My Great Grandfather, Gustavus Sylvester Kimball (1860–1937) was an American educator, commercial-school administrator, and author. He served as principal of the commercial department at Ohio Wesleyan University from 1884 to 1888 and was later associated with Albion Commercial College in Michigan. He wrote practical instructional works including Kimball’s Business Speller and Kimball’s Business English, as well as Gaining the Round Above: A Guide to Personal Efficiency. His writings reflect the early twentieth-century movement toward disciplined business training, clear communication, and personal efficiency.
Generational Faith and Wisdom are things I wish to leave as a legacy and ran across my Grandfather’s book in a special “Legacy Reprint Series” because of it’s culturally importance. As a person committed to protecting, preserving and promoting trustworthy literature, I have transcribed the body of work for many to enjoy and hope to hear back from any of my Kimballs in the process.
http://www.coveritwithlove.com
GAINING THE ROUND ABOVE
A Guide to Personal Efficiency
By
GUSTAVUS S. KIMBALL, digital copy here by his Great Granddaughter, April Kimball Healy
“The king is the man who can.”
[Author’s] Dedication
To the many students who have been under my instruction during the past thirty-six years and whose lives have been an inspiration to me in preparing these essays.
Contents
I. Know Thyself
II. What Is Success?
III. Character and Habits
IV. Education
V. Ambition
VI. Courage and Honesty
VII. Making the Most of Opportunities
VIII. Learn to Be Thorough and Accurate
IX. Friends and Environments
X. The Charm of Civility
XI. Tact, Talent and Genius
XII. The Effect of Good Clothes
XIII. The Use of Time
XIV. Money, the Golden Yardstick
XV. The Devil of Debt
XVI. A Tragedy of the Sea
XVII. Some Must-Be’s for the Would-Be Successful
XVIII. Twelve Business Maxims
XIX. Rothschild’s Rules for Success
XX. Charles M. Schwab’s Rules for Success
XXI. Philip D. Armour’s Rules for Success
[Author’s] Foreword
These little essays on success have grown out of the author’s long experience with young people who have desired to make their lives successful and useful. The thoughts which they contain are not altogether new, but they are fundamental and should be of especial interest to every young person who desires true success in life. It is hoped that their perusal may remove some of the wrong conceptions of what constitutes success. If it does they will have met their purpose.
Every age has testified to the fact that there are no fixed rules for success. The man who succeeds is the man who brings to a successful termination every minute undertaking of each day’s activity. His life is made up of a myriad of successes and is hedged about by mysterious laws of its own.
I. Know Thyself
Most powerful is he who has himself in his power. — Seneca
How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then thou shalt know what is in thee. — Goethe
In conversation once with a learned and distinguished educator the question was asked him, what would you do if you had your life to live over? His reply was: “First, I would be a better man; second, I would know more and study more carefully to know my capabilities; and third, I would cultivate public speaking.”
Without underestimating the force of the first or third thought here expressed, the second should be uppermost in the mind of every young person starting out in life to make a career for himself.
It is a great day in a man’s life when he begins to discover his capabilities and what it is possible for him to achieve. It is often true that we have latent capacities greater than we suspect and which often lie dormant until some sudden awakening reveals them to us. Hence, every person should study to know himself and what he is best adapted for in life. He should take stock of himself, as it were, for a knowledge of his limitations and possibilities is worth much to him.
He must, in a sense, interpret and judge of his own capacities from a study of the lives of other men. History is full of the records of the acts of men who discovered somewhat of their own capacity; but history has yet to record the man who fully discovered all he might have been. It must be remembered, however, that every man in this world is created differently from every other, and the success which some achieve does not appeal to all alike. The success of some means nothing to others.
The interpretation of life’s meaning and vocation reveals itself to us in what we enjoy, the books we read, the company we keep, to what our tastes lead us; hence these should not be overlooked in selecting an occupation, and in deciding what our life work should be.
A good mechanic has often been spoiled to make a poor clergyman or merchant, and a good minister has been spoiled to make a commonplace artisan. Overlooking the “natural bent,” the youth has selected an occupation for which he has no special aptitude, and he brings little to pass.
Many notable examples are on record of men, with strong minds, who have shown their natural aptitude very early in life. Dr. Watts, when a boy, had a propensity for rhyming which was irresistible. His father became disgusted with his habit in this direction, and finally proceeded to expel it from his soul by a flogging. In the midst of the punishment, with the tears running down his cheeks, young Watts cried out:
“Dear father do some pity take,
And I will no more verses make.”
His father wisely concluded to let the boy become a poet if he chose to do so, for what was bred in the bone could not be expelled with the rod.
A study of the early lives of Benjamin West, Sir John Franklin, Smeaton the English engineer, and scores of others all reveal the wisdom of selecting a vocation for which we seem most naturally fitted. The aptitudes of most young people are not generally so manifest, for it sometimes requires years of waiting to discover one’s bent.
The first years of every man’s business or professional life are years of education. They are intended to be in the order of nature and Providence. Doors do not open to a man until he is prepared to enter them, for really we are only valuable, in the best sense, to the business world, to the community about us when we have grasped life’s full meaning and have gained poise of character, power and self-control.
Every person then should find out from his tastes for what he is best adapted, what he desires to do and then do it with the bravery and enthusiasm which belongs to youth. However, a full knowledge of his gifts should reveal to him that he should not attempt the impossible, for this would only invite defeat.
The cause of the failures in life in ninety-nine cases, however, is in the man himself; he has not started right, the poor fellow has not had the choice of his parents, or his education has been faulty, or he has fallen away to the worship of strange gods, Baal or Ashtaroth, or worse still, Bacchus. But after all, the killing vice is laziness.
The young man may have worked hard at college, but the years of probation may have been his ruin. Some habit may have fixed itself upon him which may have entirely unfitted him for the sharp competitions of life. There is no greater test of a man’s strength than to make him mark time in the “stand and wait” years.
I will admit that to the young man making his entrance upon active life, with great ambitions and high hopes, the situation sometimes seems most perplexing. Every avenue seems thronged with their superiors in experience and social advantages.
It is related of Mr. Webster that when a young lawyer suggested to him that the profession to which he had devoted himself was overcrowded, the great man replied:
“Young man, there is always room at the top.”
There is always room enough where excellence lives. Mr. Webster was not troubled for lack of room.
Occasionally a man of superlative merit is neglected but it is because he lacks that most essential gift, the knowledge of how to use his gifts, or the ability to discover his latent capacities. Then finally, to succeed, we must become imbued with our possibilities, with a faith in the thing we wish to accomplish and an enthusiasm for it.
If we cannot look upon the vocation we have chosen for ourselves as a great unfolding, enlarging, cultivating, educating, elevating process—the results of which could come in no other possible way—we have made a very poor guess at life’s riddle.
How do men conquer life under its most forbidding aspects? By accepting life’s challenge in the spirit of the hero, and availing themselves of the stimulus that is born of overcoming. Let no young person say that the conditions of life are too hard to allow him to achieve what he would like to achieve.
To the valiant soul the greatness of an obstacle is only a measure of the greatness of achievement that is possible through overcoming it.
II. What Is Success?
Any fool can tumble into the gutter, any fool can make a good living, or even become wealthy, but it requires God’s best gold to make a true success in life. — Canon Farrar
One writer says, “Success in life consists in the proper and harmonious development of those faculties which God has given us.” Accepting this definition as true success then must come through education, training, discipline, self-possession, and self-command which all go to make up the man. The man who does not sow shall not reap. The youth who makes the most of himself and his opportunities is successful, though he may not amass a fortune, become learned, or achieve notable distinction.
The meaning of success is undergoing a change in these latter days. We are beginning to see that the ideal life, the life of success, is the well rounded life with broad views, broad culture, broad sympathies and broad purposes for good. True success then, means putting our best muscle, brain and heart into our work though the returns may not come tomorrow, next month or next year. But rest assured in an ever abiding faith, they will come some day with a profound happiness that words will not fully describe when we feel the thrills that accompany the fulfillment of our desires.
The man with five talents and small opportunities may improve them so as to be of more real service to mankind than one having ten unimproved talents. The former is more successful than the latter. In this broader view “business loses rank as an end and becomes a means to an end—a livelihood, a field of activity, and a school for the development of character and mental vigor.” Upon this basis, which is the only true basis, success may come in any position in life and to every one, and it is not to be measured by fame, wealth, or position.
