10/8/07 Self-Reliance

What Emerson is saying is that in order to be self-successful, you must first become self-trusted. If you cannot trust yourself, then whom can you trust? If you can't believe in yourself and your decisions, and trust yourself, then you will never get anywhere in life. If you believe you can do it, then you can. Failure is only a possibility if you think you are going to fail. So, essentially he is saying that you are setting yourself up to fail. If you do believe in yourself, then you are setting yourself up for success in other areas of life, and it gives you an idea of what you are capable of.
People will always be there for other people, but just because they believe in you, doesn't mean that they have the ability to push you forward. They just care about you, and support you, but only you are responsible for your destiny. Another note, if you don't believe in yourself, then nobody else will, because they will have no reason to believe in somebody who has no confidence in themselves.
There are things that you can control and things that you can't control. This has to be taken in to consideration, since you can't control what might happen in the future. I believe that self-trust depends on how you look at yourself, and that there won't always be someone there to boost your confidence and put your trust in. Trusting yourself gives you an advantage; it doesn't mean that everything will turn out the way you want it to.