Is there a distinction between a big ego and confidence?

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Aside from that saying someone has a "big ego" has a negative connotation as opposed to saying that someone is "confident" carries a positive connotation, is there really any difference between having a big ego and being confident?

Or does it have to do with the level of confidence?

Maybe there is an optimal level of confidence and if you are described as egotistical then you have taken the level of confidence too far.

Is it possible to be too confident?

I think people put a lot of moral weighting into confidence and ego and low self esteem. They appear to think it makes them morally superior to have low self esteem and revel in it. I think they are people whos parents punished them for any sign of confidence and so they got in the habit of gaining aproval by showing signs of low self esteem.

People can have big egos and still have low self esteem. I would define a big ego as thinking your more important than other people and confidence as thinking your just as important as other people.

I think its tricky as perception of people is so different, for example people often call me arrogant. I refute the claim and say to myself that I appear arrogant but am not, but others may say 'no, you really are arrogant you dont just appear it'. So how one percieves oneself can be very different to other perceptions and very difficult to tell who is correct.

No, i'm not. I think I summed up the egos pretty nicely. Ego is a sense of self importance.

To be egotistic you have to fundamentally be delluded into a false sense of self importance.

The mind is such a powerful force we can create a very warped perception of the world around us should we choose to do so or are driven to do so by illness or life experiances. Egotism can also be created purposefully if you set out to build someone up into something they are not, particularly the children and young people. You would not be able to do that with someone who is very much set in their way and has a full and establised sense of who they are.

Confidence. Very easy to fake confidence. You simply can observe what it is to be confident and emulate such behaviour, its a rather shallow emotion in some respects and easily mistaken for other kinds of emotion. It seems to be confused easily with other behaviours such as belief, recklessness, aggression, dominance and arrogance. All confidence is is t give the illusion to other people that what you are saying and conveying to them you truly believe.

If you have ever been in a position of leadership amongst your work colleagues or friends you have been demonstrating confidence. You use confidence to re-assure other people that your course of action is correct even if the circumstances are quite volatile. I'll give you an example of this....

I had a "patient" a few years ago who had managed to breakout of the home while he was in a dangerous manic state. I was the nurse in charge that night and had four young inexperianced support workers who had never dealt with this individual before and were quite terrified of the behaviour they had just witnessed prior to him jumping over the fence and doing a runner.

He later returned armed with a broken glass bottle with full intention of doing me or my support workers harm. One of the support workers was outside assessing the damage he had done and trying to see what direction he had gone when he returned and he blocked off the entrance back into the home. So I basically went out and confronted him knowing full well that I had a good chance of being stabbed or maimed by this guy. Eventually I managed to calm him down and the situation slowly de escalated. But when I initially went to confront him, to the support workers i appeared to be the confident nurse who was in control of the situation. The reality was, I was absolutely sh*****g myself and I made myself go out and do it because i knew i couldn't leave the support worker out their on her own

If you are truly confident then you are truly delluded basically. So if you are truly confident you are truly egotistic.

Ego is where you expect you deserve something. Confidence is the the willpower to try for something.

Ego in men is about as attractive as being vain in women...