To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.
e.e. cummings (American poet)
In the language of success, individuality refers to the recognition, development, and respect for the distinct ways that an individual lives up to his or her distinct and unique potentials as a human being.
Success in life is not simply a matter of what you have accomplished at your job or in your career, but also of who, as an individual, you have become by virtue of your distinct development of individual characteristics and moral qualities.
Getting Personal
In your opinion, what are the major challenges that a person must overcome to make the most of his or her potential to become their unique, individual self? Briefly identify two or three challenges that immediately come to mind.
“I suffer whenever I see that common sight of parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being on a young soul…. Cannot we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make another you. One’s enough.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher)
“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” (Margaret Mead, American Cultural Anthropologist)
An unlearned carpenter of my acquaintance once said in my hearing, “There’s is very little difference between one man and another; but what little there is, is very important.” (William James, American psychologist and philosopher.)
****Top of post image, “Fingerprint” by Hebi B, from pixabay.com
