Teen Profile: Personal Development, By Bobbi Ray

"This text has been written especially for you the young miss who is approaching the most decisive years of her life. Perhaps you have already decided what your future ambitions are and what your goals in life shoud be. Perhaps you have observed that happy, productive people are not always the ones who have been born with great wealth, an important title, or even physical attractiveness. Such assets might be helpful along the road to success, but countless men and women have overcome hardships and handicaps to make their own mark in the world without them. This is not to discredit the good that numerous men and women of wealth, talent, or outstanding physical attractiveness have done. Their gifts, contributions, and endowments have helped create a better life for all of us. Many of our educational institutions, parks, playgrounds, and museums are available to us because of generous grants from people who cared about our future. The point is, we must all begin to build our lives where we are and with what we have. When we study the lives of people who have accomplished much and who have leadership qualities, we discover that they all seem to have one outstanding attribute in common: Self-esteem. Perhaps you feel that you already know yourself, your abilities, your assets and your weaknesses. On the other hand, you may feel that you would like some additional guidelines to building your self-esteem. Self-esteem never implies an attitude of superiority. It does indicate that if you don't think well of your self, you can't expect your friends and associates to think well of you." (from foreword)