On Saturday, November 25, 2017, one of the greatest basketball players of all time found himself in a slump. 

Steph Curry is a four-time NBA Champion, 2-time Most Valuable Player, two-time scoring leader, seven-time 3-point field goals leader, and a nine-time NBA all-star. Despite flying under the radar in his high school career, he blossomed in college and has flourished as a professional, leading the Golden State Warriors on a historic run. In 2017, the Warriors were seeking their third straight NBA finals appearance within a five year run of reaching the finals (2015-2019). 

Early in the 2017 season, the Curry led Golden State Warriors were at home against the New Orleans Pelicans. By this point of the season, the Warriors were off to a hot start. 14-5 overall, 8-2 record at home, but after one quarter of play, the Pelicans were out to a 31-17 lead over the Warriors. Why? Because Steph Curry was cold, ICE COLD. He found himself in a brutal slump. In fact, he didn’t make a single shot in the entire first quarter.

0-for-8 for the first quarter.

0-for-4 from behind the arc (his signature range).

Curry clanked shots off of every part of the rim and backboard. He was not on. Here’s his shot chart.

To start the second quarter he MISSES a 30-foot jumper to go to 0-for-9 from the field. 

A few plays later he MISSES a layup to officially start the game 0-FOR-10. 

Have you ever been in a slump? It’s a terrible feeling. Technically speaking a slump is a period of substantial failure or decline. It’s an extended period of time in which you are not getting positive results. What’s so frustrating about slumps is that the poor results often come when it feels like we’re doing everything right. 

You’re making the sales calls - but no one’s buying.

You’re doing all the right drills - but the hits are not falling.

You’re putting in all the work - but the shots aren’t going in.

You’re showing up for the interviews - but you’re not landing the job.

Slumps happen in all kinds of life environments and they have a way of exposing our hidden mindsets and approach. They are an inevitable part of the process of becoming great, and to some degree they are an important part of our development. But they are very undesirable to endure. Ultimately, the thing most commonly associated with slumps is a loss of confidence.

Confidence is something all athletes, leaders, and high performers need to do their job. It’s a level of certainty and assertiveness that is required to do anything great. And to lose confidence is like going into battle without your armor. You feel exposed and vulnerable. Slumps, whether in shooting basketballs, making sales calls, or competing in your chosen arena are horrible because they assault your confidence. 

As Curry missed to go 0-for-10 it’s clear he is in the midst of a slump. Even the great Steph Curry has slumps. It’s in the middle of a horrendous night shooting that we actually can witness what makes him great. He’s not great because he never has slumps, he’s great because of how he handles slumps. All great shooters endure shooting slumps, after the game Golden State head coach, Steve Kerr, a former NBA shooter himself said “I would have quit shooting after 4 missed shots. I would have just said, "It's not my night.”

But Curry didn’t quit shooting. 

Instead, he gritted his teeth to a somewhat impressive performance, one shot at a time.

His first make wouldn’t come until less than a minute left in the first half. With 55 seconds left in the 1st half, Curry makes a jumper from 19-feet. Swished. His signature smooth as butter shot delivers a basket and breaks his shooting slump and 0-for-10 start.

After breaking the seal, Curry and the Warriors head to the locker room for half-time tied at 53 apiece. Warriors teammate Andre Iguodala has shared with the media in the past that if Curry has a bad first half shooting he grabs his phone and scrolls social media at half time to read all the comments about his poor shooting. Curry says “It’s part motivation, and part entertainment for me. Sometimes it’s hard to get up for games, I use it as a little extra fuel.”

We can imagine this evening in 2017, just a few days after Thanksgiving, Twitter was “hot” chiming in commentating on how the man known for his shooting, isn’t able to make shots on this night. After putting his phone down, Curry and the Warriors head back out on the court to compete as Curry works to get beyond his 1-for-11 start. 

The rest of the game Curry goes 8-for-14 from the field. He hits 6-of-6 from the free-throw line and he finishes as the team’s leading scorer with 27 points. The Warriors go on to win 110-95.

At first glance if we didn’t know the backstory this obscure November game in 2017 appears to be a routine night for a future hall-of-famer. Leading his team in points scored. 27 points to go along with six assists and four rebounds in 36 minutes played. Routine in every sense.

But the boxscore rarely tells the full story of a game and the box score never tells the full story of someone’s mindset. 

The truth is, on this obscure night in November, Steph Curry showed why he’s elite. He showed why he’s an MVP and future hall of famer. He showed what separates him from everyone else. He was able to take a bad night and turn it into a good night.

Warrior’s head coach Steve Kerr said “It takes a special kind of confidence to do what Steph did tonight. I think he was 0-for-his first-10 tonight. Guys like Steph, MVP caliber players, find a way to make a bad night a good night.”

Truly exceptional athletes, coaches, leaders find a way to take less than ideal circumstances and turn it into an above average performance. How do they do this?

Coach Steve Kerr calls this “A special kind of confidence.” For Steph Curry he calls it “Irrational Confidence.”

In his postgame press conference Steph Curry gives us 4 clues on how to play the game of life with irrational confidence:

“It’s just stubbornness almost. Nothing before the shot I'm about to take matters. You have to block it out as best you can. Have a sense of amnesia almost. Just rely on repetitions and the work you put in. It can be frustrating in the moment when your shot feels good and it doesn't go in or over the course of a couple games you might not be shooting as well as you want to. But you worry about that in practice or in between games but you can't let that kind of doubt creep in when you’re out on the floor or else you’re not going to be the player you want to be.”

1.) Confidence requires Stubbornness

“It’s just stubbornness almost. Nothing before a shot I’m about to take matters.”

