Illusory ideas as to the prospects of a career,
moreover, often falsify the whole vista; and if we consider all this,
we can hardly be surprised that our total result is in many respects
hardly better than if everything were left entirely to accident. Even
on the height of a mental training to the end of adolescence, we see
how the college graduates are too often led by accidental motives to
the decision whether they shall become lawyers or physicians or
business men, but this superficiality of choice of course appears much
more strongly where the lifework is to be built upon the basis of a
mere elementary or high school education.
The final result corresponds exactly to these conditions. Everywhere,
in all countries and in all vocations, but especially in the economic
careers, we hear the complaint that there is lack of really good men.
Everywhere places are waiting for the right man, while at the same
time we find everywhere an oversupply of mediocre aspirants. This,
however, does not in the least imply that there really are not enough
personalities who might be perfectly fit even for the highest demands
of the vocations; it means only that as a matter of course the result
in the filling of positions cannot be satisfactory, if the placing of
the individuals is carried on without serious regard for the personal
mental qualities. The complaint that there is lack of fit human
material would probably never entirely disappear, as with a better
adjustment of the material, the demands would steadily increase; but
it could at least be predicted with high probability that this lack of
really fit material would not be felt so keenly everywhere if the
really decisive factor for the adjustment of personality and vocation,
namely, the dispositions of the mind, were not so carelessly ignored.
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