To insure success a man must have physical ability to sustain a much-worked brain, so as to keep mind and body in a good, healthy condition. To accomplish great things we must have a strong, vigorous life force, a powerful vitality. The man who does the most and best work is the man who successfully combines work and rest periods. Disregard for the laws of nature which lie at the very foundation of nervous vitality and brain-power, such as the use of stimulants and narcotics, and the denial of needed rest and recreation, must result in impairment. Some of the world’s best brain is daily destroyed by the reckless disregard of nature’s laws.
We sometimes hear it said when one has attained great success, “Oh! he or she has been lucky.” No, good fortune and success do not come by accident; if you inquire into the circumstances that have led to the success of any individual of your acquaintance, you will find that legitimate means are back of that success. A manufacturer in Philadelphia lately told this story of one of his superintendents:
“Twelve years ago a boy applied to me for work. He was employed at low wages. Two days later the awards of premiums were made to manufactories at a recent exhibition.
“Passing down Chestnut Street early in the morning I saw Bob poring over the bulletin-board in front of a newspaper office. Suddenly he jerked off his cap with a shout.
“‘What’s the matter?’ some one asked.
“‘We have taken a medal for sheetings!’ he exclaimed.
“I said nothing, but kept my eye on Bob. The boy who could identify himself in two days with my interest would be of use to me hereafter.
“His work was to deliver packages. I found that he took a real pride in it. His wagon must be cleaner, his horse better fed, his orders filled more promptly than those of the men belonging to any other firm. He was as zealous for the house as though he had been a partner in it. I have advanced him step by step. His fortune is made, and the firm have added to their capital so much energy and force.”
To succeed then we must have faith in something, and enthusiasm for something just as this young lad had. To have faith, we must have knowledge, training, practice. We must have something more than belief—we must have confidence, assurance, clearsightedness as seeing the end from the beginning. We must have head and heart in our work—we must feel that our work is our life-preserver, and be willing to work in the imperative mode, until every faculty and function works easily without special supervision or thought; and so work until it is easier to succeed than fail. Then we may be reasonably sure of success. Do not trust to the development of genius, or you will be disappointed. Genius is the child of Pluck and Plod. Your success will vary with the power and extent in which you focus your energies upon your life-work. Then your one talent, if it be one, will be changed from a whirl of sparks to a tongue of fire.
Some one fittingly remarks: “There are degrees of success. There is the highest round of the ladder, and there is the next to it. He who cannot reach the former may reach the latter. A young man may become a successful merchant, though he may not be a Wanamaker; he may be eminent in the legal profession, though he may not become a Webster; he may make a superior mechanic, though not able to manufacture a piano. Arkwright made the spinning-jenny, but he could not make a watch; Morse invented the telegraph, but we had to wait for Edison to give us the phonograph. The French proverb says, ‘A man may shine in the second rank who would be eclipsed in the first.’”
But, after all, the young man who is really in earnest will not have to be advised how to succeed, or what success is. He may learn much by studying the failures of others, however, and he will always find, after the survey of the great legion of the unsuccessful, that certain causes led to it. It will generally be found that the sting of failure lies in the knowledge that we have not done our best. If we spared effort, or neglected opportunities, or failed to come to the realization of the importance of the moment, then failure is bitter indeed. But the doing of one’s best is victory so vast, that the mere falling short in realizing one’s efforts cannot alter it. That is the only true success.
III. Character and Habits
Character is not a cut in marble; it is not something solid and unalterable. It is something living and changing, and may become diseased as our bodies do. — George Eliot
Life is constantly weighing us in very sensitive scales, and telling every one of us precisely what his real weight is to the last grain of dust. — Lowell
Character is strength of mind, individuality; the principles and motives that control the life. Someone has wisely likened character building to sowing and reaping—sow a thought and you reap an act; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character. This is true of both good and evil. Thought is an embryo action; give it time and it will mature itself. Entertain it, and it will return again, until nothing but a determined effort of the will can prevent it from acting itself out, for character is ultimately a habit; its base rests on countless small achievements, and hence “any so-called ‘secret of success’ which ignores the moral foundation is either superficial or unsafe.”
Character is the one power in the world that will make itself felt. There may be little culture and slender abilities, yet if there be a character of sterling excellence, it will secure influence and demand respect. Joseph’s integrity made him a slave and a prisoner at first, but it made him a prince in the end. More men fail through lack of principle than from any other cause. A man of character is a man organized, armed, equipped, and in full possession of himself; a man who has looked life courageously in the face, and accepted its yoke, learned its lessons, and entered into the peace that comes with strength—the only peace attainable in this world.
Money, power and brains have their place, and they do exert an influence in temporarily deciding a man’s position and recognition. But the standard of the ages, by which any one and every one is tried, is character; and in God’s sight, which is the final and determining sight, men are what they are in their wishes and purposes. It is not, then, too much to say that the supreme ambition of a person’s life should be to secure a worthy character. Everything else, however important it may seem, is merely subsidiary. Beauty of person, brilliancy of achievement, acuteness of intellect, sway of authority, are secondary, while goodness is primary.
Honorable Stephen Allen, one of the most eminent and useful citizens of New York, perished on the steamer “Henry Clay” which was burned on the Hudson river. In his pocket was found printed rules by which he had been guided, and among them the following:
“Good character is above all things else. Never be idle. If your hands cannot be usefully employed, attend to the cultivation of your mind. Your character cannot be essentially injured except by your own acts. Make no haste to be rich if you would prosper. Never play at any kind of game of chance. Earn money before you spend it. Live within your income. If anyone speaks evil of you, let your life be such that none will believe him.”
These qualities are substantially found in the career of every successful person; and there is success in even the humblest occupation for him who will pay the price.
George Peabody, the great American banker and philanthropist of London, once said to young people:
“Bear in mind that to be truly great it is not necessary that you should gain wealth and importance. Steadfast and undeviating truth, fearless and straightforward integrity, and an honor ever unsullied by an unworthy word or action make their possessor greater than worldly success or prosperity. These qualities constitute true greatness.”
When Sir Thomas More refused to give up his honest convictions, though commanded to do so by Henry the Eighth, there were those who told him that it would cost him his position, possibly his life, though he was Lord Chancellor of England. And he said:
“The king may have his lord chancellorship. I am glad to be rid of the lord chancellorship, but there is one thing the king cannot have, and that is Thomas More’s conscience.”
And Thomas More went to London Tower and from there to the guillotine rather than perjure his conscience.
Character is reflected in work. Do your best then, not because your work is worth it, but because you are. Whatever you are doing you are making manhood. Half-hearted work makes only half a man. Slipshod methods mean loose principles. The only way to keep character up to the standard is by continually living up to the highest standard in all that you do, for no one ever falls into good habits by accident. Industry, perseverance, self-control, and their kind are acquired only by an effort.
IV. Education
The best education in the world is that got by struggling to get a living. — Wendell Phillips
The true order of learning should be first, what is necessary; second, what is useful; and third, what is ornamental. To reverse this arrangement is like beginning to build at the top of the edifice. — Mrs. Sigourney
Someone has said: “The most difficult thing in the world to contend against is ignorance, and our own is the most troublesome of all.”
Education is power; the knowledge of how to use the whole of one’s self. Discipline regulates but education stimulates, develops and quickens the mental faculties. It helps to systematize and furnish the ability to prosecute a given thing to a successful termination. It should give a man the power to devote his faculties intently to matters which of themselves do not interest him. If a man is to make anything whatever out of a matter of this kind he must concentrate his powers on it by a “strenuous act of voluntary attention,” and it is precisely this faculty of voluntary attention which education can most surely cultivate. Native ability is essential, and all the more important is it if backed by education.
By education I do not mean necessarily a college education, and yet this is perhaps the quickest and surest way for a young person today to acquire that mental discipline by which he may retain and properly use information. This is education in its broadest sense. I would not imply by this that a college education is essential to business success, neither should it be considered as in any way detrimental. A person might know the size of the largest city, the height of the tallest mountain peak, etc., and yet not be educated. Education is a developing of the mind that the recipient may be the better able to grasp things, not a stuffing of the memory; hence this developing process may be acquired outside the schoolroom as well as in it. Perhaps it may be safely said that the most highly educated men are those who have been the most resolute in their encounter with difficulties and who perhaps have never had the advantages of a college education.
