Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images available at The Internet Archive)
SUCCESSWARD
[Illustration: image of the book's cover]
SUCCESSWARD
A YOUNG MAN'S BOOK FOR YOUNG MEN
BY
EDWARD W. BOK
[Illustration]
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
1895
Copyright, 1895,
by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY.
TO
CLARENCE CARY,
MY ADVISER AND MY FRIEND, WHEN ADVISERS
I HAD NONE AND FRIENDS
WERE FEW,
I INSCRIBE THIS, MY FIRST BOOK.
A FEW PREFATORY WORDS
The average young man is apt to think that success is not for him. To
his mind it is a gift to the few, not to the many. "The rich, the
fortunate--they are the only people who can be successful," is the way
one young fellow recently expressed it to me, and he thought as many do.
It is this wrong conception of success which this book aims to remove.
It has no other purpose save to show that success--and the truest and
best success--is possible to any young man of honorable motives. The
subject is not new, I know. All that is hoped for from this book is that
it may have for young men a certain sense of nearness to their own lives
and thoughts, from the fact that it is not written by a patriarch whose
young manhood is far behind him. It is written to young men by a young
man to whom the noise of the battle is not a recollection, but an
every-day living reality. He thinks he knows what a fight for success
means to a young fellow, and he writes with the smoke of the battle
around him and from the very thick of the fight.
E. W. B.
PHILADELPHIA, 1895.
CONTENTS
I
PAGE
A CORRECT KNOWLEDGE OF HIMSELF 11
II
WHAT, REALLY, IS SUCCESS? 23
III
THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS 33
IV
HIS SOCIAL LIFE AND AMUSEMENTS 69
V
"SOWING HIS WILD OATS" 97
VI
IN MATTERS OF DRESS 109
VII
HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE 119
VIII
HIS ATTITUDE TOWARD WOMEN 137
IX
THE QUESTION OF MARRIAGE 151
SUCCESSWARD
I
A CORRECT KNOWLEDGE OF HIMSELF
The first, the most essential, and the greatest element of success with
a young man starting out to make a career is a correct knowledge of
himself. He should, before he attempts anything, understand himself. He
should study himself. He should be sure that, no matter whom else he may
misunderstand, he has a correct knowledge of his own nature, his own
character, and his own capabilities. And it is because so few young men
have this knowledge of self that so many make disastrous failures, or
fail in achieving what they set out for themselves at the beginning.
Every man in this world is created differently; no two are alike.
Therefore, the nature, the thoughts, the character, the capacity of one
man is utterly unlike that of another. What one man can understand
another cannot. The success of one man indicates nothing to a second
man. What one is capable of doing is beyond the power of another. Hence
it is important that, first of all, a young man should look into
himself, find out what has been given him, and come to a clear
understanding of what he can do and what he cannot do.
It is one of the most pitiable sights imaginable to see, as one does so
constantly, young men floundering and fluttering from one phase of life
to another, unable to fasten upon any one, simply because a knowledge of
themselves is absent. The result is that we see so many round men trying
to fit themselves into square holes.
"But," some one will say, as asked a young fellow recently, "how in the
world do you get at an understanding of yourself? How do you go about
it?" No definite answer can be given to the question, any more than can
a certain rule be laid down. An understanding of one's self is reached
by different methods by different people, generally each method being
personal to one's self. But this much can be said: every thought, every
taste, every action, reveals ourselves to ourselves, and it is in the
expression of these that we best learn our natures and our characters.
We see ourselves with unmistakable accuracy, for example, in what we
most enjoy in reading, in the people whose company pleases us most, in
the things that interest us; and where our tastes and interest lead us
we are generally truest to ourselves.
Some writer has said that most people find themselves out best while
they are at play, upon the basis that a man shows his real side in the
pleasures which he seeks and enjoys. This is true in a large measure.
And the character of his pleasures will have both an indirect and a
direct bearing upon the more practical side of his nature. If a young
man visits an art gallery, for example, and finds that the pleasure he
derives from the pictures takes the form of recreation to the mind, that
he is delighted and interested in the canvases he sees so long as he is
before them, but feels simply refreshed after he leaves the gallery, it
is plain that his nature is not one suited to art as a vocation. He
employs the picture as a means of recreation from some other study which
has engrossed him most. If, on the other hand, his instincts lead him to
an art gallery, and he studies rather than enjoys the pictures that he
sees, is curious as to the methods of the artist, and goes away with his
mind charged with the intention of getting further knowledge of what he
has seen from books or other authorities, it is natural to assume that
the art instinct is within him, and he should give it the fullest
chance of development. But he should in every way feel, realize, and
know that a love of art possesses him before he adopts it as a
profession. And thus, in a way, a young man has an opportunity to study
himself through his pleasures.
