Hufstedler, Knapp, and Gould clearly invented them selves, just as the other leaders I talked with did. They over came a variety of obstacles in a variety of ways, but all stressed the importance of self-knowledge.
Some start the process early, and some don't do it until later. It doesn't matter.
Self-knowledge, self-invention are lifetime processes. Those people who struggled to know themselves and become themselves as children or teenagers continue today to explore their own depths, reflect on their experiences, and test themselves. Others like Roosevelt and Truman undertake their own remaking in midlife. Sometimes we simply don't like who we are or what we're doing, and so we seek change. Sometimes events, as in Truman's case, require more of us than we think we have. But all of us can find tangible and intangible rewards in self- knowledge and self-control, because if you go on doing what you've always done, you'll go on getting what you've always got which may be less than you want or deserve.
All of the leaders I talked with agreed that no one can teach you how to become yourself, to take charge, to express yourself, except you. But there are some things that others have done that are useful to think about in the process. I've organized them as the four lessons of self-knowledge. They are
One: You are your own best teacher.
Two: Accept responsibility. Blame no one,
Three: You can learn anything you want to learn.
Four: True understanding comes from reflecting on your experience.
Lesson One: You are your own best teacher.
Gib Akin, associate professor at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia, studied the learning experiences of sixty managers. Writing for organizational Dynamics, Akin said that the managers' descriptions were "surprisingly congruous, Learning is experienced as a personal transformation. A person does not gather learnings as possessions but rather becomes a new person. To learn is not to have, it is to be."
Akin's roster of modes of learning includes
Emulation, in which one emulates either someone one knows or a historical or public figure