How To Choose Your People Introduction

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Introduction — Out in the Jungle

OUT IN THE JUNGLE

I don't know what occupied your mind when you were in the early teens; but I was usually engrossed in trying to top insults with my older brothers. When I bothered to think about it at all, I expected that somewhere in the process of grow- ing up I'd learn how to choose people – how to tell the good guys from the bad ones. In the movies it was easy (those white hats); but I wasn't acquainted with any cowboys. Trustingly, however, I assumed that if the movie people recognized the difference, surely my parents and teachers knew all about people and someday would share the secrets with me. But they didn't.

I grew up, more or less, and wandered out into the jungle without knowing the difference between a tiger and teddy bear. Probably, I supposed, there aren't any tigers in real life anyway. I fell in love. Ecstatically. Deliriously. This was more exciting than devouring cotton candy or swinging on top of the Ferris wheel. One week later (through a friend of a friend) I discovered that my handsome coast guardsman had a girl back home in Chicago. They planned to marry as soon as he was out of the service.

I wept the tears that only the young know. How could he have been so de- ceitful? Why should he do this to me? And worst of all was my own betrayal of my- self: Why didn't I know he was that kind of person?

It was a dangerous jungle – and I wasn't yet prepared for it. I went to college.

I learned four or five big words. I learned to give a speech while concealing the jellyfish tremoring inside me. I learned something important (I forget just what it was now) about a thing called "pi." And I learned how to balance a teacup on my knee while mouthing inanities.

But even here, among the most well-meaning and erudite, no one could tell me how to choose my people – the people to love, hire, fire, follow, avoid befriend, leave or trust.

Out into the sophisticated world – business, social life suburbia – still no an- swers, only questions all around me: Is this really love? Which club should I join? Do I want to work for this company? Should I support this charity? Is he a true friend? How can I get the customer to buy? Will he betray me? Is this a worthy cause? Should I take this teacher's advice?

At the same time, my friends were stumbling along too. Mark meets Kathy. He falls in love. She's cute, smart, sexy. She never wears too much makeup; she's into his kind of music; she likes the same things on her pizza. Everything's going for them. Should he marry her and make little pizzas together? It appeared to me that if any tiny voice inside him posed these questions, no voice replied: How will she with- stand future family crises? Will she ooze into a puddle or keep her strength? Will she stage tearful scenes when he must work late? Will she be afraid to move out of town if he's offered an attractive transfer? Will she become a nagging harridan if he does- n't make enough money? Will she ruin their children?

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR PEOPLE 6 RUTH MINSHULL

Mark's dad is no help. He's preoccupied with his own troubles at the office: Should he hire this man? He dresses well, he's not a communist, his sideburns are no longer than the company president's and he's the nephew of an old fraternity brother. On paper, he looks good. But how will he perform on the job? Can he work on his own initiative? Is he an idea man or a plodder? Will he inspire people or crush them? Can he follow through? Will he carry out orders correctly or make costly bungles? Will he pull or drag?

I wasn't the only one wondering: how do you figure people out?

Early in 1951 a close friend save me a book called Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, by an American writer and philosopher, L. Ron Hubbard (who later founded the international Church of Scientology). This enlightening book exposed the major cause and remedy of man's miseries. In addition, however, Ron Hubbard also reported his first research in an entirely new field of study: the classification and prediction of human behavior. Later in 1951 he published Science of Survival in which he expanded on this new science. Reading the book, I was amazed to learn that this man stripped off all social veneer and predicted exactly what to expect from any individual. He so thoroughly unmasked all the beasts of the jungle (yes, even the tigers in teddy bear clothing) that I was shaken and gratified at the same time.

I've been acquainted with this material now for twenty-one years (a nodding acquaintance for the first seven years and a close one for the last fourteen). I use it in business and in personal life and find it consistently accurate and reliable. The only times it "failed" me were when I failed to use it.

In this book I'd like to share my experiences in using Ron Hubbard's data. When you finish you will know how to evaluate people correctly, what you can ex- pect of them, and what to do about it all.

Of course, you are already sizing people up (with greater or lesser success), so much of the material will be no surprise; you'll recognize it.

Other ideas, however, depart so radically from accepted social theories that even if you discovered them yourself, you may have repressed them. They don't quite conform to what we heard in Sunday school or at Mother's knee. They punc- ture some of our most comfortable, but weary, platitudes.

I found out (and so will you) that the sweet, smiling person who never, never loses his temper is in worse shape than the man who occasionally flies into a rage, that the compulsive do-gooder is more destructive than the aggressive scoundrel who only looks out for himself, that the person who never cries (but accepts every loss as his "cross to bear") is nearer death than one who sobs. Don't take my word for all this. Read the material. Observe for yourself.

When you finish, I hope you'll agree that once we possess adequate equip- ment to survive, exploring the jungle can be quite fun after all.