If, as a further example, a young man finds himself seeking the company
of men older than himself, men of affairs of the world, is happiest when
he can be in their company and hear them talk of business, chooses the
reading of the lives of successful men as his literature, and leans
toward the practical side of life, finding more real enjoyment amid the
bustle of the mart than in the quiet of lane or park, the indications
are that his nature points him to a business career rather than to a
professional calling. If he feels this way, it is well for him to give
his developing tastes full play, and follow where his instincts lead
him. After a while what was at first a mere instinct or an unformed
taste will develop and point him to something definite in the business
world, and if he be true to himself he will sooner or later find himself
in that particular position which he is best fitted to occupy and fill.
His capacities will reveal themselves to him, and they will teach him
his limitations. This knowledge need not thwart his ambitions, but I
believe that ambition should always be just a trifle behind judgment, if
possible, or, at all events, not in advance of it. Ambition is a
splendid quality if properly guided and kept within check; it is a fatal
possession when it is allowed too full development or sway. Like fire or
water, it is a capital servant, but it makes a poor master.
I do not counsel, nor do I believe in, a blind following of one's self,
particularly during the formative years of life. But I do believe most
earnestly that every man is given a certain thing to do in the world,
and that, by a proper study of himself, he, and he alone, can arrive at
the clearest and surest knowledge of that particular object. I am a
firm believer in the molding of character through the influence of
another; but my conviction is equally strong that every man is the
architect of his own fortune, and that his truest course in life is to
follow not the guidance of another, but his own instincts. In other
words, I think young men should, as early in life as possible, get into
touch with the idea of their own responsibility, and be taught the great
lesson that, however well others may advise, they, and they alone, must
carve out their own careers. The most successful careers, the most
honorable lives in the history of the world are those which have been
shaped by their own hands. There is an element of danger in this, of
course, but the element is small in comparison with the greater danger
which lies in the foundation of a character against one's own instincts.
The aspirations of the young are not to be checked by the experience of
the old. No matter how rich or full a man's experience may have been,
it counts only in a sense of general application to another career which
stands upon its threshold. Years should teach wisdom; but if we all
waited for years to bring us wisdom, this world would be a sorry place
to live in. Youthful imaginings may lead to mistakes, youthful
enthusiasm may encounter disappointment, but only experience, real and
actual, can demonstrate these things to a young man. And the experience
is good for him if it teaches him a better and truer knowledge of
himself and his capacities. The greatest figures in the world's history
show that they were made through experience, and what experience taught
them. This is not saying that the young have no use for the old. They
have. But the rule should be, "Young men for action, old men for
counsel." Experience looks backward; enthusiasm looks forward. And, as
between the two, enthusiasm is worth more than experience, since it is
the former which is brave and strong and attempts the impossible. If we
attempted only the possible in this world we should soon stop where we
are; it is for the young man, with his enthusiasm, to battle with the
impossible and carry the world a step farther on in discovery, if not in
actual accomplishment.
I say all this because I want every young fellow to feel that, to a
large extent, he stands alone for himself in the world. Counsel he may
seek and he should seek, but the action is his, and his alone. And to
make that action sure and wise it is necessary that the workman should
understand his tools. He must know with what he has to work; and once
sure of his tools, he must learn the thing he has set for himself to do,
having a distinct purpose in view, and, being fully conscious that he is
right and capable, not allowing himself to be swerved from his aim.
After acquiring true knowledge of himself, I know of nothing so
valuable to a young man as an absolute distinctness of purpose, and then
pursuing that purpose to success. In natural sequence comes, therefore,
the question of "What, really, is success?"
II
WHAT, REALLY, IS SUCCESS?
Before a young man goes into business it is necessary, I think, that he
should set himself straight on one very important point, and that is
what success in business really is and means. Unfortunately, not enough
has been written on this phase of the topic. It is idle for a young man
to seek out the methods of success before he is really clear in his mind
just what constitutes success--until, in other words, he finds out the
true definition of the word. And very few of us have a proper and
correct conception of it. On the other hand, thousands of us have the
wrong notion.
In this age of big things, particularly, we are inclined to regard
success as synonymous only with the higher walks of life, with great
achievements. Success, in the minds of some, is something which is only
given for the fortunate to achieve. Or we think that if we cannot do
something which sets people talking or wondering about us, if our heads
do not tower above those of our fellow-beings, our lives, if not
altogether negative, are still not successful. In other words, we feel
that a successful life is the doing of something momentous; the becoming
known of all men and women; the being exceptional to the rest of the
human race. Ask ten people their idea of success, and I warrant that
eight will give a definition of it along these lines. And yet, when we
look at the matter closely and study it carefully, scarcely a more
incorrect interpretation of a successful life can be imagined. Along
this line of thought, not one person in ten thousand lives a successful
life, since statistics have informed us that it is only this percentage
of the human race that is ever heard of outside of its immediate circle
of relatives and friends.
It is given to very few of us to say something or perform some action
which will be heard of by the world. The greater part of the human race
dies as it is born, unknown and unheard of by the world at large. Where
you find one leader among men or women you will find a thousand who
prefer to follow. The instinct of leadership is rare--rare even in these
developing days. Hence, if success depended upon aggressive instinct,
its votaries would be few. Success is as ofttimes quietly won. I think
that young men are oftener misled by wrong notions of what constitutes
success than by how to achieve success as they understand it.
