{"id":3639,"date":"1970-04-01T01:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-04-01T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/april-1970-vol-51-no-4-making-the-most-of-your-qualities\/"},"modified":"2022-11-28T00:53:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T00:53:58","slug":"april-1970-vol-51-no-4-making-the-most-of-your-qualities","status":"publish","type":"rbc_letter","link":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/april-1970-vol-51-no-4-making-the-most-of-your-qualities\/","title":{"rendered":"April 1970 &#8211; VOL. 51, No. 4 &#8211; Making the Most of Your Qualities"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"layout-column-main\">\n<p class=\"boldtext\"> He who succeeds in any enterprise in which                     others fail may be presumed to have qualities of some sort                     or other which they do not have.<\/p>\n<p>Unless one is aware of his qualities he is like an acorn                     that does not know whether its proper destiny is to be an                     oak tree or a cabbage.<\/p>\n<p>It is a good question, then, to ask: &#8220;What qualities have                     I as a person, as a worker, as a home-maker and as a citizen?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There is in every person a desire for distinction which                     inclines him first to hope and then to believe that nature                     has given him some talents peculiar to himself. Making the                     most of those qualities is an end in itself for his own sake:                     it is also a contribution to his family and to society.<\/p>\n<p>The development of qualities is something that needs to                     be done with patience, vigilance, sagacity, and determination.                     It is not an exercise for young people only, but for people                     of all ages. There are many notable examples of persons who                     have discovered or expanded talents and qualities late in                     life. Happiness at any age consists mainly in the exercise                     of one&#8217;s vital powers along the lines of one&#8217;s talents.<\/p>\n<p>A mature person is always clarifying his ideas, modifying                     his beliefs, enlarging his capabilities, and adapting his                     life plan to a changing environment. This adaptability is                     not only desirable for advancement, but is necessary to survival.<\/p>\n<p>Change is inevitable. The first industrial revolution substituted                     machinery for men&#8217;s muscles; the second industrial revolution,                     now under way, is substituting machinery for men&#8217;s minds in                     routine work. There have also been three communications revolutions.                     The first was when men invented writing; the second was the                     invention of printing; today&#8217;s is the appearance of the mass                     media, radio, television, newspapers and magazines through                     which everyone has access to all the information and knowledge                     of the world.<\/p>\n<p>The changes wrought by these revolutions have special meaning                     for young people. As they graduate from school and university,                     they have grown beyond the easy challenges and simple choices                     of childhood.<\/p>\n<p>They are learning that their capacity to consume things                     does not dictate what society shall give them, and that they                     must prepare themselves to bear their share of the production                     process. They are beginning to realize that they need to get                     busy rowing the boat, which is safer and more healthful than                     rocking it. Their happiness depends upon this: that they make                     the best of what it is in them to become.<\/p>\n<h3>The search for identity<\/h3>\n<p>The transitional stage of a historical period is difficult.                     As Dr. Rollo May wrote in <em>Man&#8217;s Search for Himself<\/em>:                     &#8220;The beliefs and traditions handed down in the society tend                     to become crystallized into dead forms which suppress individual                     vitality.&#8221; Then: &#8220;Vitality gets divorced from tradition, and                     tends to become diffuse rebelliousness.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s young Canadians have been born into a developed                     society. They do not have to struggle hard to survive, therefore                     they are seeking by many means to use their energy in the                     process of social evolution. They see the world as being full                     of ancient rigidities, but in trying to break these fixities                     they are in danger of indulging in directionless endeavour.<\/p>\n<p>Parents need to realize the vastness of the difference between                     their childhood and the lives of young people today. Thirty                     years ago young people were not embroiled in the world&#8217;s affairs:                     today they have their ears and eyes assailed by every disaster,                     every war, every revolution, every crop failure, every threat                     of death by pollution. They feel personally involved. All                     the sorrow, sadness and frustration of people everywhere is                     forced upon them by television, radio and the press. Both                     young and old are confused by the complexities of life and                     the present world-wide disorder.