Aptitude is defined as a high level of intellect or quickness to learn. We use adjectives for describing a person’s aptitude. An aptitude is an element of a competence to do a certain kind of work at a certain level. An aptitude may be physical or mental. Aptitude is inborn potential to do certain kinds of work; it is sometimes developed or undeveloped. We choose positive and negative adjectives as per our experience and our observations about those people. Some of the positive adjectives are:

Book smart is an adjective to describe a person as generally intelligent, well educated and do well academically. However, the fundamental idea is that the person deals with situations especially bad or difficult situations from an intellectual direction, using or basing decisions on facts, knowledge or insights gained mainly from books or structured experiences.

If you are a Book smart, it means you’re studious and good at school. You pass tests with good grades. You can spout off facts, handle math and science, and make references to art and literature. People who are good at trivia are considered smart.

A Street smart on the other hand is a person who uses common sense; he/she deals with the world as per demand by using wittiness, shrewdness, at times kindness as per requirement of the hour; this person knows the ways of the world. The underlying idea is such a person deals with matters at hand in a more practical way with pragmatic applications. In short, a street smart uses intelligence not from books but from reality of life and personal experience.

If you are Street smart, it means you are aware of your surroundings and you know how to prepare for and respond to various types of adversities. You won’t invite trouble and you’ll know how to handle it if it does come your way. “Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit,” said the world’s greatest and greatest English writer of all time, William Shakespeare.

An Intelligent person is one who has a wealth of information, one who has honed critical thinking skills, and has a brain that’s strong at making connections between seemingly unrelated pieces of information, he/she also creative.  Intelligence is very useful on a daily basis. It makes you powerful. People cannot buy intelligence. Intelligent people can quickly assess what’s being presented to them, they can determine whether it stacks up factually and logically, and expose any holes. They are good at pinpointing flaws as well as strengths in an idea and   explore areas before arriving at a conclusion. Wit and intelligence go together, so intelligent people can be refreshing and a lot of fun.

A Smart person has the ability to quickly adapt to a situation and make the best of it. This is the origin of the “street smart” expression. It can be applied to people who can read a situation and act accordingly, especially on the streets of a bad locality, where social rules and civil laws sometimes do not apply. Smartness is being practical, applicable, and generally desirable for day-to-day life.

A Brilliant person is great in a specific field. We say Dev Anand was a brilliant actor, Mohamed Rafi was a brilliant singer, S.D. Burman was brilliant music director, Mehamood was a brilliant comedian. Brilliance specifies highest praise for a specific craft. People can have relative brilliance in a specific area/discipline, which means a brilliant person engages in his best capacity in a chosen craft; he/she can completely immerse in it, without getting bothered about time and energy spent on creating a masterpiece.  What a brilliant person creates is larger than life. For example, the Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described as “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world.” It holds the Guinness World Record. Leonardo da Vinci was a brilliant painter. Brilliance is always boundary less.

A Sensitive person is someone whose inner experiences line up with his/her outer experiences. Often we see a disconnection between inner and outer feelings in people. People believe their inner world — thoughts and emotions are separate from their outer world — other people. They believe only in their physical world in which they live. Sensitive people most definitely bound together, and they influence each other every moment. Some people think sensitivity is an impediment to success. Sensitive people experience discomfort and pain, and therefore, many brush away the feelings of sympathy and understanding.  People turn away from it. The fact is that life is comprised of dualities. We can’t have only pleasure without the opposite — pain. They are bound up in each other. To experience happiness, we must know its opposite -sadness. And we are most healthy when we can sit with both.

A person of Wisdom is sensitive at heart. Sensitivity is crucial to wisdom. And, it helps to have quite a few years of experience as a human under your belt. A man of wisdom is objective in nature. The person understands that all that he/she thinks need not be correct. Wise people have space around their thoughts and emotions. They can keep an eye on them, and choose which ones to engage with and the ones to let flow through them and pass on by. They see life as a river. They know which currents and tides they’ve seen before, and their typical patterns. They can advise people accordingly. Sensitivity and wisdom lead to brilliance.

The purpose for your life is to experience the completeness of who you really are.

