Absolutely correct. My father was an extremely self-confident man. He could build houses. He could wire the electricity in the houses. He could do cement. He could take apart a car and put it back together. He could design airplanes. He retired equal to being an admiral with the Navy. As far as worldly things, he could do virtually anything that was needed for a normal man in our society.
But on a spiritual level he didn't have the tools. He didn't have the Parami growth. He wasn't ready for death. He wasn't aware of what to do. He didn't have those mental tools. But on a worldly level he was extremely self-confident. And yes, often what happens for a person like that is it actually does block them from wanting to learn about spirituality, because they don't feel they need it. They've succeeded on their own. They've succeeded very well. They've achieved this. They've achieved that. Nice house in the suburbs, all their kids went to college, etc., etc. They've achieved so much, and they haven't had enough Dukkha basically, to want to go the spiritual realm.
Now it is important to say, my father grew up in an era where a lot of men missed out on spirituality. They had to go to war. It was tough, extremely hard. They were teenagers during the Depression days and so on. So a lot of men my father's age missed out. As well, meditation was not being taught. There weren't retreats in America when he was 25, and 35, and 45, and 55 years old. There just wasn't that opportunity. So this is an aspect to consider.
But it is true that if people are overly confident with their worldly success, why should they want that other stuff? "I don't need that. It's for people who suffer, right?" That's what I thought too before I met meditation.
Now, what if we have too little self-confidence, or too little confidence in worldly achievements? If we identify with being a failure? Then again we may not want this practice because we may feel like we're going to fail in this, too. However, if we have failed enough and we've had a lot of Dukkha from the failures, then that might push us into it, into wanting to learn about spirituality. It might push us into going in that area where a lot of people think, "Oh, that's for suffering people." Okay, if we're suffering, then why not. Lets go join all the "so-called" suffering people only to discover, especially in this tradition, that we're acknowledging suffering, but we're not going to suffer anymore, we're going to find the way out. So a lot of people who have little confidence, it may not actually interfere with them getting here. But if they identify too much with being a failure and they hold onto that too hard, then that, of course, will slow them down because it's basically self-hatred.