Self Esteem And Business Success

• High self esteem enables you to function at your very best.
• High self esteem is needed for success, but doesn’t guarantee it.
• The ever changing global marketplace requires individuals with high self esteem.

Having low self esteem does not necessarily mean you will be incapable of achieving success. Many people still have the drive, energy and talent to achieve great things despite feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness.

An example of this could include a highly productive workaholic, who is driven to prove their worth to a significant person in their life (such as a mother or father) who told them they would never achieve much in life.

However, whilst having strongly desired goals and a sense of purpose can certainly serve as a powerful motivator, having low self esteem will still mean that this individual will perform far less effectively and creatively, than they would if they had a high level of self esteem.

Another major consequence of being driven by a desire to please others is that once your objective has been achieved, you are unlikely to experience any true joy from your accomplishment.

If you started out with the aim of proving yourself to another person, then ultimately you leave the void within you unfulfilled and so nothing you do will ever be enough.

Consider this last point carefully, especially if you are at school or are about to leave school. Many school leavers set out upon a career that will please their parents, and meet their expectations of them.

However in the long run, choosing a job purely to please someone else can quickly result in a lack of job satisfaction, a lack of fulfilment and a craving for something more in life.

Is High Self Esteem All You Need?

If one error is to deny the importance of self esteem, then another is to claim too much importance for it. Of course, a healthy level of self esteem is necessary for your well being, but having high self esteem does not guarantee fulfillment or success in life.

High self esteem should therefore not be seen as a substitute or replacement for your needs, but rather as something that will increase the likelihood your needs will be fulfilled.

For example, with low self esteem you are unlikely to engage in actions that have the possibility of fulfilling your needs. This lack of action may then leave you feeling some degree of anxiety, frustration or despair.

However with high self esteem and a confidence in yourself and your abilities, you are far more likely to do the things that will fulfill your needs, thereby increasing your chances of happiness and fulfillment in life.

This is an extremely important point to recognise, as many people wrongly assume that by thinking positively and feeling good about themselves, they will automatically attract success and happiness to their life.

The truth is that what you attract into your life is a combination of both your mental attitude, and the physical actions you take.

Physical action can come just as easily from a mind with high self esteem, as it can from a mind with low self esteem.

The difference comes in the type of quality of those resulting actions, and the subsequent happiness and fulfillment they bring.

The Economic Value Of Self Esteem

In today’s global market economy industry is characterised by rapid change, accelerating scientific and technological breakthroughs and an increasingly competitive environment.

These new developments naturally create demands for higher levels of training and education than were once required for previous generations.

Accompanying these new developments also come new demands on our psychological resources. Typically these occur by calls for greater creativity, self management, personal responsibility and self direction. In other words, these demands call for an abundance of self esteem.

So whereas self esteem was once viewed purely as an important psychological need, it is now rapidly becoming recognised as an important economic need.

And since industries tend to get more competitive over time, this economic emphasis is likely to increase even more.

Self Esteem In Life

Today we are freer than any generation that has come before us. A hundred years ago people were persecuted for following the wrong religion, having a different skin colour or for their sexual preferences.

However today you are free to choose your own philosophy, religion, moral code and how you choose to live without fear of being lynched or burned at the stake.

But as the number of choices and decisions we need to make on a daily basis increases, so does the importance and urgency of self esteem.

By knowing yourself and recognising your value and worth as a person will come independence, thereby allowing you to make the best possible choices that are right for you. And this is exactly what is needed to succeed in this rapidly changing and competitive world of ours.