Personal Development
I have in mind a typical example of how some of the seemingly
unimportant experiences of life often turn out to be the most important
of all, and I am relating this ease because it shows, also, what a man
can accomplish when he awakens to a full understanding of the value
of Self-confidence.
The incident to which I refer happened in the city of Chicago, while I was engaged in the work of character analysis. One day a tramp presented himself at my office and asked for an interview. As I looked up from my work and greeted him he said, "I have come to see the man who wrote this little book," as he removed from his pocket a copy of a book entitled Self-confidence, which I had written many years previously. "It must have been the hand of fate," he continued, "that slipped this book into my pocket yesterday afternoon, because I was about ready to go out there and punch a hole in Lake Michigan.
I had about come to the conclusion that everything and everybody, including God, had it in for me until I read this book, and it gave me a new viewpoint and brought me the courage and the hope that sustained me through the night. I made up my mind that if I could see the man who wrote this book he could help me get on my feet again.
Now, I am here and I would like
to know what you can do for a man like me."
While he was speaking I had been studying him from head to foot,
and I am frank to admit that down deep in my heart I did not believe
there was anything I could do for him, but I did not wish to tell him so.
The glassy stare in his eyes, the lines of discouragement in his face, the posture of his body, the ten days' growth of beard on his face, the nervous manner about this man all conveyed to me the impression that he was hopeless, but I did not have the heart to tell him so, therefore I asked him to sit down and tell me his whole story. I asked him to be perfectly frank and tell me, as nearly as possible, just what had brought him down to the ragged edge of life.