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whatsoever. When it comes time for such overpraised,
underachieving kids to find success in the competitive
global marketplace, they will be confused, fearful, and
ineffective.
The concepts taught by Nathaniel and Devers
Branden are intellectually ruthless and unsentimental.
Some of the best ideas go all the way back to Branden’s
years working with the great novelist and objectivist
philosopher Ayn Rand.
The Brandens have taught me how to objectively ex-
plore the weaknesses in my own thinking and to chal-
lenge the self-deception that was undermining my ef-
fectiveness in life.
“To trust one’s mind and to know that one is worthy
of happiness is the essence of self-esteem,” writes Dr.
Branden. “The value of self-esteem lies not merely in
the fact that it allows us to feel better, but that it allows
us to live better—to respond to challenges and oppor-
tunities more resourcefully and appropriately.”
The two ideas contained in the Brandens’ work that
have most helped me are: 1) “You can’t leave a place
you’ve never been”; and 2) “No one is coming.”
I used to believe that I could run from all my fright-
ening thoughts and beliefs about myself. But all that
ever did was create deeper internal fears and conflicts.
What I really needed was to get all my fears into the
sunshine and demystify them. Once I systematically
began to do that, I was able to dismantle those fears, as
a bomb squad dismantles a bomb.
Acceptance and full consciousness of those fears—
and the self-sabotaging behavior they led to—was “the
place I had never been.” Once I was in that place, I could
leave.