Confidence or Conceit?

I was always quiet at work, a bit shy even. I always did my work on time, and was ready to do any task the boss gave me. But I never got a promotion, in fact the boss never seemed to even notice me! I thought maybe I was not cut out for this career, maybe I was not good enough. I started watching the other people at work, to try to understand how they got the boss to pay attention to them and why they were more successful than me. Mary was the boss's favorite, or at least it seemed that way to me. Mary always talked a lot at staff meetings. She always bragged about herself and said all the clients wanted to work with her. When the boss asked for two people to work together on a big assignment for a new client, I decided to team up with Mary so I could learn how to be confident like her. Wow, what a surprise! Instead of being smart and talented, I found out Mary did not really know how to do the work. Mary was vain and loved to talk about herself, but she really couldn't do the work. At the end of the project, the clients told our boss how much they liked working with me because I was talented and professional. My boss was very impressed, and I knew I did my job well. Now I understand there is a big difference between confidence and conceit.