Every historical fact confirms the creativeness of man and glorifies his efforts to improve himself, often against pathetic odds. Both in the Old and New Testaments are many references to the joys of work. Socrates said, "He is idle who might be better employed." Lowell said, "No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him." And by way of bringing these and countless supporting sayings up to date, Dale Carnegie said, "If you don't find happiness in your work, you may never find it anywhere."
At the same time, Myron Clark, past president of the Society for the Advancement of Management had to report more recently, "More than eighty per cent of our working people are in jobs which do not use their best abilities-, and which, therefore, do not provide the satisfactions associated with success."
The appalling feature of Mr. Clark's statement is that it caused few raised eyebrows. That 80 per cent of our people should be functioning on their lesser abilities has been true for so many centuries that it is taken for granted, and what is taken for granted is seldom a cause for action. Yet as I pointed out earlier, the man in a job that uses his lesser abilities has to strain himself to the utmost to turn out a mediocre performance, while the man using his best abilities sails through his work with built-in efficiency and satisfaction.
Some day in the not too distant future, the tremendous increase in productivity that can be ours when 80 per cent of the people are using their best abilities will become apparent to all. Then a veritable Manhattan Project of scientists, economists, humanists and industrialists will be turned loose to discover how to release this greatest source of power ever put on earth, a power for peace, production and universal happiness.
You're on Your Own
In the meantime, it is still each man largely for himself, and to the man who knows what his best abilities are, and uses them, goes the success. This is true regardless of his age, religion, color, education, or current position on the status totem pole. And that is why the procedures by which a man can come to know his best abilities, his Dynamic Success Factors, and use them to make a habit of success.
I believe that in order to feel alive, a man must feel that he is growing, that he is continuously becoming more useful. The alternative-working day after day and year after year at routine tasks merely to keep his physical husk alive-is a form of occupational vegetating that dulls both the mind and the spirit. That kind of work is penal servitude for ambition, and when ambition sees itself sentenced to serve 20 or more years of drudgery before achieving the success of Social Security, it just curls up and quits.
Yet most people trapped in jobs unworthy of their talents claim that security is their goal, and that in attaining a secure job they have achieved success. Don't ever believe it. In today's changing times, jobs that have been "secure" for decades may be declared obsolete tomorrow. Government bureaus are swept by economy waves or "streamlined for greater efficiency"; a newly-elected mayor may be the new broom that makes a clean sweep through the old-timers at city hall; old line companies merge with new companies and whole departments are abolished; and always, of course, there is the chance that the vagaries of health may demand a change of climate. Occupational security exists only when confidence in one's known abilities exists.
Probably the most insidious result of "secure" work is the wilting effect that it has on your best abilities. At first a man may feel frustrated at not using his best abilities, but as time passes, and he "gets used to the work," he eases his frustrations by "making the best of it." In this form of rationalization, he elevates the minor abilities he uses on the job to the status of his best abilities, and his unused best abilities simply wither away from neglect. When this process continues over a period of years, the unfortunate man has so mentally soothed his frustrations that he no longer wants to use his best abilities because he has "forgotten" he has them.
To some extent this withering effect takes place even on a job that may use two or three of your Dynamic Success Factors. Those that are unused lie dormant. But they don't die. When you seek them out through an analysis of your achievements, and revive them with attention they will flourish to make you the complete person you want to be. And in the process you may discover some success factors so long dormant that you didn't know you had them.
It is only through being your best self that you can live up to your potentialities. When every morning you can face the day filled with expectation instead of resignation, you are well on the way to performing at your best. The added factor is that what is best for you is best for the others around you. The successful man is not he who gets ahead by climbing over others, but he who gets ahead by producing the values that are of service to others.