However, I would advise the young man who expects to enter upon a business career to secure a good college education if it is possible for him to do so, and most emphatically would I advise it if he expects to enter upon one of the so-called learned professions, for ignorance will close many doors of opportunity to the professional man who lacks this training. His knowledge is his stock in trade for he deals in brain products. His head is his work-shop. Education is that which marks the distinction between men more than anything else. Not only in their social position, but in their business, in everything that marks progress in the life of individuals. The well educated person has a power that the ignorant person cannot well attain to.
To the young man who looks forward to a trade as a life-work simply, by all means pursue a high school course of study and then secure a technical education along the line of your chosen work. The wisdom of this need not be argued. Men should be so educated that if they found no room in a certain industry, they could turn their hand to something else. Of course geniuses may succeed anyway but it is not given to all to be geniuses, to soar to the highest peaks and look down from the eyrie of fame on the rest of the world plodding along in the valleys of the Commonplace. Geniuses are few, but really great men and women are common enough, and what makes them great? The power to do things, to make the world better, to benefit and elevate their kind. They are the people who keep ideals in sight and who work, and work hard to attain them.
In a certain sense each day’s experience may be a college to us if we use it rightly for after all what is better than the school of experience?
“No, I don’t think that I can trust you to wipe the tumblers,” said a mother to a small daughter whose desire to be helpful sometimes outran her ability, “You know you broke one yesterday.”
“But, mamma,” exclaimed the small woman in a tone of gentle reproof, “I’m a whole day older than I was yesterday, so of course I can do better.”
The young girl’s philosophy is the secret of a successful life. As we grow older we should grow wiser, more helpful, more trustworthy. Experience should mean efficiency. Every day lived should make us able to do more and better work. The day that has not taught us something, that has not fitted us for a more difficult task, has been wasted.
V. Ambition
The tallest trees are most in the power of the winds, and ambitious men of the blasts of fortune. — William Penn
If you ask me which is the real hereditary sin of human nature, do you imagine I shall answer—pride, or luxury, or ambition, or egotism? No, I shall say indolence. Who conquers indolence will conquer all the rest. — Zimmerman
Laziness and lack of ambition are the main defects in many a man’s career. The indolent or lazy man never succeeded, simply because it is utterly impossible for laziness to accomplish anything. Those who fail lack that bull-dog pluck and determination to win at any cost.
The world will conquer or yield to us as we make it; it may be our master or our servant as we will. The doors it opens to us, whether we recognize it or not, will be the doors at which we have knocked—courage, friendship, usefulness, high endeavor, or defeat and bitterness.
Many of the circumstances of our lives we cannot change, but the account to which they shall be turned it is ours to decide. Let it be understood at starting, that the patient conquest of difficulties which rise in the regular and legitimate channels of business and enterprise is not only essential in securing the success which we seek, but is necessary to that preparation of mind requisite for the enjoyment of our success, and for retaining it when gained.
It is the rule of Providence that the process of earning success shall be the preparation for its conversion and enjoyment. So, day after day, work on, and, in that process, gain strength and symmetry, and nerve, and knowledge.
No better advice was ever given to a young person than that conveyed in the homely phrase of Emerson’s, “Hitch your wagon to a star.” Question men who have achieved success and you will find that in each individual case the start was made toward some objective point so high that at times it seemed altogether unattainable.
The tendency to persevere, to persist in spite of hindrances, discouragements and impossibilities; it is this that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.
Ambitions are made, and we ourselves are the makers. Nothing is a more decisive factor in destiny than the ambition in the heart. Gifts are vain without it. The right sort of ambition will lift its possessor from ignorance and poverty into a place of honor and usefulness, while the one who does not aspire stays down in spite of education, social position, talents and influential friends to raise him to the place where he belongs.
Ambition makes the man, and man makes his ambition. Each one decides his own destiny.
Years ago a poor young man who was serving as an apprentice to a New England farmer read the life of a Henry Wilson which so inspired him he resolved that he would be like him. After completing his eleven years of apprenticeship he learned the shoemaker’s trade, and in two years he had earned enough money to attend school.
On reaching manhood he asked the legislature of his native state to change his name to that of Henry Wilson. The loss of some money through the insolvency of a friend forced him to return to the shoe business again. This time he established a prosperous manufactory.
Becoming interested in politics he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, re-elected; and then to the state senate and afterwards became prominent as a political leader and a close student of public affairs. In 1872 he was nominated on the Republican ticket with General Grant and elected Vice-President of the United States.
Doubtless to those familiar with the life of this aspiring boy it seemed just as practicable at that time for him to “hitch his wagon to a star” as to accomplish the distinguished service for his country that he did.
A very wise man once said: “Seest thou a man diligent in business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before”—that is, shall not be ranked with—“mean men.”
Of course all this could not have been accomplished in the life of Henry Wilson had he not possessed inherent ability and a strong natural talent.
God distributes talents and opportunities unequally, but there are certain great principles of life which, adopted by any human being, makes toward success. The two great factors in attaining success in any calling in life are: first, know your business; second, work. The greatest drawback to success is idleness. Nothing worth while is accomplished without work, and plenty of it.
Things do not happen without a cause. We may not always have our ambitions gratified in a material sense, as doubtless they will be frequently sidetracked, but it ought not daunt our courage. And it matters not so much what one’s work may be; for what better inspiration can the young man take with him for his career than the assurance that in the long run the Genius of Life does in very truth build happiness and usefulness out of the same material.
Then too, in doing our work, we need not sacrifice our real self, our happiness and welfare. It is not well to idealize the strenuous life as a life of hustling, which must spell failure unless it lead to the external rewards commonly called “success.” We cannot spare any of the types of noble living. There is room for them all.
There are a good many things worth having which the young man can well afford to give up gladly, but he will miss it if he lets go his grip on the things that make for his character, his happiness, and consequently his success.
VI. Courage and Honesty
The world is so corrupt that a reputation for honesty is acquired by not doing wrong. — De Lisle
The brave man is not he who feels no fear, for that were stupid and irrational; but he whose noble soul its fear subdues, and bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from. — Joanna Baillie
By courage we mean the spirit to begin, and the determination to pursue what has been begun; to do that which is right at all hazards and at any cost.
The greater part of the courage that is needed in the world, however, is not of a heroic kind. Courage may be displayed in everyday life as well as on heroic fields of action. The common need is for courage to be honest, courage to resist temptation, courage to speak the truth, courage to be what we really are, and not to pretend to be what we are not, courage to live honestly within our means, and not dishonestly upon the means of others.
Honesty should set every question at rest between man and man. It is more important than money, greatness, or wisdom. Sir Benjamin Rudyard once said: “No man is bound to be rich or great—no, nor to be wise; but every man is bound to be honest.”
Honesty succeeds; dishonesty fails. The world never needed uncompromising honesty more than it does today; a rising generation of young people who are faithful to the trust which is imposed upon them.
There are many records which crown fidelity. I give only one illustration which might be repeated and intensified in the lives of many young people everywhere. In one of the large railroad offices in this country is a comparatively young man, who is at the head of a large department. When he entered the service of the company a few years ago, he was green and awkward. He was given the poorest paid work in the department.
The very first day of his employment by the company, a man who had been at work in the same room for six years approached him and gave him a little advice:
“Young fellow, I want to put a few words in your ear that will help you. This company is a soulless corporation that regards its employees as so many machines. It makes no difference how hard you work or how well. So you want to do just as little as possible and retain your job. That’s my advice. This is a slave pen, and the man who works overtime or does any especially fine work wastes his strength. Don’t you do it.”
The young man thought over the advice, and after a quiet little struggle with himself he decided to do the best and the most he could, whether he received any more pay from the company or not.
At the end of the year the company raised his wages and advanced him to a more responsible position. In three years he was getting a third more salary than when he began, and in five years he was head clerk in the department; and the man who condescended to give the greenhorn “advice” was working under him at the same figure that represented his salary eleven years before.
For such honesty every business firm in the country is in search, such a person others want, are on the hunt for, because they are sure they can be trusted.
