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Think and Grow Rich test: Do you find fault with others?

September 24, 2009 by JD
Filed under: Books, Self-Improvement, Success and Failure 

My answers to the Think and Grow Rich Self-Assessment Test

Recently, I was reminded of the self-assessment test in Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich.

There are fifty-four questions in that test, and I’m going to be giving my answers and thoughts on one or two of them as close to daily as I can manage. I may miss a day here or there, but I’m going to follow through until I reach the end of the test.

I’ve started the series of posts with:

Think and Grow Rich self-assessment test

Question Number 2. Do you find fault with other people easily?

On the surface, this is an easy question and I feel comfortable saying that the answer is “no.”

I do my best to look for the best in others and to encourage them to do even better.

Below the surface, however, is a mixed bag of answers.

Disillusioned as a young adult

I grew up as an idealist in an idealistic family. I really believed the things I believed, with no questions.

However, as I grew into adulthood, things got much more complex and the simple ideals and ideas no longer sufficed.

I was born in 1952 and became an “adult” in 1970. The 60s and 70s were rough on lots of people and very rough on me.

I learned that Presidents lie, police aren’t always our protectors, religions aren’t simple, and that most people “look out for number one.”

I was disturbed by all the fights related to civil rights and could not understand why we weren’t already equal, even though I grew up in the deep south with segregated water coolers and all the other signs of intolerance and hatred.

Fortunately, I never learned those things from my family.

I still get tears in my eyes when I think of the students who were killed at Kent State.

I learned lots of other things that I won’t go into here, but they shaped my outlook on life to a great extent.

Questioned everything

I didn’t just question authority, I questioned reality.

I delved deeply into religion, metaphysics, philosophy, science, and many other subjects over a twenty-year period and found many more questions than answers.

As a result, I learned not to take much of anything at face value.

The benefit of the doubt

When I met new people, I would almost always give them the benefit of the doubt. I believed I could trust them unless they proved otherwise.

Sometimes this is a good thing to do, other times it really isn’t.

I learned to be more perceptive and to trust my gut instincts more. I learned to get closer to trustworthy people and avoid the others.

This was a hard lesson for me to learn. Maybe it was easier for you. Maybe it was harder.

So, I look for the best in people unless they show me they can’t be trusted.

What does “find fault” mean?

Does it mean that we recognize others’ failures and short-comings and learn to deal with them?

Or does it mean that we go out of our way to be nit-picky and to find faults even where they may not exist?

I know people who are always gossiping about others and will tell very different stories to their face as opposed to when they are talking behind their backs.

That’s what I think of when I hear “find fault.”

For some people, it’s practically a hobby. They love finding faults in everyone they know and they’re happy to tell you all about them.

I avoid these people like the plague. I’m certainly not one of them.

Do I find fault with other people easily?

Overall, the answer is a definite “no.”

Still there are times when I don’t do as well as I would like with this.

I still think there is a difference between actively finding fault and being realistic in our appraisals of others.

Do you find fault with other people easily?

So, what do you think?

Act on your dream!

JD

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2 Comments on Think and Grow Rich test: Do you find fault with others?

  1. Mitch on Thu, 24th Sep 2009 10:59 pm

    2. You’re right, John, it’s kind of a difficult question to answer based on how it was asked. I’ll answer it this way. As I meet people in person, I’m a quick judge of character. I don’t go out of my way to find fault with people, but when the Spidey senses go off, I tend to listen after all these years. In general, though, I tend to like people, and most of them get the benefit of the doubt.

    Where I judge people is when I read the news, and let’s face it, it’s tough not to when you read about some of the stupid and absolutely terrifying things people do to others. Yes, those people I do judge, but I figure I don’t know them, and thus I have no qualms about judging them. There’s also that fine line in judging people whose beliefs are different than mine, and on that front, I work hard not to judge them on the first episode, but continuous episodes and I figure their actions are the source of my being either pleased or displeased with them.

    So, do I find fault with people easily? Overall I can say no; everyone gets a clean slate until they’ve treated me wrong, or I’ve seen something wrong. Unless they’ve been arrested, I don’t even judge most people on what I hear, unless I can hear enough to calculate what their actions are. And I have to say I feel pretty good about that.
    Mitch´s last blog ..Laws Of Attraction My ComLuv Profile

  2. JD on Sat, 26th Sep 2009 4:44 am

    3. Good morning, Mitch.

    You bring up a good point about being a “quick judge of character.”

    That’s one of the skills that I don’t have. I tend to trust people, sometimes much more than I should.

    I’ve learned to offset this by becoming more analytical and looking behind the scenes rather than taking what people tell me at face value, but I wish I was better able to get an instinctive feel for someone’s character.

    A couple of times, I was burned badly by someone and I had people close to me warning me that I was making a mistake, but I just had no sense of that being true.

    As a result of these experiences, I started thinking that all people have a dark side and if I were going to be involved with them personally or professionally, I had to find it.

    That lead me to become more cynical than I like and I’ve moved away from it over the years.

    I still give everyone the benefit of the doubt up front, but I’m a lot more careful than I used to be before I get involved with them.

    As far as judging people, I don’t think that is something I do much. The only people I really judge are the people I know personally. Either they become people I want to have more interactions with or people I plan to avoid.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

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