The Desire To Be Important

 Almost all these wants are usually gratified - all expect one. But there is one longing - almost as deep, almost as imperious, as the desire for food or sleep - which is seldom gratified. It is what Freud calls "the desire to be great." It is what Dewey calls "the desire to be important."

Deepest Urge In Human Nature

    John Dewey, one of America's most profound philosophers, phrased it a bit differently. Dr. Dewey said that the deepest urge in human nature is "the desire to be important." Remember that phrase: "the desire to be important." It is significant.

    What do you want? Not so many thing, but the few that you do wish, you crave with an insistence that will not be denied. Some o the things most people want include:

1. Health and the preservation of life.

2. Food.

3. Sleep.

4. Money an d the things money will buy.

5. Life in the hereafter.

6. Sexual gratification.

7. The well-being of our children.

8. A feeling of importance.

    Almost all these wants are usually gratified - all expect one. But there is one longing - almost as deep, almost as imperious, as the desire for food or sleep - which is seldom gratified. It is what Freud calls "the desire to be great." It is what Dewey calls "the desire to be important."

Craving

    Lincoln once began a letter saying: "Everybody likes compliment." William James said: "The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated." He didn't speak, mind you, of the "wish" or the "desire" or the "longing" to be appreciated. He said the "craving" to be appreciated.

    Here is a gnawing and unfaltering human hunger, and the rare individual who honestly satisfies this heart hunger will hold people in the palm of his or her hand and "even the undertaker will be sorry when he dies.

Chief Distinguishing

    The desire for a feeling of importance is one of the chief distinguishing difference between mankind and the animals.

    If our ancestors hadn't had this flaming urge for a feeling of importance, civilization would have been impossible. Without it, we should have been just about like animals.

    It was this desire for a feeling of importance that led an uneducated, poverty-stricken grocery clerk to study some law books he found in the bottom of a barrel of household plunder that he had bought for fifty cent. You have probably heard of this grocery clerk. His name was Lincoln.

Inspiring

    It was this desire for a feeling of importance that inspired Dickens to write his immortal novels. This desire inspired Sir Christoper Wren to design hi symphonies in stone. This desire made Rockefeller amass millions that he never spent! And this same desire made the richest family in your town build a house far too large for its requirements.

    This desire makes you want to wear the latest styles, drive the latest cars, and talk about your brilliant children.

    If you tell me how you get your feeling of importance, I'll tell you what you are. That determines your character. That is the most significant about you.

FROM - DALE CARNEGIE