Every time he spoke, people listened.
“What on earth is Ryan doing?” I thought. I had to know. It was after a class, and everyone was bustling about in those five minutes of being social before heading home.

There he was, casually talking with a guy and a girl, both enamoured by whatever he was saying. I listened. A minute went by. What he had to say was… Boring. I can’t even remember what it was. How does he do it, then? If it’s not what Ryan says, what makes people want to listen to him – what makes him confident?

Ryan cared.

He didn’t just talk to fill space with words; he did it out of passion. Ryan genuinely cared about what he had to say. The things he talked about were important to him.

It’s not what we say that makes people want to listen – it’s how you say it. Ryan said it in a way only someone who cared could. When you have a passion, you don’t need to find confidence when speaking about it because confidence finds you.

When we’re angry, all we can find is confidence. We do things we never thought we could. We speak our minds, raise our voices, and demand to be heard. It’s passion that gives us the confidence to speak our minds when we’re angry. We’ve been wronged, and it’s our passion for justice that compels us to speak with confidence.

Thankfully, we don’t have to get angry to find confidence – we just have to care.

And if you ever find yourself underselling your passion during a conversation, remember: why should the other person care what you have to say if you don’t?