SELF-CONFIDENCE 243egotism. Opportunity never stalks the person with a highly devel-
oped state of egotism, but brickbats and ugly remarks do. Opportunity
forms affinities much more easily and quickly with Self-Confidence
than it does with egotism. Self-praise is never a proper measure of
self-reliance. Bear this in mind and let your Self-Confidence speak
only through the tongue of constructive service rendered without fuss
or flurry.
Self-Confidence is the product of knowledge. Know yourself. know
how much you know (and how little), why you know it, and how you
are going to use it. Four-flushers come to grief; therefore, do not pretend
to know more than you actually do know. There's no use of pretense,
because any educated person will measure you quite accurately after
hearing you speak for three minutes. What you really are will speak
so loudly that what you claim you are will not be heard.
If you heed this warning, the last few pages of this one lesson may
mark one of the most important turning points of your life.
Believe in yourself but do not tell the world what you can do. Show it!DISCONTENTMENT -
AN AFTER-THE-LESSON VISIT WITH THE AUTHOR
The marker stands at the entrance gate oj life and writes ((Poor Fool))
on the brow oj the wise man and ((Poor Sinner" on the brow oj the saint.The supreme mystery of the universe is life! We come here without our
consent, from whence we know not. We go away without our consent,
whither we know not.
We are eternally trying to solve this great riddle of life, and for what
purpose and to what end?
That we are placed on this earth for a definite reason there can be
no doubt by any thinker. May it not be possible that the power which