Think Again!

Appendices • 179

people’s happiness and achievements is tragically beyond the capacity of narcissistic personalities” (p. 41).

F. “He wants to ‘be known as a winner, and his deepest fear is to be labeled a loser.’ Instead of pitting himself against a material task or a problem demanding solution, he pits himself against others, out of a ‘need to be in control.’ As a recent textbook for managers puts it, success today means ‘not simply getting ahead’ but ‘getting ahead of others.’ He has little capacity for ‘personal intimacy and social commitment’” (p. 44). G. “In the first three centuries of our history, the work ethic constantly changed its meaning. For the Puritans, a godly man worked diligently at his calling not so much in order to accumulate personal wealth as to add to the comfort and convenience of the community. Every Christian had a ‘general calling’ to serve God and a ‘personal calling.’ The Puritans recognized that a man might get rich at his calling, but they saw personal aggrandizement as incidental to social labor – the collective transformation of nature and the progress of useful arts and useful knowledge. They instructed men who prospered not to lord it over their neighbors. The true Christian, according to Calvinist conceptions of an honorable and godly existence, bore both good fortune and bad with equanimity, contenting himself with what came to his lot” (p. 53). H. “Those who win the attention of the public worry incessantly about losing it. . . . He confuses successful completion of the task at hand with the impression he makes or hopes to make on others. . . . Impressions overshadow achievements” (p. 60).