Rumi isn't simply telling us we have untapped potential—he's suggesting that outward enchantment itself is a kind of forgetting, a deliberate turning away from something we already know is there. The real sting lies in "why," that questioning word that implies we've made a choice, perhaps even a shabby one. A person chasing external validation at work—the promotion, the corner office, the colleagues' envy—often discovers too late that the hollow feeling persists because they've been looking everywhere except at their own competence and character, which were present all along. The quote matters because it doesn't offer comfort; it offers accountability.