12/07/2025
Hey, welcome back everybody. This is Steve on story. today we're going to talk a little bit longer than usual cause I've got a great story to tell you, but it, it's got a little, it's got a little arc to it. we're talking about a remarkable individual, my little brother, Harry, and it's, something every creator, every leader, every human eventually discovers if they're blessed. Sometimes confidence isn't something you generate.
So let me take you back. Years ago, there was this little kid, little Harry, small for his age, sweet kid. He was born blind, Harry was, but there was a groundbreaking surgeon in Lubbock, Texas who was able to restore partial vision, but at the cost of a little bit of a learning disability. He got through high school, barely, and he found himself working in a little shop for people with special needs in which he met a girl and he asked her out. And her dad was nervous, but she was 20 and it was time he gave her some rope and they decided to go to the movies.
Now back in that day in East Texas, movie theaters had one screen and they had one movie basically for either half of the week or a week. So if you wanted to see a specific film, you looked in the paper, figured out what town had that movie playing in it and you went there.
So they're in the car and they're going to Henderson, which was about 35 miles from their home. And, and she was a little bit nervous as her first date and he was nervous, but he noticed something and he said, we're going to have to turn around. And she said, are you going to try something? Are you going to pull something? What are you doing? What are you doing? And she started to panic.
And he said, no, no, no, no, I'm in about 10 minutes. I think I'm going to be blind. And she said, what? And he said, yeah. And so I've got to teach you how to drive. And she panicked completely. I don't know how to drive. I'm not allowed to drive. I don't have a license to drive. And he said, Kathy, you cannot panic right now. And she went, why not? And he said, because you've got a responsibility.
You've got to get us home. I've got to teach you how to drive while I can still see. And you've got to drive us home." And she went, but I'm terrified. And he said, look, you can panic when you get home. Right now you've got to keep it together. And she said, what? And he said, look, years ago, Steve and I were driving home and this guy came into our lane and Steve hit the brakes and he swerved and he went around and I am screaming and panicked. And he says, you can't panic right now, Harry. And he pulled us out of it.
And then he kind of got the shakes. And I said, how did you stay so cool doing during all that? And he said, Harry, I've got a responsibility. I've got to get us home and you're my job. And I can't.
I don't have time to panic right now. I've got to do my job.
And right now, Kathy, you've got to do yours. You got to learn how to drive.
And so he puts her the driver's seat, teaches her the accelerator and the steering wheel and the brake. Fortunately, it was an automatic, so they didn't have that to deal with. And she starts driving.
He says, now you got to describe everything that you see to me while I can still see and I can teach you how to navigate. And so she says, well, there's a house coming up on the left and it's white with green shingles and and there's a cow in the right in the in the pasture across the way and he said no no no you got to teach you got to talk about landmarks things that can't change because the last time I was up this road there wasn't a cow in that field and she went okay and so she well there's a school on this side.
She kept describing and he kept uh-huh and finally she said why are you quiet and he said well I I'm blind and I can't see anymore. So you've got to keep describing where we are so I can help us navigate. And she kept telling him about the lake on this side and the grain elevator.
And finally he said, there's going to be a green house with a black roof on your left. would, yeah, it's just up ahead. He says, well, after we go over that, past that house, we're to go over a railroad track and they did. Bmplbwleyp ... And he said, and you take the third left after that railroad track.
And she said, I didn't count. don't know how many there's Been!!! So they turn around, went back, went over the railroad track. He had to teach her where reverse was so that they could turn around, but they went over the railroad track and she counted three lefts and she took the left.
And sure enough, she kind of knew then where she was. She didn't have to have him navigate. And she pulled into the front yard and her father who had been nervous already, anyhow, sees his daughter who cannot drive driving the car back and the good-for-nothing guy that took her out sitting there in the other seat and he blew his top and she said, Dad, Dad, Dad, Harry went blind. He taught me how to drive so I could bring us back. And he said, What? And she said, Yeah.
And and now that we're back, I can panic. And she went, What good's that going to do me now, Harry? And Harry laughed and he said, Well, you know, you got through it. And she said, yeah, because I borrowed your courage.
And her father realized he had to borrow some courage too. His shoulders dropped, his breathing settled. was, he wasn't fearless. That's not how confidence worked, but he wasn't alone anymore. He was taking care of her with help from Harry. And there were a lot of other people he realized that ran on it too. So then he gave her more rope. He let her get a license to drive.
And the whole thing about this story about Kathy and her dad and Harry is because confidence is contagious and it transfers. Harry had borrowed mine and then he had allowed her to borrow his and her dad borrowed theirs. Confidence multiplies when it's shared. It's leadership. Leadership that carries the confidence until people around can grow their own.
And you don't do it by pushing them, but by believing in them loud enough that they can hear it for their own loud enough that they can hear it over their own fear.
And here's the part that most people miss. You can borrow confidence from your future self to from the version of you that will have already done whatever it is you fear doing will have already survived it will have already learned how borrowed belief
is important until belief becomes your own. And that's our idea for today. Borrowed confidence. If somebody's got a faith in you, you need to borrow their confidence and believe in yourself long enough to build it for yourself.
We talked about the discipline that keeps borrowed confidence from leaking away and why most people lose momentum right after they get their first win.
Tomorrow we're going to talk about the discipline that keeps borrowed confidence from leaking away from you and why most people lose momentum right after they get their first win. Until then, this is Steve on Story. See you next time.
My younger step-brother, Little Harry taught me what Borrowed Confidence is. A Special-needs "Forrest Gump" type of fella... he had faith in me - and taught...
