People in the midst of career consolidation often develop a more individualistic mindset: I am the captain of my own ship, the master of my own destiny. They become better at self-control, at governing their emotions. They possess a greater ability to go against the crowd. They are able to say no to things that might distract them from their core mission. During this phase, people can appear a bit selfish and egotistical, but as George Vaillant of the Grant Study argued, “only when developmental ‘self-ishness’ has been achieved are we reliably capable of giving the self away.”
