It is an inescapable fact of life that the higher echelons of our society are populated by the more disagreable and dysfunctional of us. Part of the reason is that these people take less responsibility for their actions and care less about the effect of their actions on others which allows them to be single minded and persistent as well as facilitate a certain clarity of thought. Over and above all that however is the expectation through innate high self esteem that they will do well. We therefore discuss sources of high self esteem and how you can manage your own expectations in life and insulate yourself from negative influence and how to deal with things if and when you fail. Failure does not define you it refines you.