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My other daughter on the other hand, may not have given as much
in her reLationships with others. Although she is very successful
at what she's doing, a very accomplished youn,:r lady, and now a
prosecuting attorney for the City of Los Angeles, she's always kept
back a little bit of herself in her dealings with other people, kind
of maintaining that edge, keeping that little competitive edge, you
might say. And as a consequence in doing that, she probably has not
given as much affection and she has remained a bit more invulnerable.
But now she's 26, she'll soon be 27, and she's still like Jenny, who
can't make up her mind. I'm not advertising here for a husband for
my daughter, but I'rr. pointing out that I've watched the two children
very closely, and they have both succeeded in what they have tried
to do. But just watching their human relations, I've noticed that
one was able to give a little bit more of herself without being
fearful of failure, without being fearful of embarrassment, without
being fearful of being hurt.
Now this fear of failure becomes more or less an emotional paralysis
which-can be just as crippling as a physical paralysis can be for
the body.
I know myself one time, only one time, did I almost fail to try for
fear of failing, and that was when I decided to return to law school.
I knew that in order to do that, it would be very difficult because
· I was raising a family and I was running a professional business. My
time was very, very much taken up by those two things. Law school is
not easy. And, therefore, while I enrolled, I was for the first two
months or so, contemplating each day, well, "maybe I shouldn't bother
doing this at all." Maybe this is going to be too difficult. Maybe
this is going to be too demanding. Back in the recesses of my mind
was the fear during those first several months that maybe I couldn't
make it or maybe I wouldn't do as well as I wanted 1:0 do, or maybe I
wouldn't do as well as I had been accustomed to doing. And I tell
you, at that time, for a period of some 60 days, I came very, very
close a few times, on almost the flimsiest of reasons or pretexts,
to drop out of that law school program. I think looking back now,
that was really coming very close to being afraid to try because I
was afraid of failing.
Now, in talking about failure and success, it's important to remember
that we've all been inculcated by a value system that we have picked
up from our peer group and from other people around us. Too often,
the measure of success has to do with the acquisition of material
things and the acquisition of money. But, of course, that is not the
only way to measure success. We know that if Jesus Christ were to be
measured in terms of today's marketplace with today's values, that
people would probably consider Him a failure. And of course we know
He was the greatest success.
By the same token it's important for us to remember, and to remember
very well, that success can be measured in terms of service rather
than the acquisition of material things. And also, success can be
measured in terms of satisfaction that one gets from the fulfillment
of one's goals regardless of the fact that there may not be much money
involved.