What a shining illustration of this is Abraham Lincoln! Finding him always faithful in any situation, notwithstanding every obstacle or difficulty, people came to have limitless trust in him. How, more and more, this confidence of others in him, constantly increasing as his unswerving fidelity shone out, strengthened him for great service. It would have been impossible for Mr. Lincoln to have done what he did if people had come to doubt him because they had discovered him to be lacking in fidelity.
Sometimes a young man says, “I don’t care what anybody says; I am going to do just as I please.” And he heedlessly plunges on into the doing of those things which lessen the confidence of others in him. Then soon he begins to wonder why he does not get on. The reason is plain—by foolish, outward doing he has lessened the confidence of others in him.
Never lightly esteem this confidence of others in you. Win confidence and hold it by being faithful.
Don’t take the man who succeeds in business—makes money and spends it in extravagance and self-indulgence, or hoards it in miserly selfishness, as your ideal. The things that seem to be his pleasure are, indeed, only the enemies of true happiness.
Goodness and true happiness cannot be found apart. Admire and imitate the good man who is known in business as the honest man, in social life as the man of principle, generous and true, in the home as the kind and just parent, the beloved and respected head of the household.
Exalt moral courage—the courage to do right when tempted, to stand for that which is good, far above that mere physical courage which man shares with the nobler of the brutes. Esteem strength and character above strength of body.
Strive to grow up to be men of moral force, of true principles, of integrity that can be relied upon, of generous impulses and of high and pure purposes. These things will win true success, real happiness, and the honor and esteem of your fellow men.
VII. Making the Most of Opportunities
There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. — Shakespeare
Opportunity makes the man and the fortune, provided man is educated to take advantage of the opportunity. It comes sooner or later to every one, but rare is the man who is ready to seize it. It is not luck or natural brilliancy which puts one man so far ahead of his fellows in places of trust and honor. You will find he achieved his success by educated and well-directed energy. For the well equipped man the best prizes of life are not hard to obtain because so few can grasp them; but even if the competition was severe, to the resolute, this should sharpen his efforts rather than weaken them.
Is it possible for the man of ordinary abilities to attain success today? Most emphatically, yes. Never in the history of this country were there greater opportunities, but what the world demands are men of character and preparation. Garfield as a boy built his character. On the tow path, in Hiram and Williams colleges he made his preparation. In the halls of Congress and the presidential chair he found his opportunity. Success in life comes when man sees his opportunity and has the courage to use it. Joseph’s opportunity was when he stood before the king. He used it wisely, boldly—but not too boldly—and went out a prince.
Most men who fail, fail not because they have lacked opportunity, but either because they have not recognized it when it passed, or have been unequipped for it. Joseph was always ready. As a slave he saw his opportunity to govern the house of his master, and he did so; as a prisoner he saw his opportunity to go to the head of the prison and to assume control of the prison, and he did so. Even when such an unexpected event came as telling of a dream he was ready to explain it. To be ready is to be great.
“So much we might accomplish; yet we stand
Day after day and meekly hold a hand
For manna falling from the skies,
When all life’s field untilled around us lies.”
It is the great worker, the man who is alert for chances, that sees them. Some people become so opportunity-blind that they cannot see chances anywhere—they would pass through a gold mine without noticing anything precious—while others will find opportunities in the most barren and out-of-the-way places.
Bunyan found opportunity in prison to write the greatest allegory in the world. Paxton, the architect of the Crystal Palace, was a gardener in the service of the Duke of Devonshire. When the committee advertised for plans of a building for the famous exhibition of 1851, Paxton saw his opportunity, and embraced it. His plans were so novel and suitable that they were adopted at once, thus distancing all his professional competitors. By close study and persistent trial, in leisure moments by night and day, he prepared himself to seize this opportunity, and make the most of it. It made him Sir Joseph Paxton.
Our grand business then is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. I read not long ago of an office boy, red headed, freckled and grotesquely homely. His features seemed to be a joke that nature had perpetrated on him in his defenseless infancy. To have loved him would have meant to turn topsy-turvy every tenet of the law of affection. It would have proved that love takes no notice of looks. Maybe he was unloved, but as an office boy his name was Johnny, and he was always at his work. He reached the office first in the morning and he had his lunch with him. He stayed in the office lunch hour and kept busy. He found something to do every minute of every day, and he did not keep union hours.
The man who paid the salaries for that business and worried about short receipts and heavy disbursements—who really knew no business hours—soon noticed that whenever he called the office there was someone there to respond. Early or late, noon hour or holiday, ever and always the same voice greeted him. He called the office one holiday and Johnny answered the telephone.
“Why are you there today, Johnny?” said the proprietor.
“Oh, I had some work to do and I thought something important might turn up,” answered the boy.
That was the reason he was there. He was doing his work, waiting for an opportunity to further the interests of the business.
Do you suppose a boy like that, working for a business man of average intelligence would be permitted to quit? Do you suppose he would have to go out on a strike to get an increase in salary? Don’t you know that that kind of service commands the highest salary that the business will justify, and ultimately reaches the highest pinnacle of success that pertinacious, intelligent effort can achieve? Do you know that everywhere the business man is seeking for efficient and reliable workmen, and they are the ones who are quickly advanced in place and salary?
VIII. Learn to Be Thorough and Accurate
Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. — Emerson
Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty. — Nathaniel Hawthorne
It is not always the exceptional man, but the average man who does everything thoroughly, who gains the round above. He is the one who is sought after everywhere because he is a rare article. His employers are perfectly willing to promote him if they only can find him. The fact is, the great majority of men do not do things thoroughly. They do not take pains to do them exactly right. They think it is good enough if they only get them nearly right. But the man who does his work just a little better than the average is the man who gets ahead.
Thoroughness and accuracy are among the first essentials to success. No matter what your occupation may be, whether high or low, whether it brings you little or much compensation, do your work in the best possible way. Do it so well that it shall be a pleasure to you and a satisfaction to those for whom it is done.
The habit of accuracy is a habit which, once formed, will go with you through life. It is not a gift which some have and others have not. It is a habit. It is the result of attention, of care, of painstaking effort. The boy who slights his lesson, the clerk who guesses at his figures, the mechanic who measures carelessly, the stenographer who transcribes hastily and incorrectly, are all forming habits which will some day stand in the way of their advancement.
A man may have much ability, but if he is inaccurate, people soon lose confidence in him. They cannot trust his statements, his figures, his measurements, his reports. He may mean well, but meaning well is not enough. The world demands results, and results must be dependable.
It has been said that “genius is the infinite capacity for taking pains.” Whether or not this is a complete definition of genius, it is certainly a good definition of success. The successful man is the man who takes pains. He is not content with a surface knowledge. He goes to the bottom of things. He does not stop when he knows a little; he keeps on until he knows enough to do his work well.
The habit of doing things thoroughly begins in little things. The boy who sweeps a room thoroughly, who puts his tools away in order, who keeps his books neatly, who writes his exercises carefully, who is exact in his daily duties, is laying the foundation for success. The girl who does her household tasks carefully, who is prompt, neat, orderly, and accurate, is acquiring qualities that will be valuable in every relation of life.
There is a vast difference between the person who does a thing and the person who does it well. Many people are willing to do enough to get by. They are willing to appear to work, but not willing to put their whole mind and heart into their work. They are satisfied with mediocrity. But mediocrity never gains the round above. It stays where it is.
The world is full of half-done work. It is full of men and women who are nearly capable, nearly trustworthy, nearly efficient. They almost succeed. They almost win confidence. They almost reach the place for which they are fitted. But the little lack of thoroughness, the little habit of inaccuracy, the little disposition to shirk detail, keeps them down.
No one can afford to despise details. Great results are made up of small details well done. A bridge is safe because every bolt is in its place. A business is prosperous because every account is correct. A reputation is built because every act is faithful. A character is strong because every little duty has been honestly met.
Train yourself, therefore, to be exact. Do not guess when you can know. Do not say “about” when you can say precisely. Do not leave a task until it is finished. Do not excuse careless work by saying that it is only a small matter. Small matters are the training school of life.
The person who is thorough may not rise rapidly at first. He may seem slow beside the careless person who works hastily and showily. But in the long run he will be preferred. He will be trusted. He will be called upon when important work is to be done. For trust is one of the greatest rewards of accuracy.
There is no better habit for a young person to form than the habit of finishing. Do not leave loose ends. Do not begin many things and complete none. Finish the task before you. Finish it well. Then pass on to the next. The power to finish is one of the marks of efficiency.
