Page:The Art of Helping People Out of Trouble (1924).pdf/230

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accomplishment of a son or a daughter or a pupil. It may come in as many different ways as there are people. Always it is an influence for strength. Achievement begets achievement. The consciousness of success charges a man's energies to higher levels of effort and often what otherwise would have been impossible is attained.

While frequently the finding of the means by which an individual can derive a sense of achievement is a process of trial and error, involving the suggesting of this and then that until the appropriate medium has been discovered, it is obvious that the more intimately one knows a man the more likely will one be to select the thing that will attract him. Usually to learn what has given him a feeling of accomplishment in the past is to find what will satisfy him in his present difficulty.

A woman who was friendless, unhappy, and unstable consulted a social case worker. She had no pleasure in her work asseamstress. She was asked whether she had ever tried anything else. Yes, she had. She had been a cook, a lady's maid, a clerk in a store, and an operator in a factory. In none of these employments had she remained longer than a few months. Before her experience