We often view stubbornness as a negative quality, and it certainly can be debilitating to relationships, organizations, and team objectives when someone is stubborn. Stubbornness is a dogged determination not to change an attitude or position on something. When a person leverages stubbornness it is often with an attitude or position they need to change. But what would happen if the same characteristic of stubbornness is leveraged toward attitudes or positions where we absolutely need to stand our ground? In his pursuit of confidence, Steph Curry is leveraging stubbornness in a good way. How often do we create an attitude toward or commitment to our pursuits only to revise them, change them, back away from them at the sight of negative results? Crafting confidence requires leveraging stubbornness in ways that support your growth, not hinder it. Maintaining a commitment to a mindset when results or outcomes are attempting to nudge you away from it. 

2.) Confidence requires Amnesia 

“You have to block it out. Have a sense of amnesia almost.”

Ultimately amnesia is memory loss. The inability to learn or retain new information, or to remember significant events in life. In everyday life it is a deeply sad experience. Steph uses the term to describe the extreme level of elimination of the past to move forward. When you’re 0-for-10 and nothing is working we have a strong tendency to remain fixated on the negative past. The psychological phenomenon, Negativity Bias, explains that we tend to remember traumatic experiences better than positive ones, recall insults better than praise, react more strongly to negative events, and think about negative things more frequently than positive ones. 

While it may seem extreme to use the term amnesia, Steph Curry is probably right. In order to move with confidence we must realize that if we don’t intentionally make the effort to block out the negative outcomes, they are coming with us, and they will be vividly remembered and deeply impact our ability to move forward. 

It also shows confidence is not something we can just talk ourselves into feeling. We can’t just recite mantras and become confident. In fact, Steph Curry seems to suggest the only role of the mind in developing confidence is for the mind to be erased of the past, turned off, and fully in the present. 

3.) Confidence is earned 

“Just rely on repetitions and the work you put in.”

The harsh truth about confidence is that confidence requires evidence. We tend to think we need something from the outside to instill confidence on the inside. We need to be acknowledged, complemented, be viewed as someone with potential, or be on the receiving end of some good breaks to feel confident. The truth is, confidence and our level of confidence is often deeply tied to the amount of work we’ve put in.

Pay close attention to where you lack confidence. A lack of confidence reveals something we deep down know we haven’t done the work. 

“I’m not really feeling confident about (my body), (my fitness), (my career), (my ___ )

The only thing that will change our confidence level is time spent on task. I have a working theory that confidence is directly tied to two metrics.

1. Time logged on task

2. Quality of time logged on task

Amateurs who consistently lack confidence skip to the second metric focusing on quality or worse, perfection. This often leads to sweeping waves of intensity and inconsistency.

Pros start with the first metric focusing on simply logging more time, consistently on task. It’s the solid foundation of consistently logging time in an area that begins to alter our internal confidence, allowing us to rely less and less on external comments or results for our level of confidence. 

Steph Curry said in an interview with JJ Reddick, “I deserve the confidence based on the work that I put in.” 

Confidence is not passed out fairly. It goes where it’s deserved. Confidence is earned.

4.) Confidence is fully immersive

“You can't let that kind of doubt creep in when you’re out on the floor or else you’re not going to be the player you want to be.”

Confidence is often described as a feeling. But in reality it can also be considered a state. A state of feeling certain about something. We’ve talked at length about the importance of our states in leadership and high performance. 

The feeling of confidence is often found when we’re in a fully immersive flow state. Much has been said about the value of being in a flow state and the research of Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, but it’s possible it is one of the greatest promoters of confidence. Why? Because we stop thinking and we start moving.

Steph Curry has described flow state as “autopilot.” Getting your mind and your body connected.

Thoughts of doubt creep into our minds and overextend the role of our mind when engaged in physical tasks. 

When you have heard athletic coaches say,  “You need to stop thinking out there” it’s a surefire indicator that the person “thinking out there” is not in a flow state. And is not fully certain or confident. 

So how do we get in a fully immersive flow state? This is where the quality of time logged on task becomes relevant. 

It’s already established that Steph Curry puts in work and that endows him with a certain level of confidence. But it’s the quality of the work that he puts in that has permitted him to claim “a certain kind of confidence,” reserved for the truly greats. Here’s what he said in another interview about his work.

“There’s a level of obsession about the details, footwork, balance, and how the arc of the ball enters the rim. That’s been developed over the course of my life - year 2 in the league I really understood the unlock available through deep practice. There’s no shot in a game that I haven’t tried in practice before. Creative. Visualize. Practice. Try it in a game. That produces confidence, and that confidence is intoxicating.”

Go Develop Confidence

The greater the degree of confidence, the greater commitment in mind, body and spirit. The byproduct is being able to play freely in your pursuits in the way that Steph Curry is able in his. The world needs more leaders who can “make a bad night, a good night.” 

It’s not about averaging 28 points a game, it’s about showing up to your craft and your environments with the ability to not let what is happening externally overwhelm what is happening internally. It produces the perspective Steph Curry shares here:

“I’m so secure in who I am and what I can do on the floor.”

Wouldn’t your environment benefit from you, the leader, operating with that level of security and confidence? Wouldn’t your family benefit from you walking with that level of security? Your community? 

Confidence is not a fleeting feeling we hope to have when we need it most. It is not a byproduct of the roller coaster of life. It’s not bestowed upon you by way of compliments, praise, or admiration. It is internally built. It is crafted and nurtured. It is developed, and every leader has a responsibility to humbly do the work of developing confidence, so they can help others develop it as well. 

The transformational work you’re doing is going to require a special kind of confidence.