When I was a child there was a girl in my neighborhood who wore long, wavy, flowing hair that reached near her waist line. She was clearly of mixed heritage, perhaps with some percentage of East Indian in her genetic make up. There were lots of teenage-concocted rumors about her, one of which was that she had been disrespectful to her teacher, and was ordered to write an essay about having manners. She handed the essay to the teacher the following morning. The essay begun, "Manners maketh man and without manners you can't get a man."
Much of that statement is still true today whether or not the girl wrote it. It is still true that without manners one can't get very far on the path to success, at least not as far as one might get, had one had some manners.
The girl was clearly intelligent and became a rather popular radio personality. I sometimes wonder where she is today. I cannot say whether she had manners or not, I was much too young to be in her sphere of function. What I do know is that having academic qualification is simply not enough if one wants to maximize one's opportunities at success in life. There are young people leaving school with more subject passes than many who are now medical doctors and prime ministers acquired back when they sat high school examinations, but they cannot remain on any job for more than a few weeks or a few months, because their attitudes are awful. Their facial expressions become like that of frozen lobsters when anyone has to speak to them about anything of which they don't approve, and their icy, frozen-stiff body language, plus their inaudibly low verbal tones speak rudely louder than the public address system that blasts into the neighborhoods of the night clubs they frequent on weekends.
Having twenty-one CXC subject passes is not enough to get a person through life if that person does not have manners, respect and some humility. Even if someone in authority is having a bad hair day and is uncooperative, you do not have to let that person bring you down to his or her level, you must have the frame of mind to determine that you are going to retain your job and reach your goal in spite of that person's attitude toward you. Observe carefully and you will notice that when you think you are the only person having problems with that individual you are terribly wrong. The person is most likely having problems with most other persons on the job, and even having problems with himself and his family. Of course there are managers and supervisors who are disrespectful to workers, but usually they are persons whose qualification did not get them to where they are, and so they feel threatened by, or jealous of anyone who is clearly capable of going further up the ladder than they have been able to reach.
One of the best ways to succeed in this world is to be respectful. Control yourself even when you clearly want to blow up like a pressure cooker. It is not an easy world, but you get through it by taking it easy. Let your most visible certification be your commendable attitude, especially when you are just starting on the road of life.
In St. Kitts we often hear unemployed and unemployable young people say "Well, I am not going to let anybody walk over me." Sometimes what they refer to as walking over them is really not as gruesome as the image presented. There are times, in my opinion, when it becomes convenient to allow people to walk over you, so that later on in life, you get an opportunity to climb right over them.
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