Be Yourself

Three applicants were having an interview for the job of a human resource manager in a big company. Their applications were so interesting that they had been selected from 50 applicants.
Each one was received separately from the others and interviewed by a committee that was composed of three people. Each applicant answered the questions and tried one’s best to sell oneself in order to impress the interviewers. However, one question was used to make the difference between them. The question was: How do you see the meaning of : “Be yourself.”

The First one said: “be spontaneous and don’t behave as people expect you to do.”

The Second one said: show your self-confidence to reflect your strong personality.

The Third candidate presented the following perception:” be honest and don’t lie in order to impress people”.

The committee wasn’t satisfied by their answers and decided to invite other Five applicants for another interview.

In truth, the committee asked a simple question that reflected well the way of thinking of the candidates. “Be yourself” usually seems to carry a shallow meaning but it implies deep dimensions indeed.
This expression invites each person to get rid of all kinds of internal and external influences in order to behave following one’s pure convictions and independent way of thinking. The internal influences engulf our illusions, fears, whims and lies. The external influences concern all what we have received from our upbringing and informal education. Therefore, we have build some critical thinking to discover ourselves, define our ambitions, discover our flaws and worries, and build some solid way of thinking and personality.