in an environment that would elicit in him concepts of low self worth then it would be likely that he would live in a state of unhappiness and discontentment. And because achievements add largely to the development of self confidence, these people benefit from knowing that they are somehow capable of doing something. You may already have heard the phrase- "its all in the mind". And to many psychological and emotional conditions, we can actually say that everything is all in the mind. Understanding will come in two ways- through our deliberate pursuits or through the acceptance and usage of the chances given to us. Either way, we will benefit so long as we don't choose to be misguided by circumstances that would try to redirect us to failure. Obviously, the first step before we truly gain enough self confidence is for us to understand the entirety of being ourselves. We have to create a self concept that is focused on our attributes and not on our lacks. On our achievements and not on our defeats. On our own fence and not on the fence of a neighbor or of someone greater than us. We also must inculcate in us values that are helpful in recreating our self image and self worth. It is obvious that low self confidence can hinder us from our growth. It will always pull us down into the realms of mediocre life and dullness. It will make ways so that we would fit in the gaps of the non-achievers, the humiliated and the lowly people. There is no such world but because men tend not to listen to the voices that encourage them to believe in themselves, this world came forth to life.