Is there anything more daunting than launching yourself into the job market as you try to start a new career? I am looking up that hill and it seems nigh impossible to climb sometimes. I am leaving my comfort zone to spread my wings and take up the challenge of something new, and that brings excitement, frustration, concern as well as a sense of freedom. It also leads to disappointment when your credentials aren’t quite enough to land an interview, nor the next one, or the next one.

I was riding a bit of a low when I hit a string of luck and got asked in to interview with a company. I was apprehensive about it, because this was the first company that had shown interest and would be a great opportunity to get my foot in the door and gain some experience. It also made me realize that I had not worn a suit in a while and needed a new shirt to go with it.

My wife was kind enough to go with me to ensure I would pick something that would ACTUALLY look good on me and we brought the girls with us. In the course of the shopping expedition they wanted to know why we I needed the shirt, so we explained the concept of the interview to them. It was a pleasant and successful outing, so I thought that would be where it stayed and resumed my internal worry. It turns out I was wrong, and we weren’t done with the girl’s intervention yet.

Later that afternoon my wife painted the girls fingernails and after they were done and came to show me, my oldest looked up and said, “Daddy we should paint yours too!” Now when you little girls want to paint your nails the answer is always “Yes” within reason. I told them they were welcome to paint my toenails and they each picked a color. The youngest asked me, “Can we put glitter on them?” They know because I practice BJJ that I can’t normally have glitter on my toenails for injury concerns, but as I’m not rolling currently, I told her sure.

As they were applying the polish and glitter and then I think clear coat? The oldest looked up at me and said, “This will bring you luck in your interview” with all the certainty that only a child truly possesses. I’ll say it was cute at the time and I told her she was incredibly sweet, but I wondered deep down if it could be a lucky charm for me.

Fast forward a couple of days and I am getting dressed to go and looked down seeing the painted and sparkly toenails. At that moment the worry slipped away, and I believed that truly there was nothing I was not capable of as long as I had their belief in me. I had to take the photo above for memory and finished prepping.

Long story short, I had my interview and it seemed to go well enough to get me to the next round. I don’t know whether I will land the position or not, but I do know I won’t take the polish off until I land that new job and I won’t feel the same sense of uncertainty about my ability to do this. I think we can all benefit from that childlike sense of belief that things will go the way that we want. We may be right or we may be wrong, but I tell you this, if we do we will fail not for lack of confidence or belief and isn’t that worth something?