modesty or not?

[S L Forsburg]

> From: cjfuller at mindspring.com (C.J. Fuller)

> Friends-Well, someone has to work over the holidays. One of my holiday
> projects this year is getting my reappointment dossier in order. Talk
> about pulling chickens' teeth! There is a balance between bravado and
> overt modesty, and I favor the latter, as I imagine many of you do.
> Any
> ideas about putting down everything you've done without looking as if
> you're the Messiah?

My suggestion is, don't be afraid to be aggressively self-promoting.
You get NO POINTS in this business for being modest.  I don't know
about the rest of you, but when I was growing up I remember that
any--ANY--self congratulation was met by my parents and so on as
being boastful, and was negatively reinforced. ( Do men not get
this? )  One of my hardest lessons has been learning to say,
"yeah, I did this, and I did it FIRST!" 
 
Which I still don't say often enough.  Maybe we all should sit
down at this time (year's end and all), and write a list of
major accomplishments:  what we deserve credit for!

If you put your light under a bushel, no one is
going to pay attention to you--they'll use it as an excuse 
not to notice you.  

Or perhaps I'm just cynical?


-- 
-susan
:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;
DON'T REPLY to the email address in header.
It's an anti-spam.  Use the one below.
:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;
S L Forsburg, PhD  forsburg at salk.edu
Molecular Biology and Virology Lab          
The Salk Institute, La Jolla CA 
http://flosun.salk.edu/~forsburg/lab.html
:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;
"These are my opinions.  I don't have  
time to speak for anyone else."
:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;