If after the employe strikes a balance each day, he finds that he is
moving forward, then he is on the road to success. And so it is with
the business man, only the proportions are greater.
One cent put at four per cent. interest per annum nineteen hundred
years ago, with interest added to the principal every twenty-five
years, would represent today more money than there is in the world. It
would have taken twenty-five years before the original investment of
one cent was doubled.
If a man had started that plan his grandchildren would have said the
scheme was no good because it was too slow.
The boy goes to school regularly and shows little advance in his
mentality if you measure from day to day, but the boy is gaining every
day. He is going ahead slowly but certainly.
The gambler and the foolish man like success to come quickly and with
great strides. It is because there are many foolish men and gamblers
that the get-rich-quick fake thrives.
The man who gets rich suddenly usually indulges in such sports as
lighting cigars with ten dollar bills, and his wind-up is in the
pauper's grave.
No man knows the true value of money unless he has worked for it. The
man who has earned his dollars through the penny route knows the value
of the penny, and he gets mighty good value when he spends a dollar.
The man who walks steadily in one direction does not appear to be
making much progress. The ship on the ocean seems to be standing still.
When night comes the man who has been walking steadily has disappeared,
and the ship that seemed to be standing still has vanished beyond the
horizon.
The law of compensation says, The more haste the less speed, and so in
the matter of success, we must not feel discouraged because the speed
at which we are traveling forward does not seem noticeable when
compared with the rapid pace of some of our friends.
Be not impatient. Learn to wait. Be a good stayer. Do not let the
success of the get-rich-quick creature deter you from your resolve to
move forward slowly. You will get there in the long run.
And when your hair is silvered and cares rest easily upon your
shoulders, the long road you have traveled will be a source of infinite
satisfaction to you. Your retrospection will be pleasant, and the very
things that were hard in your youth, are sources of satisfaction to you
in your old age.
Do not use the yard measure in counting your progress, but use the inch
rule that has fine fractions on it.