There
is one thread running through virtually every success book, self-help book I’ve
read, and that is that the idea of investing in oneself–and that this idea is
foreign to so many.
I’ve
seen a great deal of this in my experience as a sales manager for the majority
of my life and how there were so few salespeople that I saw as willing to invest
in themselves. There are hundreds of books, maybe thousands that could be a huge
benefit, yet they remain in the bookstore or library rather than picked up and
read. It isn’t cost. The library is free, and there are even hundreds of books
available online that are free to download now. Why is this?
I
think it all comes down to desire and self-image.
They
don’t have the internal desire to grow. It could be they just don’t really care
for what they are doing, but just doing it to make a buck while they wait for
something better to come along. Desire is something that comes from interest and
desire can easily be fanned into passion, and that fire can be allowed to go out
too. Without desire, and the stronger the better, there is no way people invest
in themselves. What for? It’s too much work, or too much pain if it didn’t work
out.
Self-image.
It’s how we see ourselves and how we see ourselves in the world. It’s believing
in ourselves. Or not. I watched a wonderful French movie the other night that
showed this and how it affects a life into age. It starred Gerard Depardieu and
was titled, My Afternoons with Margueritte. Germain was his name in the
movie and he had a depressing childhood beaten down by his own mother, an absent
father, ridiculed in school, out of school, and even into his mid-life. He was
just moving through life as a pinball moves from bumper to bumper being bounced
around.
It
was a chance meeting with Marueritte (Gisele Casadesus), a delightful old woman,
who at 95 was full of life and acting far younger than her age, that began
slowing opening the door to a new desire to learn how to read and experience a
glimpse of a better life.
Who
knows what kindles our own desires, but that desire is what drives the change in
our self-image and in our surrounding world. It would seem that our world around
us changes, but it isn’t the world, but our world that changes.
Germain
became willing to invest in himself. He began to expend effort, and then it
became commitment, and everything changed. It is that way for all of us. With a
desire and activity as a result, we become willing to invest, and by that
investment, we change our world.
