[Sidenote: Selling the Truth About Your Best Self]
Every individual has distinct characteristics, and is capable of doing particular things, of which he may be genuinely proud if he fully develops and uses his personal qualifications. _When all the truth about his best possible self is skillfully made known to others_, chances for success are certain to be opened to the ambitious man. If he lacks the salesmanship key, the doors of opportunity may always remain closed, however well he deserves to be welcomed.
_You_ possess "goods of sale" that have real _quality_, that are _durable_, that will render _service_ and afford pleasurable satisfaction to others. _Your_ goods can be sold as _surely_ as quality phonographs, durable automobile tires, serviceable clothes, or pleasing books.
Maybe you can "deliver the goods" with smiles, or hearty tones, or ready acts of kindness. Any one can easily be friendly. But have you developed _all your ability_ to smile genuinely? Have you cultivated the hearty tone of real kindness so that now it is _unnatural_ for you ever to speak in any other way? Do you perform friendly acts of consideration for others on _every_ occasion, as second nature?
If your honest answers to such questions must be negative, you are not a good salesman of your best self all the time.
Your most salable quality may be dependability, rather than quick thinking. If this is the case, concentrate your salesmanship on making impressions of the true idea of _your reliability_. Your greatest success will be achieved in some field of service where dependableness is a primary essential. You may be _naturally unfitted_ to make a star reporter, but _peculiarly qualified_ to develop into the cashier of a bank.
Should you happen to be unattractive in features, your job is to transform your homeliness into a _likable_ quality--not to try to make yourself appear handsome. If you are wholly inexperienced, that need not be a detriment to your success in the field you want to enter. When you have mastered the selling process, your very greenness can be presented before the mind of a prospective employer as the best of reasons for engaging you. You will be able to make yourself appear desirable because you _are_ green in that field, and therefore have no wrong ideas to "unlearn."