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Knowing Yourself
I have often thought that the best way to define a man’s character
would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in
which, when it came upon him, he felt himself most deeply and
intensively active and alive. At such moments, there is a voice
inside which speaks and says, “This is the real me.”
—William James
Letters of William JamesBy the time we reach puberty, the world has reached us and
shaped us to a greater extent than we realize. Our family,
friends, school, and society in general have told us—by word
and example—how to be. But people begin to become leaders
at that moment when they decide for themselves how to be.
For some leaders, this happens early. Former Secretary of
Education Shirley Hufstedler has spent her life in the legal
profession, but she was something of an outlaw as a young
girl. She told me, “When I was very young, the things I
wanted to do were not permitted by social dictates. I wanted
to do a lot of things that girls weren’t supposed to do. So I