Victory

Self-confidence is an inherently fragile thing, with no more stability than quicksand and no more permanence than those cottony cumulus clouds that pass overhead in the summer sky.  A fussy thing indeed, one which constantly requires recharging lest its batteries go dead at the most inopportune time.  The army of forces aligned against self-confidence perpetually attempt to erode it around its edges, yet these are devious scalawags that go about their handiwork silently and insidiously, nipping incessantly at the margins and seldom attacking the main body itself.  When you finally get to the bottom of this algebra problem, to the place where a solution is demanded, suffice it to say the answer would read something like this:  Self-confidence is one of the most beleaguered, “picked-on” entities in our entire Universe, and as such it barely stands a chance against the legions of enemies that assail it each and every day of the year.  But you still must fight back gallantly against those Faustian forces in each and every instance, inasmuch as a non-effort equals an admission of defeat.  In almost every scenario imaginable, trying is tantamount to victory.