If you would gain the round above, learn to be thorough. Learn to be accurate. Put conscience into your work. Put character into the smallest duty. The world has room for the person who can be depended upon, and the person who can be depended upon is the person who does things right.
IX. Friends and Environments
Whatever the number of a man’s friends, there will be times in his life when he has one too few. — Bulwer-Lytton
Sunshiny weather is no proof of the umbrella; nor is prosperity a proof of the friend. It takes trouble and disappointment and hard luck and misfortune to bring the true friend to the front and send the acquaintance to the woods. — Owen Moore
We cannot progress very far nor can we live happily or profitably without human co-operation. Companionship is a leading force in life, and friends are a business asset which we cannot afford to overlook and therefore essential to every business achievement. They should be chosen with the utmost care for friends we must have. What kind should we have? Certainly those who would help and not hinder our progress, for a man is sometimes more harmed than helped by his friends, especially if they hedge him in with their notions of what he ought to do.
We are too prone nowadays to mistake acquaintances for friends, and very often—more’s the pity—we mistake friends for acquaintances. We may think it a good thing to be rich and have the friends which wealth will certainly bring us, but it is far better to be beloved of many friends independent of wealth for we may lose the latter and in the losing, lose our friends. Mistaken friendships are the explanation of many a ruined life. Then we should choose our friends with a view to increasing our strength rather than diminishing it. The only proof of friendship is in the hour of misfortune or financial distress—from whatever cause these may come. You will then find that the average man’s friendship depends altogether on what you can do for him, not what he can do for you. The man who boasts many friends, as a rule, has never undergone serious trouble. D’Urfey once said: “Friendships which are born in misfortune are more firm and lasting than those which are found in happiness.”
Every young man should study to know the difference between character and brilliancy in the selection of his friends, for it very often happens that friendships are formed by accident, not by mature purpose. Every man is likely to have some friend whom he admires very much; and many young men have been ruined because they came under the influence of some dashing associate who led them into ways of evil, for it is true that “Evil communications corrupt good manners” and we become like those with whom we associate. I read a newspaper article not long since on the power of environment from the pen of Walter Williams which seems very appropriate here. He bids us take note that the power of selection belongs to us, and that the wise selection of people makes for man’s highest good. Continuing he says:
“It is a trite and truthful saying that man is known by the company he keeps. It is as truthful, if not so trite, that the company helps to make the man we know. We permit people to be selected for us by circumstances rather than do our own selecting. Few people deliberately make selections of companions. We are more careful regarding the choice of food that feeds the body than our friends who nourish the mind. Propinquity has much to do with the selection of people. If we could sit down calmly and take a mental inventory of the people around us we would probably lower our impression of them and change our companions. We will travel miles across town to a favorite restaurant to secure a beefsteak prepared in the special way that appeals to our appetite, but we do not often travel far out of our beaten path to discover a companion who will appeal to our highest nature. The city directory is filled with names, names, names. If we could add to the names the descriptions which probably define the individuals whose names are set forth we might learn much in an easy way. We would discover that there is a certain individual in the next ward who is interested in the same things in which we are interested, and would add him to our companions. We would readjust our visiting list, including upon it men and women more suited for the life purpose upon which we are engaged.”
The real time in which to select and discriminate in the choice of our friends is at the outset of life. It rests with us whether we shall have true friends who are in sympathy with every good and noble purpose which we form, or shall represent the elements which are opposed to every kind of decent progress.
One good, true friend whom we can take into our inner life and confidence is worth a thousand thoughtless and unambitious associates. However, I am thoroughly democratic in my ideas of social equality for our relationships must be reciprocal. I would not discriminate against the club and lodge provided they do not lead to late hours or suggest dissipation. Man is a social being and the lodge, church or club may be essential to his well-being, for all school, or church or even home would condemn any man to failure. Man needs the association of his fellows in order to quicken and stimulate mental activities, and the rounding out of manhood and the establishment and maintenance of successful proficiency.
X. The Charm of Civility
If ever I should affect injustice, it would be in this, that I might do courtesies and receive none. — Faltham
Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practiced in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talents and accomplishments. — M. A. Kilty
Great talents, such as honor, virtue, learning, and parts, are above the generality of the world, who neither possess them themselves, nor judge of them rightly in others; but all people are judges of the lesser talents, such as civility, affability, and an obliging, agreeable dress and manner, because they feel the good effects of them, as making society easy and pleasing. — Chesterfield
There is no better working capital today for a young man seeking his way in the world than civility, for it makes friends and friends he must have. Civility is courtesy and refinement; it is politeness. It is consideration for other people; that is to say, intelligent altruism in small matters.
Much of the charm of a magnetic personality comes from a fine, cultivated manner. One must know exactly what to do, and be able to do just the right thing at the proper time. We speak regretfully of the charm of manner of the old school. The quaint courtesy of the men and women of an earlier generation has a refining and softening influence upon even the rudest schoolboy. Good judgment and common sense are indispensable to those who are trying to acquire this magic power. Good taste is also one of the elements of personal charm. You cannot offend the tastes of others without hurting their sensibilities.
Most of us can manage to forget ourselves enough to observe the ordinary conventions of life; in fact, our very selfishness forbids actual rudeness. But the thoughtfulness in little things, the considerate word of “thanks,” the general use of the word “please,” the giving of a cordial bow and the gracious smile, the unobtrusive kindness that seeks no return, the gracious deference to age or ill health; these are all apt to be lacking, unless we possess naturally or have acquired by self-discipline the forgetfulness of self which makes the real charm of the thoughtful person.
In these later days, eccentricity has proved to be in some instances a convenient passport to recognition but this will hardly win for the young man seeking favors relative to monetary success. Very few businesses or callings in life where civility is not a valuable business asset. What a great gift of fortune it is, for it is not every one who has a fascinating manner! However, it is in every one’s power to try and cultivate a civil address, to be polite and engaging.
When Zachariah Fox, the great merchant of Liverpool was asked by what means he contrived to realize so large a fortune as he possessed, his reply was: “Friend, by one article alone, and in which thou mayest deal too, if thou pleasest—it is civility!”
William Thayer in his book on Success writes of an auctioneer in a western city who engaged “a youth for his clerk at two dollars a day. The clerk’s genial, polite bearing carried the crowd on the first day, and he was invited to teach one of the public schools. He accepted the position, studied law while teaching, and was admitted to the bar at twenty-one. A year later, the legislature elected him attorney-general of the state. The next year he became a member of the legislature, then secretary of state, then judge of the supreme court, then member of Congress, where he served until he died. That was Stephen A. Douglas, whose courtesy was his leading quality.”
A writer says of him: “Though he had high talent, his pleasant manners from the beginning to the end of his career were what gained him the larger part of his popularity.”
Good manners are said to be the result of a kind heart and careful home training; bad manners the result of a coarse nature and unwise training.
Many a large business firm owes its success or failure to the way in which its employees treat its patrons. Professional men everywhere can trace their success in life to the practice of a courteous manner. Dr. Marden in one of his books very fittingly writes: “The first law of good manners, which epitomizes all the rest, is ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ True courtesy is simply the application of this golden rule to all our social conduct.”
McConaughy tells us there never was a more fascinating woman in France than Madame Recamier, and she kept her sway over the hearts of others down to a very old age. Authors brought their books and read to her, although she was no bookmaker herself. Artists must show her their pictures, though she was no painter. Statesmen talked over their fervid plans to her, though she was no political schemer herself. It was her genuine interest in whatever affected her friends, her hearty sympathy in all their hopes and fears, that made her more than admired; it made her warmly beloved, and threw a charm about her very presence.
XI. Tact, Talent and Genius
Genius is the power of lighting one’s own fires. — John Foster
Talent is something, but tact is everything. It is the open eye, the quick ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch. — W. P. Scargill
Tact is right discernment; it is expertness. Talent is a gift. Genius is extraordinary mental power, natural or acquired; but after all it is but infinite capacity for taking pains or another name for hard work.
“What is your secret of success?” asked a lady of Turner, the distinguished painter. He replied, “I have no secret, madam, but hard work.”
Ruskin has said: “Never depend upon your genius; if you have none, industry will supply the deficiency.”
