I worked in India and lived there for several months, along with a few other countries. It always pained me to see how miserable so many of my staff in India were. They told me stories of overbearing families and strong societal demands to follow a very narrow path. So many of my very talented staff were actually held down by these cultural norms and were horribly stressed by the situation. The deal is confidence: people hire confidence, they buy confidence, they want to do business with confident people. But how do we get this confidence? You've already said another graduate programme turned you down because you lack confidence. You blame stuttering for your lack of confidence. I'm saying it's not your stutter. I stutter, always have, quite badly, too. However, during my youth, I found my own feet. Told my parents to get off my back and left home to do my own thing. I joined a rock band and partied for a few years, working crap jobs to pay my bills. I learned how to solve problems and think outside the box while developing social skills. All the while stuttering. When I started working seriously, I had one thing the graduates didn't have: confidence. My boss and senior management rewarded my confidence with pay raises and promotion. I used my social skills learned while living rock band life to work deals and make things happen in cultural environments. I sold my project ideas in boardrooms of Fortune 500 corporations while stuttering. My words stumbled, but people overlooked my stutter to see the confidence within. The funny part is when I was in my 40s and a senior executive, I looked into taking an MBA to further my career. I took a class from a major MBA provider. I couldn't believe the b\*llsh\*t being taught. The lessons and business cases were ludicrous with no bearing on reality. In fact, they inferred incorrect information that would, from my vast experience, lead to failure. It was a complete waste of time. So, what are you going do to build up your confidence? I would argue your parents are destroying your confidence. What are you going to about that? I would also argue that the path you feel 'forced to take' is destroying your confidence. What are you going to do about that? You won't find your confidence until you get rid of what is holding you back and learn to stand on your own two feet. But once you have that confidence, nothing will hold you back.