<\/p>\n<p>It would be unjust to depreciate too harshly the past which                     has led up to this state of affairs. There were many good                     qualities in that past, and none of us would be here today                     except for the care of people who lived before us. Anyone                     who censures the contemporary world should have a clear idea                     of what he believes a good world should be. Happiness and                     contentment are not generated by people who criticize things                     as they are without proposing valid ways of making them better.<\/p>\n<p>To inflame disorder has no virtue or merit in itself, and                     it may deteriorate into mere mindless provocation. We recall                     the witches&#8217; chant in <em>Macbeth<\/em>: &#8220;Fair is foul and                     foul is fair.&#8221; To them all good was repugnant and all evil                     attractive. Storm and foul weather and disorganization made                     the most favourable setting for their vexatious work.<\/p>\n<p>What are the positive aims to which people need to apply                     their qualities? All three generations &#8211; the one now                     old, the one now mature, and the one now adolescent &#8211;                     would like to use their best qualities to attain happiness,                     something worth working for, recognition as persons, and hope                     for the future.<\/p>\n<p>Every person is worth just so much as the things are worth                     about which he busies himself. To quote the great Roman Emperor                     Marcus Aurelius: &#8220;A man&#8217;s life is what his thoughts make of                     it.&#8221; Whatever values you profess, and whatever qualities you                     have, you are only as good, in work just the same as in sport,                     as your actual performance proves that you are.<\/p>\n<p>To be rational and realistic about this is to give discriminating                     attention to things as they are and to use diligence in making                     the best of our qualities to improve them. It is realistic                     to relate what is strategically desirable to what is tactically                     possible with the forces at one&#8217;s command. This is common                     sense, or mother wit, or good judgment. It applies qualities                     efficiently in the right endeavours.<\/p>\n<h3>Knowledge is needed<\/h3>\n<p>The key to realistic use of qualities is knowledge obtained                     by research, experience and experiment. Knowledge gives the                     only sound basis for confident planning. It is the raw material                     from which you manufacture right opinions about things.<\/p>\n<p>The ability to discriminate between one piece of knowledge                     and another with regard to its significance for your purpose                     can be learned. The brilliance you see in a courtroom, or                     laboratory, or operating theatre, or a piece of writing, is                     the end result of accumulating knowledge and checking it for                     its validity in such-and-such circumstances. It is the outcome                     of weeks, and sometimes months, of grinding and often boring                     work.<\/p>\n<p>Getting knowledge is part of continuing education. Some                     people say to themselves that at a certain age, say 18 or                     25, they will consider themselves educated. They believe,                     confidently, that at the same time as they are full-grown                     in education they will continue to have young thoughts. The                     great attraction about continuing to feel young is the vitality                     that says &#8220;Go&nbsp;&#8230; go&nbsp;&#8230; go.&#8221; If you stop learning                     at your mid-twenties you will in a few years find new sprinters                     coming up to pass you.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever your age, apply your knowledge thoughtfully and                     reasonably in terms of what you already are, and use the services                     of academic, professional, church, business and government                     departments to help you press on.<\/p>\n<p>This keeping sensitized to the world around you by giving                     of your qualities while continuing to learn is a rewarding                     experience. It encourages you to spread your thought and activity                     into areas that are not directly connected with your job.<\/p>\n<p>It is highly pleasing to escape out of the complexities                     of everyday life into its simplicities, and then find that                     its simplicities have solved its complexities. Robert Burns                     had this quality. The ploughman-poet was at home in any society                     from the Ayrshire cottage to the Edinburgh palace. But his                     special quality was his love for all creatures, even the lowly                     mouse and the daisy, and this gave him understanding of human                     beings and their motivations.<\/p>\n<p>You may, like Burns, have limited resources, but you need                     not have narrow horizons. Everywhere, in fields, workshops,                     and events, there is something to explore, something worth                     while to discover, beauty and truth, poetry and science, and                     best of all, wide understanding. Acquaintance with these basic                     things helps to make plain the complicated things built upon                     them.<\/p>\n<p>It is out of wide knowledge that you develop the quality                     of making good choices. Here, indeed, is the truest freedom                     of the human race: the freedom of choice. But you cannot choose                     something you have never heard of.<\/p>\n<p>It is not desirable to fill life with one activity. In a                     rapidly changing world versatility is a priceless asset. The                     same array of qualities can be used for many purposes. Leonardo                     da Vinci could be, on different days, a painter, a sculptor,                     a musician, a scientist, an inventor and an engineer. He employed                     identical basic qualities in every capacity.