Half of Confidence Is Just Familiarity

You've watched a man walk into a room and own it. He shakes hands, holds eye contact, speaks without the tremor in his voice that you feel in yours. He looks like he was built differently. Like confidence was issued to him at birth and skipped your address.

It's a convincing illusion. It's also almost entirely wrong.

What you're looking at is not a superior nervous system. He has simply done that exact thing hundreds of times. The handshake, the room, the small talk, the pitch. He was nervous once too, probably badly, on a day you never saw. What you're reading as courage is mostly just mileage.