Knowing Our Credentials

Some credentials have a rather predictable payout. If we attend a top medical school, for instance, the outcome is fairly predictable, even if it involves little personal time, and other struggles. The same goes, for acquiring the credential of completing the attending of Navy Seal Training. However, what of the credentials that some may call Gifts? The payout for these credentials may be far more unpredictable, I would say. Consider, too, that the taking of a great set of skills in mathematics or music, and directing these toward the so-called unconventional area of humanitarian benefits, rather than personal financial benefits, can be a very rocky road, with a very unpredictable future. Even the outcome of time spent in prison, a school of its own, can have a very unpredictable outcome. For every Nelson Mandela, indeed, there are many who do not "complete the training", or who come out of it, bitter, to a degree. Some have even said that Mr. Mandela had bitterness he struggled with, after prison. It is my contention that in order to "know ourselves" well, we need to understand our credentials, even if these are somewhat painful to take a look at. It can be painful to examine the credentials that few would say are viable to even consider opting for, in the conventional sense of the word "opt".