I recently asked Paul Boynton，employment director an oil company，what is the biggest mistake people make in applying for jobs.He ought to know：he has interviewed more than sixty thousand job seekers；and he has written a book entitled 6Ways to Get a Job.He replied：“The biggest mistake people make in applying for jobs is in not being themselves.Instead of taking their hair down and being completely frank，they often try to give you the answers they think you want.”But it doesn’t work，because nobody wants a phony.Nobody ever wants a counterfeit coin.
A certain daughter of a street-car conductor had to learn that lesson the hard way.She longed to be a singer.But her face was her misfortune.She had a large mouth and protruding buck teeth.When she first sang in public—in a New Jersey night-club—she tried to pull down her upper Up to cover her teeth.She tried to act “glamorous”.The result？She made herself ridiculous.She was headed for failure.
However，there was a man in this night-club who heard the girl sing and thought she had talent.“See here，”he said bluntly，“I’ve been watching your performance and I know what it isyou’re trying to hide.You’re ashamed of your teeth.”The girl was embarrassed，but the man continued：“What of it？Is there any particular crime in having buck teeth？Don’t try to hide them！Open your mouth，and the audience will love you when they see you’re not ashamed.Besides，”he said shrewdly，“those teeth you’re trying to hide may make your fortune！”
Cass Daley took his advice and forgot about her teeth.From that time on，she thought only about her audience.She opened her mouth wide and sang with such gusto and enjoyment that she became a top star in movies and radio.Other comedians are now trying to copy her！
The renowned William James was speaking of men who had never found themselves when he declared that the average man develops only ten per cent of his latent mental abilities.“Compared to what we ought to be，”he wrote，“we are only half awake.We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources.Stating the thing broadly，the human individual thus lives far within his limits.He possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.”
You and I have such abilities，so let’s not waste a second worrying because we are not like other people.You are something new in this world.Never before，since the beginning of time，has there ever been anybody exactly like you；and never again throughout all the ages to come will there ever be anybody exactly like you again.The new science of genetics informs us that you are what you are largely as a result of twenty-four chromosomes contributed by your father and twenty-four chromosomes contributed by your mother.These forty-eight chromosomes comprise everything that determines what you inherit.In each chromosome there may be，says Amran Sheinfeld，“anywhere from scores to hundreds of genes—with a single gene，in somecases，able to change the whole life of an individual.”Truly，we are “fearfully and wonderfully”made.
Even after your mother and father met and mated，there was only one chance in 300，000billion that the person who is specifically you would be born！In other words，if you had 300，000billion brothers and sisters，they might have all been different from you.Is all this guesswork？No.It is a scientific fact.If you would like to read more about it，go to your public library and borrow a book entitled You and Heredity，by Amran Scheinfeld.
I can talk with conviction about this subject of being yourself because I feel deeply about it.I know what I am talking about.I know from bitter and costly experience.When I first came to New York from the cornfields of Missouri，I enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.I aspired to be an actor.I had what I thought was a brilliant idea，a short cut to success，an idea so simple，so foolproof，that I couldn’t understand why thousands of ambitious people hadn’t already discovered it.It was this：I would study how the famous actors of that day—John Drew，Walter Hampden，and Otis Skinner—got their effects.Then I would imitate the best point of each one of them and make myself into a shining，triumphant combination of all of them.How silly I How absurd！I had to waste years of my life imitating other people before it penetrated through my thick Missouri skull that I had to be myself，and that I couldn’t possibly be anyone else.
That distressing experience ought to have taught me a lasting lesson.But it didn’t.Not me.I was too dumb.I had to learn it all over again.Several years later，I set out to write what I hoped would be the best book on public speaking for business men that had ever been written.I had the same foolish idea about writing this book that I had formerly had about acting：I was going to borrow the ideas of a lot of other writers and put them all in onebook—a book that would have everything.So I got scores of books on public speaking and spent a year incorporating their ideas into my manu.But it finally dawned on me once again that I was playing the fool.This hodgepodge of other men’s ideas that I had written was so synthetic，so dull，that no business man would ever plod through it.So I tossed a year’s work into the waste basket，and started all over again.
This time I said to myself：“You’ve got to be Dale Carnegie，with all his faults and limitations.You can’t possibly be anybody else.”So I quit trying to be a combination of other men，and rolled up my sleeves and did what I should have done in the first place：I wrote a textbook on public speaking out of my own experiences，observations，and convictions as a speaker and a teacher of speaking.I learned—for all time，I hope—the lesson that Sir Walter Raleigh learned.“I can’t write a book commensurate with Shakespeare，”he said，“but I can write a book by me.”