Page 270 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

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THE MAN WHO MASTERED FEAR 255
health, before I could take a full-time office job where
someone else was boss.
This office job brought me face to face with a prob­
lem that I had sidestepped all my adult life, lack of
training. This time I did something about it. I en­
rolled in a correspondence school that taught nothing
but accounting. With this specialized training, and a
liberal business education in the school of hard
knocks, I was able to set up shop some two years
later as an independent accountant. Seven years of
work in this field brought an opportunity to affiliate
myself actively with one of my clients, a fellow A.A.
We complement each other beautifully, as he is a born
salesman and my taste is for finance and management.
At long last I am doing the kind of work I have always
wanted to do but never had the patience and emo­
tional stability to train myself for. The A.A. program
showed me the way to come down to earth, start from
the bottom, and work up. This represents another
great change for me. In the long ago past I used to
start at the top as president or treasurer and end up
with the sheriff breathing down my neck.
So much for my business life. Obviously I have
overcome fear to a sufficient degree to think in terms
of success in business. With God’s help I am able, for
one day at a time, to carry business responsibilities
that, not many years ago, I would not have dreamed of
assuming. But what about my social life? What about
those fears that once paralyzed me to the point of my
becoming a semi-hermit? What about my fear of
travel?
It would be wonderful were I able to tell you that
my confidence in God and my application of the