When a man makes a distinguished name for himself, does something out of the ordinary, you are apt to exclaim, “Oh, he is a genius.” Not at all. He is simply a hard worker. He has the capacity for doing things and he does them. You may have the capacity, too. You don’t know until you try. Poverty, oppression or any kind of difficulty cannot keep the man down who is determined to succeed. He grapples with every perplexity that comes up until he masters and knows the joy of victory. The difference between the man who makes a fortune and the man who does not, is not so much in talent as in energy.
It is the people of talent who emphasize the necessity for industry. The big geniuses have all been hard workers. If all doors do not open to industry, the majority of them do. The authors and artists, the orators and statesmen, whose work has won attention, have mastered the art of taking pains. You are inviting disappointment if you are trusting to talent and overlooking effort.
“If I have done the public any service,” Sir Isaac Newton said, “it is due to nothing but patient industry and thought.”
The habit of being content with nothing less than understanding a thing, is of inestimable worth to every man, young or old.
“There is a best way of doing everything, if it be only to boil an egg,” said a great American author.
Understanding means not only to know a thing before one’s eyes, but to know a task, a position or an opportunity in its relation to other things. No one can dutifully and faithfully hold a place or accomplish a good thing without at least enough thinking to understand clearly what he is to do and what its meaning is. Few of us work under sealed orders. Most of us have plenty of light to make sure we are on the right track and are doing things in the right way.
What makes one man succeed then where another fails? Naturally, ability has something to do with it. Environment may be a help. But every man who has made his mark will tell you that the chief factors are energy, confidence, indefatigable toil, readiness to learn, a determination which never relaxes its grip.
And if so, why should you not succeed as well as someone else? What is there out of these qualities that you may not cultivate? Most of us have ability enough, if we will add to it the push and hard work and determination without which talent is helpless.
Then we must concentrate. Whether it be in our work, in our play, or in our religion, let us set to work thoroughly to combat our difficulties, to learn successfully whatever we have set out to accomplish. It is not easy to do this, of course; but very little in life that is worth doing is ever easy.
Half the failures are due to the ever-increasing tendency of the age to dissipate energies, in attempting first this or that new scheme. There are many persons of excellent ideas who nevertheless fail to carry any one of them through to a successful issue, mainly through this defect. Such people can succeed in nothing, because they are unwilling or unable to concentrate their energies.
The life of Senator Thomas P. Gore, blind from a youth of eleven, who represents the state of Oklahoma in the United States Congress furnishes an example of indomitable energy and genius. Think of the despair that would overtake one at the loss of both eyes; not so with this youth.
He was a page in the legislature of Mississippi when he lost his sight. With the help of the other boys he retained his position until he got over the strangeness of being blind. When the legislature adjourned, he went home to study, going through school with honor, getting high marks in studies one would think utterly impossible. Then he studied law, his classmates reading text-books to him, and he listening to the lectures, and when he was admitted to the bar was as well grounded as any of them.
This sort of thing developed his memory until it was phenomenal. By its aid he even taught school with success, though he could not see a text-book or a student. His best field, however, was public speaking. There was no topic, apparently, with which he was not familiar, and his speeches made him so popular that he was elected to the legislature before he was twenty-one, though of course he was not allowed to take his seat.
Many a person, like young Gore, aspires to a position for which he seems to be entirely unfitted. On the other hand, eager and constant desire to excel in any line is a nearly infallible evidence of talent along that line, even though all efforts for a time be blundersome.
XII. The Effect of Good Clothes
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich not gaudy,
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
— Shakespeare
As you treat your body, so your house, your domestics, your enemies, your friends. Dress is a table of your contents.
— Lavater
It is good business to wear good clothes. Character often expresses itself in dress, for carelessness in regard to personal appearance is indicative of a careless nature. Next to a stout heart nothing helps a man so much in the world as neatness, and it often happens that unless a man presents a trim and sightly exterior he can’t even get past the barriers that hedge in the strong man he wants to reach, the man of intelligence, as well as of power and authority, who is able to judge a man independently of his clothes.
In an enthusiastic speech to young men on the question of personal manner and outward appearance, H. H. Vreeland of the Metropolitan Street Railway is reported to have said:
“If you are looking for a job and have one in sight and have but twenty-four dollars in the world, spend twenty dollars for a new suit of clothes, three dollars and a half for a pair of shoes, fifty cents for a hair cut and shave. Then walk where that job is and ask for it like a man.”
Appearances are occasionally deceitful, but not half so often as proverbs and moralists. First appearances are everything. Many a young person has been denied a position which he might have secured and held but for his careless personal appearance. In this age of opportunity and plenty it is rarely necessary for one to make a poor appearance. The neglect of the use of soap and water, a clothes brush and the absence of a shine often deprives an applicant of a position he truly covets, and robs him of an opportunity, perhaps changing his whole destiny.
Some one has homely said:
“A dirty shirt may hide a pure heart, but it seldom covers a clean skin. If you look as if you had slept in your clothes, most men will jump at the conclusion that you have, and you will never get to know them well enough to explain that your head is so full of noble thoughts that you haven’t time to bother with the dandruff on your shoulders.”
“Fine feathers don’t make fine birds,” but they do make an impression, and you will find that fine birds are generally fine feathered. Shabby clothes are no longer an eccentricity of genius, and the young man who thinks they are makes a sorry mistake. Good clothes pronounce the wearer’s confidence in his own strength, and so are an aid to him. They help to make him not afraid, and they also tend, in every healthy minded man, to make him feel that he must keep his end up among his fellows; that he must make good, just as shabby clothes make a man shy or slothful in the exercise of his own abilities, and content with the path which, with his clothes, he naturally travels, which is outside the fence.
Edward Bok has appropriately said:
“A new suit of clothes communicates a sense of neatness to the body; and in turn, this sense of neatness of the person is extended to the work in hand. As we feel, so unquestionably do we work. Our clothes unmistakably affect our feelings, as any man knows who has experienced the sensation that comes only when one is attired in a new suit.”
It is not my purpose in this paper to discuss the manner or style of dressing for the young man in business only to say that the best rule to follow is to dress always in a becoming manner. Be not the first to adopt the new styles or the last to discard the old. The best dressers among men follow the same rule as is followed by the best dressers among women—they dress well, but quietly. Such dressing is always in good taste.
XIII. The Use of Time
If time be all things most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality. — Franklin
Miss not the occasion; by the forelock take that subtle power, the never-halting time. — Wordsworth
A wise philosopher has said, “Time is the stuff life is made of.” Many persons waste a great deal of time upon trifles, instead of putting their work where it will tell. When Drexillius was asked by a friend how he managed to accomplish so much, he replied: “The year has three hundred and sixty-five days or eight thousand, seven hundred and sixty hours. In so many hours great things can be done; the slow tortoise made a long journey by losing no time.”
Chauncey M. Depew at one time said in an address: “As an employer of 35,000 men, my experience leads me to believe that men fail because they do not grasp the opportunities before them. I went into the office of a great lawyer and said to him: ‘You are working yourself to death.’ He replied: ‘I know it, and I will tell you why. It is because everyone in this roomful of clerks is watching to see when I go out so that he can fool away his time, or watching the clock for the hour to quit work. If there was a single one who would take up a case and work on it all the afternoon, and into the night if necessary, as I did, I would make him my partner; but there is not one, and so I am working myself to death.’”
The best way of all to have time is to form the habit of regular work; not to work by fits and starts, but in definite hours of the day, and to work six days in the week—not five, and not seven. Successful men and women never waste time, they shape everything to a system. To have no system, to do things in a haphazard way, is to abuse time.
Letourneur said:
“Be avaricious of time; do not give any moment without receiving it in value; only allow the hours to go from you with as much regret as you give to your gold; do not allow a single day to pass without increasing the treasure of your knowledge and virtue. The use of time is a debt we contract from birth, and it only should be paid with the interest that our life has accumulated.”
Then, too, one should cultivate the habit of being punctual. He who needlessly breaks his appointment shows that he is as reckless of others’ time as of his own. Every hour of your time is a portion of your life’s opportunity, and should be of inestimable worth to you as well as to others.
Cyrus W. Field said that he considered half of his success in life to be due to his punctuality. He was always at his office at the very minute each morning, and if he made an appointment to talk business with a man he never failed to keep it. “I have made thousands upon thousands of dollars by being on hand at the right moment,” he says, “and I consider punctuality as strong a point in a business man’s favor as—well, it is second only to honesty.”