<\/p>\n<h3>Ingredients of success<\/h3>\n<p>One must be enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is interest plus energy,                     and this combination provides the most dynamic of all human                     qualities. Anyone who does not have it naturally can cultivate                     it by applying a little auto-suggestion. Merely deciding that                     a job is going to be interesting helps to make it so.<\/p>\n<p>One must have ambition. What part do you wish to play on                     the world stage? What do you want to make of yourself? Many                     people are worried in the final third of this memorable century                     by emptiness: they want, without knowing what they want.<\/p>\n<p>Ambition is based upon discontent, but being dissatisfied                     with what you have is not enough. You need a positive, purposeful,                     creative and energetic aim, the attainment of which will make                     use of all your good qualities. This is very different from                     the desire of Sancho Panza in <em>Don Quixote <\/em>to be lord                     of an island if it were offered to him &#8220;with little trouble                     and less danger&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Ambition can be a malignant mistress unless properly wooed.                     No person is ridiculous for being what he really is, but he                     can make himself absurd by affecting to be what he is not,                     or by attempting to climb heights beyond his qualities, or                     by trying to appear in everything.<\/p>\n<p>Neurotic ambition reveals a person driven by a gad-fly:                     like Caesar, for whom the map of the world had no boundaries                     and the words &#8220;journey&#8217;s end&#8221; no meaning, or like Cyrano de                     Bergerac, fulminating and frenetical, seeking a whole army                     he could put to flight. The saddest thing to happen to an                     overreaching ambition is the realization of inability to fulfil                     it.<\/p>\n<p>Courage is another needed ingredient of success. It is true                     that to venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is not                     to find oneself. You require the quality of being able to                     go to work on a task the outcome of which cannot be assured.                     The volunteers in small boats who were setting out to rescue                     the British soldiers from the beach at Dunkirk were told:                     &#8220;Now off you go and good luck to you &#8211; steer for the                     sound of the guns.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Creative workmanship<\/h3>\n<p>Having ambition, enthusiasm and courage, you must work.                     Idleness is a desolate doctrine, appropriate only to those                     who have given up trying to make themselves adequate to life.                     The hope of the human race for improvement would be futile                     indeed if it were in the hands of people capering for joy                     at the thought that they can throw off Adam&#8217;s curse and cease                     work while living on the charity of others.<\/p>\n<p>Work is more than an individual activity: it is a social                     activity, because whether high or low on the wage scale it                     contributes to satisfying the wants of mankind. It is a culture-creating                     activity, for it believes in a better future: idleness is                     reaction, for its ideals are in the past and it is the image                     of a death wish.<\/p>\n<p>The ambitious person will develop an instinct for craftsmanship.                     An artist or technician or business man may be filled with                     noble ideas and fine inspiration, but if his hands refuse                     to obey the prompting of his mind, his good intentions can                     never be worked into satisfying reality. When it comes to                     judging a piece of work, your own or that of someone else,                     of this be sure: it is bad if it is shoddy or unsuited to                     its purpose.<\/p>\n<p>The ambitious person will try to pick up some particular                     piece of life and leave it in better shape. He looks creatively                     at the commonplace; he seeks a new use; he brings alive something                     hidden to others. Keats heard the song of a nightingale, but                     while others listened abstractedly he listened with all his                     heart, and composed his &#8220;Ode to a Nightingale&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The act of creation does not bring into being something                     out of nothing. It uncovers, selects, reshuffles, combines                     and synthesizes already existing facts, ideas, faculties and                     skills. The musicologist was creative whose persistent search                     through monastery after monastery uncovered a lost Haydn mass.                     That discovery gave him his opportunity to enrich the world                     with something new to it. Similarly, Shakespeare took themes                     and words from many now forgotten sources and wove them into                     plays that thrill, excite and inform us.<\/p>\n<p>Being creative requires that we put more effort into building                     up than into knocking down. It cautions us to have the blue-prints                     ready for a better building before tearing down the old one.                     