Great performers are, by definition, abnormal; they strive throughout their entire careers to separate themselves from the pack.

To be a top performer you have to be passionately committed to what you're doing and insanely confident about your ability to pull it off.

Great performers welcome pressure.

Confidence is a resolute state of mind by which you believe nothing is impossible.

Great performers in all fields seem immune to what outsiders think about them. Their sense of themselves never depends on the feedback-positive or negative-they get from the environment.

Great performers require a measure of confidence that would strike many as absurd, unfounded, and downright irrational. They believe in themselves utterly, without question, even when everyone else is questioning how good (or sane) they are.

All the great performers I have worked with are fueled by a personal dream.