Yesterday, I was reading in Grant Cardone’s book “[Sell Or Be Sold](https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Be-Sold-Your-Business/dp/1608322564)” and got stuck on the idea that “To the degree that you’re sold yourself on the product, idea, company, service, support you will sell to others. If you’re not 100% sold yourself, you can’t sell to others.” Could the story of your confidence in your vision be expressed in both, “The Startup Curve” and the Dunning-Kruger effect? Are they potentially the same? Paul Graham and Trevor Blackwell beautifully and cheekily captured this in “The Startup Curve” sometime around 2008. What struck me is, how much it reminds me of the Dunning-Kruger effect. I think there’s a correlation because, in the end, what sells and makes a company move forward is utter conviction. That type of motivation is abundant in the beginning but, as we learn more, we get our slices of humble-pie and have to wade through ’the trough of sorrow’ aka. ‘Valley of despair’ until we’re ready to gain wisdom to once again climb the ladder of success. Anyways, even just for entertainment value, here are the two curves to illustrate:  Source: [Blogpost by Andrew Chen](https://andrewchen.co/after-the-techcrunch-bump-life-in-the-trough-of-sorrow/), [Discussion on HN](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=173261)  Source: [MarketCalls](https://www.marketcalls.in/trading-lessons/the-dunning-kruger-effect-what-differentiates-novice-and-expert-traders.html)