© Elliot Essman 2005. All rights reserved.

These pages contain the complete 2005 revised text of Building Yourself, public speaking trainer Elliot Essman's guide to living the successful life.

Elliot Essman Public Speaking Training
Building Yourself Table of Contents
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• Liberty is the possibility of doubting; the possibility of saying “NO” to any authority. Ignazio Silone (1900–1978)

Questioning authority is a positive act; it's not rebellion. It's not even non‑conformism. Both these reactions to authority are wasteful. They're damaging side roads that take you away from the real issues in life. A truly successful person avoids the trap of rebellion, but still questions authority.

Authority in all its manifestations has to be dealt with as a reality. Rebellion doesn't make it go away. The rebel, by refusing to play the game at all, doesn't get very far. Better to question authority, stand up to it on equal terms, and learn the hard reality of playing the game to win. Too often, rebellion is reaction, not well-thought-out action.

Non‑conformism for the sake of non‑conformism is not only useless, it's silly. A person with a high self‑regard needs neither to conform nor to refuse to conform. He or she maintains a well‑evolved sense of independence regardless of the outward trappings of conformity: the clothes you wear, the furnishing in your home, the car you drive, the profession you follow, the people with whom you associate.

We've already learned to question the authority of purvey­ors of information, the media and the press. We profit by doing the same with parents, teachers, influential peers, superiors at work, government at all levels.

Government is the least flexible and most arbitrary authority. Its unjust laws and nit‑picking regulations most certainly must be questioned. Blind obedience to the law for its own sake, without regard to its moral underpinnings, is as tragic as unchecked criminality. Vast chunks of the law are handed down to us by unelected administrative bureaucrats, who follow political priorities. They must be questioned vigorously, even resisted.

To accelerate your own success, keep this in mind. We question authority, we may even resist authority, but we respect the fact that authority has power. We deal with it.