Once let an employer understand that a person is faithful in getting to work at the hour he has engaged him to begin, he will have more confidence in him and his chances of promotion will be far better than he who sneaks in a half hour late each morning, with some poor excuse for his tardiness.
“Whatever I have tried to do in life,” said a successful man, “I have tried with all my heart to do well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest.”
Nelson said: “I owe all my success in life to having been always a quarter of an hour before time.”
The man who is on time has the inside track, and the inside track is nearest the goal. Time is the most precious of all life’s gifts for no amount of money, no matter how large can buy it.
A small boy entered an office in New York not long ago, very early in the morning, when the merchant was reading the paper. The latter glanced up and went on reading. After three minutes the boy said, “Excuse me, but I’m in a hurry.”
“What do you want?” he was asked.
“A job.”
“You do? Well,” replied the man of business, “why are you in such a hurry?”
“Got to hurry,” replied the boy. “Left school yesterday to go to work, and haven’t struck anything yet. I can’t waste time. If you have nothing for me, say so, and I’ll look elsewhere.”
“When can you come?” asked the surprised merchant.
“Don’t have to come, I’m here now and ready to go to work.”
It is needless to say that this young man was given a place. To be on time and to appreciate the value of time should be the rule of every young aspirant for success. Promptness is the secret of success, for in its train follows industry, economy of time, and a whole cluster of other virtues.
XIV. Money, the Golden Yardstick
Money is a bottomless sea, in which honor, conscience, and truth may be drowned. — Kozlay
Money is only thus far a standard of value; that which it can measure is perishable; that which it cannot is immortal. — Bovee
Many persons today measure success by money, and we may as well for the moment take the best possible view of this condition, the golden yardstick. To be rich seems to be the chief end of man, and there is no question that the inordinate desire for money is the cause of many failures. This desire is not a safe impulse to effort; success is found on a higher plane. Money is a good friend if rightly used; but money, power, and influence when controlled by selfishness, become curses that debase the mind and corrupt the heart.
Everyone must concede there is no wrong in being rich, but there is such a thing as the getting of riches wrongfully. Every young person ought to feel that it is better to be well off than poorly off. Money is power, and must always be. Thomas Carlyle used to say, “The man who has sixpence is master to the extent of that sixpence.” Economy, thrift, accumulation, property, investments, deposits in savings banks—to have these things, provided they are gotten rightfully, is always better than the unthrift and heedless spending which can never blossom into such things. Right possession is always better than poverty, for poverty is a crime. And every young person ought to be bound to get property in right ways.
Neither is there wrong in getting riches rightfully. The Bible speaks of the man whose ground “brought forth plentifully.” You may be sure the ground of this man did not happen to thus bring forth, while he wandered aimlessly about, or slept the sluggard’s sleep. His fields bore ample harvests, because they were carefully tilled. Be assured his fences were not broken, his tools were not left to lie out in any weather, his cattle were not unhoused, his seed was planted at the right time, and in well-plowed ground, and the green and tender blades upspringing were well cultivated.
Again there was no condemnation in this man’s accumulating the fortune which he had, only the setting of his heart upon his riches. It is wrong to desire riches for itself alone. It is not wrong, however, to desire some good thing and to seek riches as a means to its attainment.
How much better it will be for us when we see that money is only a convenience, and that it does not bring happiness. Mahmoud, the Moslem conqueror, when dying, ordered brought into his chamber his jewels, rich attire, and other tokens of his great wealth. He wept like a child as he looked at them, and said: “What toils, what dangers, what anxiety these have cost me, to get them and keep them! And now I must leave them all!” That is what should make us pause when we begin to get greedy for gold, “I must some day leave it all!”
One of the world’s greatest money kings puts it in this way:
“Wealth can only bring happiness in the sense that it brings us greater opportunities for making others happy. The truest happiness, indeed the only happiness in this life worthy of the name, is to make others happy, or, at least, by improving their condition in some way, to make them happier than they otherwise would be. Wealth will enable its possessor to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, endow free institutions of learning, establish free libraries, found hospitals, and do countless other good works. In this way, and in this way only, in the power of making others happy that it confers, can wealth, in itself, bring happiness.”
There is an old English fable about a barefooted boy, who, while walking one summer day along the highway, saw in the dust a bit of gold. So aroused was he by this piece of good fortune that all the rest of his life he walked along the highway looking for gold. He lived to a good old age and accumulated quite a fortune, but he never saw the stars at night, or the sun, or clouds of noonday; he paid no attention to the flowers by the wayside and in the meadows; he did not see the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the trees or the birds. All that life meant to him was a dusty road where ever and anon among the dirt was to be found a piece of silver or gold. Life should mean far more than that. There is something vastly nobler and higher to be sought than mere gold, and that is character that is unsullied, a mind that is pure, and a heart that is free from sin. This passion for wealth is causing many men to trample upon the purest and noblest instincts of the heart.
As to how a man shall accumulate money, we have nothing to say only that it shall be earned in honest and legitimate ways. Wealth is a gift of God, for the Bible says: “You say my power, the might of my hand, has gotten me wealth; you should remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that gives you the power to get wealth.”
“It takes a practical mind to make a fortune,” declares a great oil king.
“Men have often said in my hearing: ‘Oh, how I wish I were rich! If I had money I should do this great work or that.’ Now, these men will never be rich. They haven’t the purpose and practical bent of mind for it. They think of the fruits of victory without the struggle. It is necessary to fix the mind pretty firmly upon the making of money before it is possible to plan its spending. I remember clearly when the financial plan—if I may call it so—of my life was formed. It was out in Ohio, under the ministrations of a dear old minister, who preached, ‘Get money; get it honestly, and then give it wisely.’ I wrote that down in a little book. I have the little book yet, with that writing in it. I have tried ever since to ‘get money honestly and to give it wisely.’”
The men who have become rich are seldom those who started in business with capital, but those who had nothing to begin with but their strong arms and active brains; men who have learned in early youth how to practice economy without which few foundations are laid for substantial fortunes. Dr. Franklin once wrote to a young man: “The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality; that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as of getting. The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes are greater than her incomes.”
I know that successful men everywhere will tell you that economy is absolutely necessary to monetary success, and that the want of it dooms hundreds of business men to failure. The habit of economy enables men to live within their means; to pay as they go, and thus keep out of debt.
XV. The Devil of Debt
Debt, grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the orphan, and the sons of genius fear and hate;—debt, which consumes so much time, which so cripples and disheartens a great spirit with cares that seem so base, is a preceptor whose lessons cannot be foregone, and is needed most by those who suffer from it most. — Emerson
No young person can afford to limp into life with a load of debt on his shoulders. If possible, keep out of it, for a man loses the spirit of a free man when hampered by it. If you are in debt unload your burden as soon as possible for the paying of debts is next to the grace of God, as it will deliver you from a thousand temptations.
The following taken from an editorial in the Jackson Michigan Press is so good that it is appended here without comment:
Did you ever make friends with a devil?
People do. One of the most vicious devils of the lot is the one we are thinking of today—the Devil of Debt.
You may judge what a character he is from the message left the other night by a respected man who jumped from a steamer into Long Island Sound and drowned himself, first having scribbled these words:
“For twenty years the devil of debt has been on my heels, and I have given up.”
We become well acquainted with various devils, but there isn’t any devil who can claim a larger circle of really intimate friends than this one. The clerk—he’s in debt. The bookkeeper—he’s in debt. The salesmen, they’re all in debt. The elevator man, of course he is. The porter, well, rather! As for the superintendent, he can scarcely remember when he wasn’t. The manager, you wouldn’t think it of him, but he’s the worst of all. Sure, he gets $5,000 a year, but he spent this year’s salary year before last, and you wouldn’t envy him very much if you could see him after the stenographer has gone out, trying to satisfy this bank, and staving that one off another sixty days, and fighting for another thousand or so on that mortgaged lot in the suburbs. Oh, yes, the manager’s in debt, too! Even the office boy would be in debt if anybody would trust him.
Debt is a mortgage on your salary. Debt is a monument to a young man’s weakness, a grown man’s folly and an old man’s failure in the University of Life.
Debt is discounting tomorrow’s liberty for today’s good time. Debt is a quitclaim to your wife’s confidence, your children’s ambitions and your own self-respect. Debt is a guaranteed insurance policy against happiness.
