Being Told You're Special

While it might sound nice to be told that you are “special,” it is often a curse for someone inexperienced and impressionable. That is if the implication is that because you are special, you don’t need to “try” to be great.

Whether the person is a favored child, or part of a protected group, if you are given a line of entitlement, it is almost always a curse. Often, it is the person who is told early on that life is not fair; so you must try harder than most people—who will ultimately be better off.

Nothing is so sad as someone who gives up because they believe that they are already at the top and cannot excel any farther. Too often that person is doomed to living off the welfare of others' work and being unfulfilled.

Those who are showing their “higher morality” by perpetuating such thinking are as guilty as those who allow themselves to fail because of it.