But rise he does, proving it can be done. To present another side of the picture that I have seen too often, a man doesn't have to know he's good in order to rise, if he just thinks he is. History is loaded with cases of "successful" men, including many a conqueror and business tycoon, who were no good at all but thought they were. Success under those circumstances seems merely a matter of attitude, so easily attainable it can be had for nothing more than an illusion. Unfortunately, success reached through an illusion is nothing but an illusion when reached, and no envy need be wasted on those who got "it" without having "it" inside to start with.
Those of us concerned with career planning cannot ignore the recoveries of good men who refuse to be kept down, nor can we overlook the often spectacular ascents of the pretenders. Both offer convincing proof that to rise, or make money, or achieve power, one must have as a chief ingredient a real or imagined confidence in one's self. By the same token, many a good man is down, and is being kept down, by lack of that ingredient.
To tell a good man he would do better if he had more confidence in himself is about as useless as telling an alcoholic he would feel better if he quit drinking. "All right, so I'm a good man," he is willing to admit, "but what am I good for?" And until he knows the answer to that question no amount of confidence is going to take him anywhere.
That's where past achievements come in. In coming to know them, and coming to know yourself, you come to know what you are good at. Once that is accomplished, you won't have to be told to have confidence in yourself. You'll already have it. What is more, because you will know how to base your success on your achievements, you won't be falling into the unplanned pitfalls from which the "good man" is constantly rising, his "head bloody but unbowed." Nor will you, like the pretenders, climb ruthlessly over others to reach what in the end is only a hollow victory. Real success is based on enjoying the challenges one meets in reaching a goal that brings mutual benefit to one's self and others, and that is what you will find.
There is sufficient evidence to prove that you were born with many of your talents, and some of them manifest themselves early in life. Most of these, as I have pointed out, are in the visible fields-the juvenile chess wizard, the child prodigy at the piano, the dancer who kicks to music in the crib, the kindergarten artist who paints realistic cows at five. But what about the rest of us who may have been born with talents of equal value, but which do not "show up" so early in life? Some valuable talents, in fact, are so inconspicuous that they remain unsuspected for years if detected at all. Other talents, though recognized, might be too expensive to develop, or too dangerous for childish tinkering. Ben Franklin flew a kite, and brought down electricity from the sky. Today we don't wonder that he produced an electric spark from his brass key. We marvel that he wasn't fried to a crisp. Today any father seeing his young electrical genius out playing with thunderbolts or trying to dismantle the family fuse box is more apt to wallop him than encourage his "suicidal tendencies."
There are some who condemn this attitude as over-protective, but they are not being realistic. Our grand-fathers could operate on the theory that what a boy didn't know couldn't hurt him. Today the boy's opportunities for self-destruction-with the possible inclusion of his family and a few neighbors-are limitless, and so many of his most active talents are sternly smothered "for his own good." Piano playing-yes, but mixing up a batch of rocket fuel-even the government moved in to squelch that.
Nevertheless, these talents, though suppressed, continue to exist. Constantly they reveal themselves through your achievements, but most often they are so thoroughly disguised that only in recent years have they been recognized for what they are. For that reason every achievement that was the result of something you enjoyed doing and brought you satisfaction when accomplished should be listed. As of the moment you don't know what promises it might hold.
