Here you will learn Confidence Self Esteem , Improving Self Confidence, Gain Self Confidence
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Chapter VI
CONCENTRATION
Distinguished men have invariably had great concentration. In art and science,
business and warfare, literature, politics and philosophy, the real achievements
of the race have been due to this power. Concentration arises chiefly from
being deeply interested, and is allied to persistency and definiteness of
purpose. It is an enemy to self-consciousness and vacillation. It enables a man
to do the best that is in him. It is a characteristic mark of genius itself.
A timid man is fitful in his habits. He shifts constantly from one thing to
another, accomplishing nothing worthy of the name. Is it a book he is reading?
Soon he turns the pages impatiently, skims lightly over the most important
parts, hastens to learn the conclusion, and casts the book aside. Is it a new
business venture? He enters upon it enthusiastically, but at the first sign of
difficulty loses heart and gives up. Every change he makes entails a loss of
time and energy, so that he is always going but never arriving.
A man makes his own thought world. To cultivate attention he must think and do
only one thing at a time. Concentration is the faculty of continuous and intense
application. It is not abstraction; hence it can not be offered as an excuse
for carelessness. A young man in one of our banks took out for collection a note
for $75,000. He received the customer's check for the amount, had it certified,
and returned to the bank. The cashier immediately engaged him in conversation,
and sent him out again. He loitered on the way, and when he returned the bank
had closed and the cashier had gone home. That night the young man told his
father how he came to have the check still in his pocket. His father made him
telephone to the president and the cashier of the bank, and early next morning
the young man handed in the check. The president called him into his office and
said: "We do not require your services further."
Thoroughness is one of the marks of a self-confident man. He does everything he
undertakes just as well as he can. If it is a business matter to be discussed,
he first informs himself so completely that he is able to talk with accuracy and
intelligence. If it is a public speech to be delivered, he does not wait until
the day before and then put together a few hastily considered thoughts, but all
is carefully and thoroughly prepared long in advance. Such a man speaks little
of what he is going to do, but first does it and lets his work speak for itself.
Every man should get a right idea of values. There can be no true culture where
time and talent are squandered. "Every moment lost," said Napoleon, himself a
wonderful example of concentration, "gives an opportunity for misfortune." The
building of a self-confident man requires effort, self-sacrifice, and singleness
of purpose.
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