He also described how his inferiority feelings caused his unreliability in confidential matters. This self-knowledge, together with a sincere practising of the techniques of faith and prayer, made him a valuable asset to his company. His real powers were released.
I can perhaps illustrate the manner in which many youngsters acquire an inferiority complex through the use of a personal reference. As a small boy I was painfully thin. I had lots of energy, was on a track team, was healthy and hard as nails, but thin. And that bothered me because I didn’t want to be thin. I wanted to be fat. I was called ‘skinny,’ but I didn’t want to be called ‘skinny.’ I wanted to be called ‘fat.’ I longed to be hard-boiled and tough and fat. I did everything to get fat. I drank cod-liver oil, consumed vast numbers of milk shakes, ate thousands of chocolate sundaes with whipped cream and nuts, cakes and pies innumerable, but they did not affect me in the slightest. I stayed thin and lay awake night thinking and agonising about it. I kept on trying to get heavy until I was about thirty, when all of a sudden did I get heavy! I bulged at the seams. Then I became self conscious because I was so fat, and finally had to take off forty pounds with equal agony to get myself down to respectable size.