The timid man should take inspiration from the experience of many of the world's greatest orators and actors. For the most part they at first were self-conscious men. Demosthenes, Cicero, Curran, Chalmers, Erskine, Pitt, Gladstone, Disraeli, Mirabeau, Patrick Henry, Clay, Gough, Beecher, Salvini, Henry Irving, Richard Mansfield, and many others were subject to "stage-fright." But this sensitiveness of nature, when at last controlled and intelligently directed, enabled them to reach a foremost place among distinguished men. It is said of Rufus Choate, the great lawyer, that before an important address to a jury he looked as nervous and wretched as a criminal about to be hanged. Probably every public speaker who has amounted to anything could testify to this initial feeling of nervousness or anxiety, but the cure lies in becoming so absorbed in one's subject, or the welfare of others, as to forget one's self.
Self-consciousness may arise from self conceit. The victim says to himself: "What impression am I making?" "Do I look well?" "What are they thinking and saying about me?" On the other hand, it may be due to extreme humility. Such a man says inwardly: "I am not equal to this," "I lack so many things," "If I had only been born right," "My father was bashful before me," "I shall surely fail." Natural diffidence need not necessarily be a stumbling-block to any man. It is a safeguard against rashness, familiarity, and over-confidence.
The evil of extreme self-consciousness is that it makes a man do so many things he does not wish to do. It changes his line of conduct a hundred times a day, makes him say "yes" when he would rather say "no," and, in short, robs him of his power and individuality.
When Thackeray said that sensitiveness was a great mistake in a public man, he doubtless meant that super sensitiveness by which a man loses initiative, self-reliance, and independence. A self-conscious man must sooner or later rid himself of this fault if he is to be preeminently successful. To this end the student's attention is next directed to the power of right thinking..