The emphasis placed on the importance of likableness as the _principal_ factor in getting yourself wanted may have made you forget the _primary_ necessity of showing your prospect _a real lack in his business, and that you are capable of filling it_. It is possible to attract an employer's liking for you, whether he has a place for you or not. But his liking will do you no good unless you can also make him see he has a need for you.
_Success is not to be won by getting in where you are not wanted, however likable you may be_. You must sell the idea of your service _value_ as well as the ideas that your services would be _liked_. You _cannot over-develop_ the quality of likableness, but you _can over-sell_ it, to the detriment of your own best interest.
[Sidenote: A Winning Personality Sometimes Fails]
One of the most conspicuous failures I know is a man who has "a winning personality." Times without number his genuine agreeableness has won him fine chances to succeed, but in the positions he has held he has never studied the needs of his employers for other qualities than likability. Consequently he has fallen down on all his big chances. Today he is just a popular door man for a big department store. His intelligence and his physical ability are so evident that he is an object of pity and wonder as he smiles and bows to customers of the store. Undoubtedly if he had studied the different opportunities he has had, and had fitted himself into all the requirements of a particular situation, his winning personality would have helped him higher and higher toward the mountain peaks of success instead of leaving him on an ant hill.
Of course the mind of your prospective employer acts in co-ordination with his heart when you attract him so much that he really wants the service you proffer. He imagines you rendering that service. He thinks what "might be" if you were associated with his business. He paints mental pictures that please him, and he wishes his vision to come true. But when he begins to imagine you rendering service, the picture of your agreeable personality will not be pleasant to him if he sees that he doesn't really need you. _In order to get yourself wanted it is necessary that you show him the lack, and that you can fill it, and that you would be likable when filling it_. If you make these three impressions on the mind and heart of your prospect, your success in your purpose will be assured. You will not fail to get yourself wanted.