How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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obstacles, as anyone who reads the biographies and autobiographies of really great human beings can easily prove for himself, and any one of these obstacles may become the spring-board to fame as easily as it may be the desperate morass of inferiority. Before we proceed with our next chapter on the crafts¬ manship of being happy though human, let us formulate a few maxims for the good life. 1. If you have an inferiority complex you are in good company. The sense ot inadequacy is not confined to you. It is universal. 2. No matter what the source of your inferiority complex, a careful study of human history will probably show you that some man or woman has used that very source as the basis of his fame or the foundation for his happiness. 3. Nothing can compel you to keep your inferiority complex if you are not afraid to examine it and if you are not too lazy to do something about it. 4. If you have retained your inferiority complex you have allowed yourself to be beaten without a struggle. Open your eyes and roll up your sleeves. It is never too late. 5. Ninety-nine per cent, of the things that you are afraid of never happen. No one has ever built a bridge, written a book, or won a battle by worrying about it. The remaining one per cent is a function of the Inscrutable. To worry about the unpredict¬ able is a crass form of vanity. 6. An ounce of constructive optimism is worth an entire encyclopaedia of despair. Sackcloth and ashes, remorse and self-reproach, protestations of guilt and lamentations of hopeless inferiority are the sancti¬ monious excuses of cowards. 7. Act “ as if” happiness were attainable. The good life is within your reach if you put up a good fight. Give yourself a sporting chance. No one is ever beaten unless he gives up the fight.