Great Esteem Starts with Believing in Yourself

If you wish the world to esteem you greatly – you must first greatly esteem yourself.

When Dolly Parton was approached by Elvis Presley’s longtime manager, Colonel Tom Parker, about her song “I Will Always Love You” – she was thrilled.

But there was a snag. The night before the recording session, Parker demanded that at least half of the copyright to the song be transferred to Elvis.

Parton refused: “This is the most important copyright in my whole publishing company, and I can’t do that.”

The deal with Elvis fell through and Parton was devastated.

Eighteen years later, Whitney Houston’s 1992 rendition of the song for the soundtrack of “The Bodyguard”, catapulted the song into cultural folklore.

As Parton later quipped: “When Whitney’s version came out, I made enough money to buy Graceland.”

Some put it down to Parton’s prescience, but it’s much simpler than that – it was merely the dividend owed to her for her self-belief, with 18-years of compounding.