“Then what are you going to do?” says a chorus of young fellows and business men and aspiring women and laborers and clerks and managers and hundreds more.
Do without!
It will take backbone. It will take some genuine courage. But you’ll be able to hold your head up—and that’s more than you can do now, and you know it. You won’t have palpitation of the heart when the postman blows his whistle, and you won’t tremble every time the boss asks you to come into the front office. Neither will you be ashamed for your stenographer to open your mail. Because you will be working today for tomorrow’s satisfaction, and not to make good on account of yesterday’s extravagance.
XVI. A Tragedy of the Sea
How disappointment tracks the steps of hope! — Landon
It never yet happened to any man since the beginning of the world, nor ever will, to have all things according to his desire, nor to whom fortune was never opposite and adverse. — Burton
A tragedy of the sea which, although unaccompanied by the loss of life, nevertheless was marked by an unusually pathetic incident, was that of the British ship Suevic, which was lost on the Brandies rocks off the coast of England some years ago. Homeward bound from Sydney, New South Wales, the Suevic had all but completed a voyage of many thousand miles, when, lost in the dreaded fog, it crashed upon the waiting rocks within sight of the lights of that England it had come so far to reach.
On the bridge when the ship struck was Captain Selby, who had sailed the oceans of the globe for thirty-nine years and was completing his last voyage. For him it was a doubly happy home-coming, for it meant the rounding out of a long and successful life as a mariner and the beginning of quiet years of peace in a little English village where he could sit on a vine-covered porch within sight and sound of the sea and watch the passing ships and live over again the excitement, the perils and the pleasures of his years afloat.
It must have seemed to this English captain as he felt his way through the fog that he had triumphed over the might of the waters and that the sea held nothing of terror which he had not faced and vanquished. One can imagine the triumph with which he peered through the mist and saw in his mind’s eye the berthing of his ship for the last time—and after that, peace. But the sea was only waiting its opportunity; for thirty-nine years had it waited to conquer this bold sailor. Relentlessly through clear nights and sunny days, through storm and calm, had it waited, and now, almost within sight of the haven, it struck. The lookout’s warning shout that came too late, the white flash of the breakers through the fog, the shock and cruel crunching as the Suevic struck the rocks meant not only the loss of the ship, but the loss of a life’s ambition.
The world has little time for sympathy with those who have failed, and men who pit their skill against the savagery and cunning of the business world must expect sometimes to lose. Success is the end of being, all right; and what the world in its big, generalizing way calls success is often mixed with accident, and is often failure judged by the law of the man who has made it. The biggest human success is to be completely a man or a woman, and that is more difficult than to be a millionaire or to successfully pilot a ship to its desired haven. The case of this English sailor, whose ship and hopes alike went down there, close under the gleaming eye of the Lizard lighthouse, is sad beyond the ordinary, but if he were a man he is still a success even though all earthly hopes were lost.
XVII. Some Must-Be’s for the Would-Be Successful
Be industrious.
Be absolutely trustworthy.
Be ready to lend the helping hand when necessary.
Be trained. The day has passed when prizes can be won by the unskilled.
Be accurate; down even to the little things which supposedly don’t count.
Be polite and attentive. Rudeness and indifference are a mighty poor bank account on which to draw checks on success.
Be free from petty jealousy and arrogance. If you are haughty or “stuck up” you will lack friends, and friends count heavily in cornering success.
Be always on the alert to further the interest of the cause you have at heart. This does not mean ruthless tramping on every one or everything which interferes with those interests.
Be a specialist. At least to a definite point. Get all the side-knowledge you can, none of it comes amiss; but concentration rather than diffusiveness is the secret of modern “making good.”
Be above-board. The must-be hidden things of life have a way of coming to light just when the goal is in view. Don’t have any and you can run your strenuous race for success more courageously.
Be full of energy, invest all your character for the one line of work in which you wish to succeed. Do not distribute it among many lines. Such a distribution will prove disastrous when the real test comes when there is a demand for special exertion to prevent failure.
Be a man whose word is worth a hundred cents on a dollar and your reputation will be as good as gold.
XVIII. Twelve Business Maxims
- Be honest. Dishonesty seldom wins in the long run. It may seem to win for a time, but the ultimate loss is greater than the temporary gain.
- Be industrious. Industry is one of the foundation stones of success. No man can expect to rise who is unwilling to work faithfully and persistently.
- Be punctual. The man who is always late wastes not only his own time, but the time of others. Punctuality is a mark of reliability.
- Be accurate. Guesswork has ruined many a reputation. Know what you are doing, and do it exactly.
- Be courteous. Courtesy costs little, but it is worth much. It opens doors which rudeness closes.
- Be economical. Waste is one of the enemies of prosperity. Save something, however little, and learn to live within your means.
- Be temperate. Self-control is necessary in business as in every other relation of life. The man who cannot control himself cannot safely be trusted to control affairs.
- Be faithful. Do the work before you as though it were your own. Faithfulness in small things prepares the way for larger responsibilities.
- Be observant. Keep your eyes open. Learn from men, from events, from mistakes, from successes, from everything that passes before you.
- Be ambitious. Aim high, but make sure that your ambition is honorable. Ambition without character is dangerous.
- Be courageous. Do not be afraid of hard work, responsibility, criticism, or temporary failure.
- Be persevering. Many men fail because they stop too soon. Hold on. Keep at it. The last effort often wins.
XIX. Rothschild’s Rules
The elder Baron Rothschild had these rules posted upon the walls of his bank:
Shun liquors.
Dare to go forward.
Never be discouraged.
Never tell business lies.
Be polite to everybody.
Employ your time well.
Be prompt in everything.
Pay your debts promptly.
Bear all troubles patiently.
Do not reckon upon chance.
Make no useless acquaintances.
Be brave in the struggle of life.
Maintain your integrity as a sacred thing.
Never appear something more than you are.
Take time to consider, and then decide positively.
Carefully examine into every detail of your business.
XX. Charles M. Schwab’s Advice on How to Succeed in Business
Charles M. Schwab, one of the most successful business men of his generation, placed great emphasis upon the qualities of loyalty, concentration, good humor, and the ability to make friends. In speaking to young men concerning success in business, he made it clear that success is not measured merely by money, but by the power to serve, to lead, and to make one’s work count for something larger than oneself.
He held that loyalty is one of the first essentials of advancement. The young man who gives only enough service to draw his pay has already placed a limit upon his own progress. The employee who identifies himself with the interests of the business, who thinks of the work as though it were partly his own, who is faithful when no one is watching, is the one who is most likely to be trusted with larger responsibilities.
Schwab believed also in concentration. The man who scatters his energies over many things, who begins one task and leaves it unfinished for another, seldom reaches distinction. Success demands the power to give oneself wholly to the thing at hand. A young person may have talent, education, and opportunity, but without concentration these gifts may be wasted.
Good humor, too, he regarded as a business asset. A cheerful spirit helps to carry burdens, smooth difficulties, and make cooperation possible. No one likes to work under a gloomy, fault-finding, or irritable person. The man who can keep his temper, meet discouragement with courage, and spread confidence among those about him has a power that cannot easily be measured in dollars.
He also emphasized the ability to make friends. Business is not merely machinery, capital, accounts, and contracts; it is human relationship. The man who understands people, who treats them fairly, who gives encouragement rather than discouragement, and who makes others feel that they are important, multiplies his own power through the goodwill of those around him.
The young man who wishes to succeed, therefore, must not wait for a great opportunity before beginning to practice these qualities. He must be loyal in small duties, concentrated in ordinary tasks, cheerful in daily trials, and friendly in common relationships. By such habits he prepares himself for the larger place when it comes.
Schwab’s counsel may be summed up in this: give more than is required, do the present duty with all your might, keep a generous spirit, and learn how to work with people. These things are not merely ornaments of character; they are working tools of success.
XXI. Philip D. Armour’s Six Rules of Success
- Good men are not cheap.
- Capital can do nothing without brains to direct it.
- No general can fight his battles alone. He must depend upon his lieutenants, and his success depends upon his ability to secure the right man for the right place.
- There is no such thing as luck.
- Most men talk too much. Much of my success has been due to keeping my mouth shut.
- The young man who wants to marry happily should pick out a good mother and marry one of her daughters—any one will do.
End of book.
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