possible, the results of our own experiences in this
field.

[Footnote 1: The Job, The Man, The Boss, by Katherine M.H. Blackford,
M.D., and Arthur Newcomb.]

PART ONE

ANALYZING CHARACTER IN VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE

Analyzing Character

CHAPTER I

CAUSES OF MISFITS

"Blessed is the man who has found his work."--Carlyle.

Only the rarest kind of soul has a clear call to his vocation. Still rarer
is he who, knowing his work, can create circumstances which will permit
him to do it. Of the thousands of young people who have sought us for
counsel, only a very small percentage have had even a vague idea of what
they are fitted to do, or even what they wished to do. Strange to say,
this lack of definite knowledge as to vocation holds true of those who
have just graduated from college or university. Many a college graduate
has said to us: "Why, I shall teach for a few years until I have fully
made up my mind just what I wish to do. Then I shall take my post-graduate
course in preparation for my life work." Even so late a decision as this
often proves unsatisfactory.

IGNORANCE AND PURPOSELESSNESS

The causes for uncertainty as to work are many and varied. And yet all the
many causes can be traced to two fundamental deficiencies in human nature
which are but poorly supplied in our traditional systems of training and
education. The first of these is, of course, ignorance--ignorance of self,
ignorance of work, ignorance on the part of parents, teachers, and other
advisors; ignorance on the part of employers. As a race, we do not know
human nature; we do not know how to determine, in advance of actual,
painful and costly experience, the aptitudes of any individual. We blunder
a good deal even in trying to learn from experience. We do not know work;
we do not know its requirements, its conditions, its opportunities, its
emoluments. And so, in our ignorance, we go astray; we lead others astray.
We neglect important and vital factors in human success and happiness
because we do not know how important and how vital they are. Our ignorance
of their importance is due to our ignorance of human nature and of work.

A second cause for our uncertainty lies in the almost universal human
habit of purposelessness. Drifting, not steering, is the way of nearly all
lives. It is hard mental work to plan, to consider, to study, to analyze;
in short, to think. Someone has said that the average man would rather lie
down and die tha