Remember those classic books you were supposed to read and digest in school? I know, I don’t remember most of them either.
One I do is Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Not because I read and digested it, I didn’t. But because Emerson was this cool guy who went off into the woods to write.
We all have another shot at Emerson’s Self-Reliance with Seth Godin’s new project (realphwaldoemerson.me). They are re-publishing his book with comments from modern thought leaders. Plus you can sign up for a 30-day learn-to-trust-yourself-more exercise. You can also follow the conversation on Twitter by searching on #Trust30.
We would all do well to trust ourselves a bit more-
That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? . . . Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I sometimes wonder what I would be like today if I had embraced Emerson “way back then.”