It demands that we study the job ahead so that we become qualified                     to do it well, with competent minds and skilled hands.<\/p>\n<h3>Know thyself<\/h3>\n<p>A healthy self-examination is needed in order to develop                     potential qualities and to correct faults. The machines developed                     by electronic technology not only do their jobs but run simultaneous                     checks on their own equipment to eliminate the possibility                     of error.<\/p>\n<p>The Greek precept &#8220;Know Thyself&#8221; was not designed to lower                     our pride, but to help us to understand our worth. Belief                     in yourself and your qualities is necessary to success, but                     how can you believe unless you know?<\/p>\n<p>This seeking of self-knowledge helps you to tidy up and                     draw your qualities together. Make an orderly array of what                     you already know. Then group the elements according to their                     relative importance. Select the feature to which you propose                     to pay special attention. Unless you do this preparatory work                     you will dissipate energy by living under compulsive, undirected                     activity.<\/p>\n<p>Self-analysis helps you to use all your equipment in your                     effort to become all that you can become. A single quality                     is seldom sufficient to build a successful life. Lord Beaverbrook,                     a hard-headed business man, said: &#8220;He who succeeds will be                     he who, through the totality of his qualities, deserves to                     succeed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Get to know what is involved. When your eye lights upon                     a position that attracts you, there are two things you need                     to consider: the fitness of the position for you and your                     fitness for the position. This will avoid the danger of wasting                     time and effort on unsuitable work.<\/p>\n<p>Dispersion of effort can be a fatal flaw. Concentration,                     which is a habit necessary to success in business, science                     and personal life, means bringing things to a focus. The weakest                     living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object,                     can accomplish something; the strongest, by scattering his                     powers over many, may fail to accomplish anything.<\/p>\n<h3>A song unsung<\/h3>\n<p>The next thing is to get busy. Ambition has no real efficiency                     unless pressed forward by activity. Creative efficiency is                     as dependent upon our quality of driving power as it is upon                     knowledge and talent. Two lines from the Indian poet Sir Rabindranath                     Tagore sound the warning: &#8220;The song that I came to sing remains                     unsung&#8230; I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing                     my instrument.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No one can make the best of his qualities if he puts them                     in cold storage. What has been learned can be forgotten, and                     what has been frozen has no flexibility to meet new situations                     and to embrace opportunities. Do not pigeon-hole or file a                     good idea. If you cannot put it into execution at once, make                     a note in your diary to dig out the idea and look at it again.<\/p>\n<p>When you have started, development of your qualities demands                     that you keep going. You have to overcome human inertia. The                     inability to sustain interest until a task is completed is                     unmistakably a childish trait which belongs to the time of                     life when the immediate moment is still the only real moment.                     It is important if we are to use our qualities effectively                     that we learn the discipline of finishing what we start.<\/p>\n<h3>Get out of your depth<\/h3>\n<p>Having completed one part of your plan, it is desirable                     to progress at once to another stage. Do not give anyone the                     opportunity to say that you reached your peak yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>You hold your success as a challenge cup, and at any time                     some other player may come along to contend for it. Alfred                     North Whitehead, that giant among philosophers and mathematicians,                     was asked: &#8220;When did you first begin to feel an adequacy to                     your work?&#8221; He replied: &#8220;I have never felt adequate to it.&#8221;                     Every quality can be improved. The minute you are entirely                     satisfied with your performance the first step toward degeneration                     has been taken. Perfection, as Santayana put it, is a synonym                     of finitude.<\/p>\n<p>If you do not ever get out of your depth you will never                     learn to swim. Most successful men have at some time been                     kicked upstairs. At a critical moment in their lives they                     have been forced to do more than they had planned to do, or                     to accommodate themselves to a new situation, and out of their                     qualities they proved their ability to cope with the challenge.                     Abraham Lincoln suffered one set-back after another, but he                     became President.<\/p>\n<p>Other stanzas of Kipling&#8217;s poem called &#8220;If&#8221; are more frequently                     quoted, but none is more important to the person seeking to                     develop his qualities than this one: &#8220;If you can watch the                     things you gave your life to broken, and stoop and build &#8217;em                     up with worn-out tools&nbsp;&#8230; you&#8217;ll be a Man!