We are taught from our childhood to put our best foot forward; walk straight, have a good eye contact, give a firm shake hand, speak confidently, dress up properly etc, etc. And, when you do all that and you know what you are talking is right your confidence is mistaken many times as arrogance. I have been on the both sides of tables as a panelist conducting interviews and as a candidate answering interviews. I think confidence is perceived as arrogance by people who feel threatened by your confidence and when that happens, perception of arrogance serves as a defense mechanism.

There is really a very thin line between the two, and especially in a job interview situation. Confident people radiate, they are happy to talk about their achievements, their experience, and their view point easily without any hesitation; which is not perceived positively always. When the listener – it could be your teacher, interviewer, your friend, your colleague, your sibling, your neighbor anybody, if the listener disagrees with your view points, or they dislike you, or are jealous of you it’s an easy way to dismiss you as arrogant person. Many times people feel intimidated in presence of confident people.

Superiority is the main quality of an arrogant person. Arrogant people are single-minded; they either think that they are superior to others or inferior to them. This arrogance may be nothing more than a way to cover the feelings of inferiority they experience when dealing with someone else. It seems they feel better when they tear others down. On the contrary, confident people are high-minded, because they can feel good without having a desire to offend others. They usually see people’s potential and can help them succeed in something. It is always nice to have confident boss at work.

Remember this – it is all in your tone and the words you choose when you speak to others. If you are negative towards others to talk down to them then you come across as arrogant. If you are positive and more inclusive then it seems to be confidence. Confidence is certainly a wrong belief that one is always right in every situation. A confident person welcomes alternative perspectives and opinions. A confident person rarely will be found lecturing or preaching to others on how they are wrong. Believing you are always right and unable to accept influence from others can make one detestable to be around. Confident people are humble enough to accept to be wrong and are ok with it. A truly self-confident person is able to show openness and admit to past mistakes.

An arrogant person feels smart when someone else feels stupid. Their sense of pride depends on thinking less of someone else. You will see them correcting other’s grammar, punctuation, pronunciation, in short, showing flaws of others. As if it’s the only way they can feel an approximation of confidence. Arrogance is about intent; it is the tendency of a person to look down on others.

But, a confident person feels competent from the inside out. They use their talents to genuinely try to be of use, or to succeed at the task at hand. They might seek external validation, but they don’t depend on it to define their sense of their ability or nature.

Eye contact is crucial part of any conversation. When a confident person talks he will make eye contact with you and make you feel as though you are the most important person in the room. On the contrary, an arrogant person will all the time be looking past you for someone else to talk to.

Before he became one of America’s ultimate success stories, the great inventor, scientist, diplomat, and the expert connector of people and ideas, Benjamin Franklin was convinced that he was a moral mediocrity.

The truth is that no one is naturally humble. Becoming humble, in fact, is an laborious process. Do you know that George Washington, for example, had to struggle his entire life to become and stay humble. As a young man, his ego was enormous. Like the young Benjamin Franklin, his ambition outstripped his accomplishments.

Napoleon Bonaparte who created the great citizen army and swept through Europe, in fact refused to acknowledge that his forces were getting to thin and he was defeated. This shows his arrogance. Similarly, Hitler, Catherine the great, Cleopatra, Stalin all of these pretty much interesting historical figure were totally arrogant actually.

Power goes to head. Even the smallest dose of power can change a person. You must have seen it in so many people around you. Someone gets a promotion or a bit of fame and then, suddenly, they’re a little less friendly to the people beneath them.

Bear this in mind always – while you are busy in creating your enduring brand, your ability to understand and adapt to the varied realities around you is very important. You might find it difficult to serve in your job while still remaining true to who you are and what you believe.   Trying to achieve this balance means that you are more interested in getting it right than being right.

Hope you have become aware of the fine line between arrogance and confidence. Try to be confident, because everyone wants to hang around people who make other feel secure and positive. If you try to become confident, your relationship skills will be your greatest asset. Since the line in confidence and arrogance is thin; always be sure that you don’t sound or look arrogant. Confidence smiles while arrogance smirks.