We contemplate the future in the knowledge that we may be thwarted by colleagues or competitors, we may find we lack the talents to fulfil our chosen goals or we may steer into an inauspicious current in the swells of the market place – any failure being compounded by the possible success of peers. Anxiety is the handmaiden of contemporary ambition because livelihoods and esteem depend on at least five unpredictable elements, five reasons not to count on either attaining or holding on to a desired position within the hierarchy.
