{"product_id":"2940013740983","title":"The Conduct of Life","description":"Types of Failure\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eANY one who has been called upon, in the course of a busy life, to\u003cbr\u003einduce people to work with him or at least to keep from hindering the\u003cbr\u003etask in hand, must have had daily occasion for observing--to his immense\u003cbr\u003eirritation, sorrow, or disgust--individuals who seem to suffer from a\u003cbr\u003emore or less complete paralysis of will.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSuch experiences are so frequent in the ordinary executive's life that\u003cbr\u003ehe ends by building up a museum of psychological types inside his mind,\u003cbr\u003egrouping his past tormentors according to their similarities or\u003cbr\u003evariations, and recognising new ones at a glance--marking them with\u003cbr\u003eappropriate labels in order to govern his attitude toward them\u003cbr\u003eaccordingly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHere, for instance, is the 'Visionary,\" the \"day-dreamer\"--the\u003cbr\u003eindividual who is always having big ideas. He impresses us with his\u003cbr\u003eglowing exposition of the first one; but we soon find there is nothing\u003cbr\u003ein it. He comes back with a second, and again we listen to him.\u003cbr\u003ehopefully. Finally after repeated disappointments we set him down in our\u003cbr\u003eminds as a person who is never to be taken seriously.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis man is a man whose brain is fertile in plans, schemes, intentions;\u003cbr\u003ebut when he has made those plans, elaborated those schemes, announced\u003cbr\u003ethose intentions, talking of them as though they were imminent\u003cbr\u003erealities, he suddenly forgets all about them; or, indeed, if he does go\u003cbr\u003eso far as to attempt to carry them out, he shortly finds that they are\u003cbr\u003enot so glorious as he had thought, loses interest in them, throws them\u003cbr\u003easide, to come back with another set of plans, schemes, and intentions,\u003cbr\u003ewhich he puts forward with the same results. If we, for our part, soon\u003cbr\u003elose faith in this person, he never loses faith in himself; so\u003cbr\u003eover-bubbling, so irrepressible, so uncontrollable is this faculty he\u003cbr\u003ehas for conceiving grand conceptions and dreaming great dreams.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHere again is another sort of person--the timid, over-cautious\u003cbr\u003eindividual, the man who is never sure of himself, the man who never gets\u003cbr\u003eanything done; because, when he sets out to do a piece of work, he finds\u003cbr\u003ehis mind obsessed with all the possible consequences of the steps he is\u003cbr\u003eabout to take, tries to guard against them all; and, since such\u003cbr\u003epossibilities are infinite in number, shifts uneasily from fear to fear,\u003cbr\u003etill he ends by never starting.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOr still again we meet the \"broken spirit,\" the \"discouraged man,\" the\u003cbr\u003eperson who seems bound to a past that will never return, who cannot\u003cbr\u003eadapt himself to the present, and is ever helpless and inactive before\u003cbr\u003ethe problem of the moment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne could think of numberless other \"types\"; but these three will be\u003cbr\u003esufficient for our purposes. What is the matter with such people? The\u003cbr\u003efirst, we might say, lacks \"executive ability,\" practical insight into\u003cbr\u003ethings--in the language of the philosopher, concreteness; the second\u003cbr\u003elacks courage, determination, initiative; the third lacks enthusiasm,\u003cbr\u003ebuoyancy, healthy interest in life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat I am going to say, however, is that they are all three deficient in\u003cbr\u003ethe same thing: they are all deficient in will--in the will that means\u003cbr\u003econcreteness, means courage, means interest in life. And what, we may\u003cbr\u003efurther ask, do they have to compensate for their deficiency? They\u003cbr\u003ehave nothing--or to use philosophical terms again, they have Non-being\u003cbr\u003eitself; and that is the terrible thing about their anguish, as well as\u003cbr\u003ethe reason for it.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070198694128,"sku":"2940013740983","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013740983_p0.jpg?v=1763589619","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013740983","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}