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The alternative to any plan which fails to work is always                     another plan. There is small satisfaction and less benefit                     in just walking away. Consider alternatives. If you make a                     false start, wipe it out and start again. If the qualities                     you use do not produce the desired result, try some others                     or another combination.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody should expect to be perfect, or be unduly troubled                     by the fact that he is not. Even the greatest artists have                     their comparatively uninspired moments. It is not disgraceful                     to fail in an attempt to do something. The only disgrace is                     not to seek the quality in you that will prompt you to make                     the attempt. Recall the man in one of Shakespeare&#8217;s plays                     who vowed that he would &#8220;Lean upon one crutch and fight with                     the other&#8221; rather than stay out of the battle.<\/p>\n<h3>The quality of character<\/h3>\n<p>Character is what you are when there is no one else around.                     Many preachers and teachers emphasize various requirements                     of life: social rights, honest work, culture, sanity, and                     optimism, but not one great teacher has played down the need                     for having character.<\/p>\n<p>The corner-stone of character is integrity. This does not                     ask &#8220;What will people think?&#8221; but &#8220;What will I think of myself                     if I do this or fail to do that?&#8221; It has principles, which                     are qualities of the underlying sort: laws and ideas, controlling                     concepts and basic facts. They enable a person to play his                     part with equal comeliness whether he is dressed in overalls                     or dinner jacket.<\/p>\n<p>Principles involve honour, &#8220;an old-fashioned word which                     encompasses duty, responsibility, and respect for eternal                     values.&#8221; This is not a quotation from some old-fogey academic                     philosopher, but from the son of Thomas Alva Edison, president                     of Edison Industries and an eminent servant of his country                     in peace and in war.<\/p>\n<p>Character involves a feeling for humanity and the power                     of sympathy and the desire to serve. The quality of chivalry                     is not dead, and can be revived. It regards courage as splendid,                     fidelity as noble, and mercy as part of a gentleman&#8217;s code.                     It is a way of life in which the bigger ones look out for                     the littler ones. As is said in Ireland, it is &#8220;a relic of                     an old decency&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Character is not summed up in that much-abused concept &#8220;personality&#8221;                     but it does give charm, a quality that has a wistful appeal                     which accomplishes more than would dominance and force.<\/p>\n<h3>To sum up<\/h3>\n<p>When you take stock of your qualities you are already ahead                     of the great mass of the people who never seriously consider                     what talents they have with which to work. No one can expect                     the best of himself if he thinks aimlessly about his qualities                     and selects his quality tools at haphazard. The nuclear physicist                     does not use a pickaxe to split atoms.<\/p>\n<p>No one can guarantee you success in using your qualities,                     but you can deserve it. What you imagine on a large scale                     will be realized, perhaps on a smaller scale, depending upon                     how right your assumptions were about your qualities and how                     earnestly you try.<\/p>\n<p>At any age you may be able to say &#8220;my present situation                     is but a sketch of a picture which I must finish.&#8221; Start every                     morning with your mind set toward doing things. Comte Henri                     de Saint-Simon, who was no sluggard in war or business and                     who became the grandfather of the positivist philosophy, instructed                     his valet to address him, first thing every morning, with                     the reminder: &#8220;Remember, Monsieur le Comte, that you have                     great things to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One who seeks to make the most of his qualities will do                     habitually well what he has to do. &#8220;According to one&#8217;s power&#8221;:                     that was the refrain and favourite saying of Socrates, a saying                     of great substance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[1],"rbc_letter_theme":[],"rbc_letter_year":[50],"class_list":["post-3639","rbc_letter","type-rbc_letter","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","rbc_letter_year-50"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>April 1970 - VOL. 51, No. 4 - Making the Most of Your Qualities - RBC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/april-1970-vol-51-no-4-making-the-most-of-your-qualities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"April 1970 - VOL. 51, No. 4 - Making the Most of Your Qualities - RBC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"He who succeeds in any enterprise in which others fail may be presumed to have qualities of some sort or other which they do not have. 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Unless one is aware of his qualities he is like an acorn that does not know whether its proper destiny is to be an oak tree or a cabbage. 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