Backing yourself

The initial concept of backing yourself seems pretty obvious. Of course you should back yourself! What point is there in doing anything if you don't?

How often do we really put all the money on the table, so to speak? Where we place a significant proportion of risk into the equation. The risk can be monetary, but more likely involve time and effort, and even more serious, the risk of realizing that, even though you put everything into something, you just don't cut it. You see this with kids all the time. The lad at the back of the class acting the clown is risk adverse to doing his best, incase, in doing so, he is still no good at maths. So he doesn't try, that way he never has to find out and looks back at school maths and says " yeah, I was never much good at maths." He forgets to add "... so I acted out to avoid risking really finding out that I couldn't do maths."

"So, can you do maths?"

And the answer has to be "I don't know. I never risked backing myself."

So, what's your maths? When have you never had enough time, or money, to do? In reality, what have you been too scared to back yourself in?