"He knew better than you yourself what you were capable of."

There are few with that ability but I know one person. It is slightly disconcerting but over time I have known their encouragement to be true. I have achieved much that I would not have seen myself do!

This quote is from Paul Erdos biography "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" (page 42), by Paul Hoffman. Erdos seemed to be a very unique person, however eccentric. The following paragraph in that book makes it clear that his ability to understand what you were capable of made so many achieve much more.

Is it that when we believe in people, they start to believe in themselves and so reach greater heights?