If you are an individualist you are part of a minority. Experiments have found fewer than thirty percent of us are willing to assert our own ideas when they run counter to a majority view. This minority of people who judge issues for themselves and assert their judgment are among the most successful and well-adjusted members of society. We select our leaders – in all areas of life, in industry, fashion, politics and science – from this group, people who resist being easily persuaded and who try to draw out what is best from the sum of the conflicting views that others present to them. Leaders who stand out from the rest as strong individualists may tend to isolate themselves from the opinions, interests and tastes of others even to the point sometimes of being ineffective at organizing support for their lives. Many strong individualists have been forced to the margins of political or scientific life as cranks or misfits, only to re-emerge as major figures when circumstances permit. Sir Winston Churchill, Britain’s great leader in World War II, was for years considered too eccentric, too unpredictable and too belligerent for high office by key figures among those controlling political power in Britain, and did not become Prime Minister until a charismatic leader was needed. Charles Darwin, the first major contributor to modern theories of biological evolution, was considered a failure in early life. His reluctance to seek a conventionally successful life in the Church or in medicine, as his family would have wished, was partly due to his being absorbed in unconventional ideas which he kept mostly to himself. He only published them when he was middle-aged, and friends and circumstances finally persuaded him that he could no longer delay. Without such exceptional individualism, it is probable that the human race would make little progress. ~ excerpt from Glenn Wilsons Self Discovery: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Your Personality & Well Being.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 19:10:00 +0000
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