Would you leave your job because you feel incompetent?

Dear Minister,

I was informed that you appointed me as director of the Ministry of Public Works.

I thank you for the honour you have given me, but I do not have the technical knowledge necessary for a director of Public Works and I could not, without public damage and reproach of my conscience, take off a load greater than my strength.

I therefore beg you to accept my resignation.

The letter was written in 1860 by Luigi Settembrini and published lately by Massimo Gramellini in a newspaper column.

The journalist’s thinking is the following:

few people give up a position due to incompetence
or a feeling of inadequacy, and they are not easy to find.
Especially among politicians!

However, I am pleased to point out to Gramellini that some time ago, I witnessed the resignation of a salesperson who realized that selling was not his job.

Some organizational circumstances had led him into a role that, despite himself, he had been forced to accept:

realizing that he could not withstand the pressure
and loneliness in the face of the result, he decided to give up.

He decided to look for another job before he lost that one.

The case, in my experience, is unique: and

certainly not accomplished by a person
of high hierarchy and compensation.

It would be nice if people with higher education and income, would follow his example and show as much wisdom.

What is your experience?