Creative leaders on… confidence

There’s few among us that haven’t experienced feelings of insecurity, especially when it comes to our own work. So how do you deal with a crisis in confidence? Designer Aries Moross, Director Max Siedentopf and former head of 4Creative Alice Tonge share their thoughts

However confident someone appears, chances are they’ve struggled with insecurity. Creative careers, in particular, offer plenty of opportunities for self doubt, thanks to difficult clients, unsuccessful pitches, and stiff competition. And it’s not just in studios and agencies. Those riding the highs and lows of freelance life will also be acquainted with the battle to stay confident, without a creative team around them to boost their ego.

CR spoke with three people from across the creative industry – designer Aries Moross, director Max Siedentopf and former head of 4Creative Alice Tonge – to find out what it takes to keep up your confidence and deal with moments of crisis, and whether the ‘fake it till you make it’ advice still holds true.

CR: Have you ever struggled with feeling confident? If so, why?
Aries Moross: I don’t think I’ve had much of a problem with confidence. I’ve always been a very confident person. I think that I’ve naturally trusted my instincts and that has usually worked out well, which reinforces that feeling of knowing that you’re making the right decisions about things. As anyone gets older, they become a bit wiser and start to pick holes in things a bit more. From a young age I was a very confident person and I always felt like I knew who I wanted to be and how I wanted to do things and what I wanted to do. It’s a privileged thing to say that you don’t have issues with confidence, but I would be lying if I said I did.