A man without ambition had better content himself with learning a
trade. A good mechanic is fairly sure of three dollars a day, and
fifty-two weeks' employment in the year.
The mechanic does not have many worries. He does not have notes to meet
at the bank. He does not have to face the ingratitude of employes and
petty jealousies, for he has no employes working for him.
He lays down his tools when the bell rings and goes home to his family.
His ambition is to have a good place to sleep, plenty to eat, money
enough to buy clothing for his family and to send his children to
school, and extra spending money enough over his fixed charges to allow
him to take his family to the circus when it comes to town.
Ambition makes men strive to get ahead. Ambition cultivates taking
chances.
Nearly every man is a gambler. Some of you will be shocked at this
statement, yet upon careful analysis nearly every move a successful
business man makes is a gamble. He is betting that he will take in more
money than he lays out on a new plan. The man with ambition is a
gambler. The man who learns a trade and does not strive to increase his
earnings is not a gambler.
We pride ourselves on our ability to buy cheaply, because the cheaper
we can buy the greater our earnings will be and the less our gamble.
Any man with two hands and ordinary health can earn a livelihood, but
the ambitious man wants to make a name for himself and to make a
success in business, so he works harder than he would do if his problem
were only the obtaining of money enough to buy the things necessary for
his existence.
The moment a man loses ambition, his progress, so far as business
advancement is concerned, ceases.
Nearly every successful business today is successful because the
proprietors, in the infancy of the business, were filled with ambition
which made them work hard.
We are all familiar with the successful business man who loses his
ambition. It is an absolute certainty that as soon as a man loses
ambition his business falls off, unless he makes it an object to take
care of the ambitious young men in his employ, so that they may keep up
the pace of progress he established.