Where's Waldo?

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The beginning talks about how if a person focuses on the works of others instead of concentrating on what he believes, he will kill his mind by not exercising it. He won't be able to think for himself and come up with his own ideas because he will be focusing on memorizing others' ideas. Emerson says that this is a form of mental suicide. He then goes on to say that a man must take what god gives him, whatever that is and decide what to do with it. However, Emerson says that a man cannot must create his own good with what god has given him. He cannot trust the ideas of others to do good for him. He must feed his mind by creating good, intelligent works with whatever gift that god has given him. Only through this gift can he achieve true intellectual capability and function as a higher being. I believe that what Emerson is saying is true. That we must take whatever our talents may be and use them for an intelligent purpose. However, if we count on others to define the purpose of our talents for us then we are not helping to increase our mental capacity. We must use our god-given talent to strengthen ourselves instead of weakening ourselves by strengthening others.