The average young man's idea of success is like unto that of people of
older growth, as I hinted in a preceding paragraph--it means the
accomplishment of something great. He cannot understand that a
successful life is just as possible in an obscure position as it is in
a conspicuous one. It does not seem plain to him that a clerk earning
five hundred dollars per year can make just as pronounced a success of
his life as can his employer, whose income is ten thousand dollars, or
even one hundred thousand dollars, per year. He is apt to measure
success by dollars, and here is the rock upon which so many young men
split. To be a successful subject is as great an achievement for the
subject as being a successful ruler is creditable to the ruler. Every
man born into the world has his limitations, and beyond that line it is
simply impossible for him to go. All of us know men capable of splendid
work so long as they are under direction, but who have either made or
would make absolute failures as directors. Other men chafe under
direction; they must be leaders. But success is as possible with the one
as with the other.
The correct definition of success is the favorable termination of
anything attempted--a termination, in other words, which answers the
purpose intended. The writing of a business letter can be made just as
great a success as can be the drafting of a presidential proclamation.
Success never depends upon conspicuity, and it never will. If we
accepted as the successful men of the time only those who are in
conspicuous places and of whom we know, we should narrow success down to
a very few. Great successes have been made as often in quiet ways as
with the blare of trumpets. A commercial success won on conservative
lines, and maintained by cautious and prudent methods, is the success
most highly regarded in the business world to-day. The meteoric
commercial flash, so admired by the average young man, seldom has a firm
foundation, and rarely commands the confidence of experienced business
men. The truest success is that which is earned slowly, but which surely
strengthens itself. Ostentation is never typical of a true success. It
is always a good thing to remember that the vast majority of successful
men are never heard of. It is very important, therefore, that the first
thing for a young man going into business to learn is to disassociate
success from the more prominent walks in life, and get rid of that false
theory. When he does that, successful living will have a deeper, fuller,
and truer meaning for him. It will have for him then its correct
meaning: that success is possible in every position, and can be made the
possession of the humblest as well as the most powerful.
A successful life is nothing more nor less than living as well as we
know how and doing the very best that we can. And upon that basis, which
is the only true basis, naturally no success can be measured by fame,
wealth, or station. Some of us must live for the few, as others again
must live for the many, just as some are born to occupy important
positions while others are intended for humbler places. But both lives
are successful.
Let a young man be thoroughly fitted for the business position he
occupies, alert to every opportunity, and embracing it to its fullest
possibility, with his methods fixed on honorable principles, and he is a
successful man. It does not matter whether he makes a thousand dollars
or a hundred thousand dollars. He makes a success of his position. He
carries to a successful termination that which it has been given him to
do, be that great or small. If the work he does, and does well, is up to
his limitations, he is a success. If he does not work up to his
capacity, then he fails, just as he fails, too, if he attempts to go
beyond his mental or physical limit. There is just as much danger on one
side of man's limit-line as there is on the other. The very realization
of one's capacity is a sign of success. It is an old saying that it is a
wise man who knows when he has enough, and it is a successful man who
never goes beyond his depth in business. This is a truth which requires
experience to see, perhaps, but it is a lesson which Success demands
that her votaries shall learn, and learn well. Success is simply doing
anything to the utmost of one's ability--making as much of one's
position as it is possible to make.
III
THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS
Every one conversant with the business life of any of our cities, large
or small, will, I am sure, agree with me that more business
opportunities exist to-day than there are young men capable of embracing
them, and that the demand is far in excess of the supply. Positions of
trust are constantly going begging for the right kind of young men to
fill them. But the material does not exist, or, if it does, it certainly
has a most unfortunate way of hiding its light under a bushel; so much
so that business men cannot see even a glimmer of its rays. Let a
position of any real importance become open, and it is the most
difficult kind of a problem to find any one to fill it satisfactorily.
Business men are constantly passing through this experience. Young men
are desired in the great majority of positions because of their
progressive ideas and capacity to endure work; in fact, "young blood,"
as it is called, is preferred nowadays in nine positions out of every
ten. The young men capable of filling these positions are few. For the
most part, the average young man is incapable, or, if he be not exactly
incapable (I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt), he is
unwilling, which is even worse. That exceptions can be brought up to
controvert this statement I know; but in these remarks I am dealing with
the many, and not with the few. It is the exception that we find in
business to-day a young man who is something more than a plodder--a mere
automatic machine. As a general rule, the average young man comes to his
office at nine o'clock in the morning; is faithful in the duties he
performs; goes to lunch at twelve; comes back at one; takes up whatever
he is told to do until five, and then goes home. His work for the day is
done. One day is the same to him as another; he has a certain routine of
duties to do, and he does them day in and day out, month in and month
out. His duties are regulated by the clock. As that points, so he
points. Verily it is true of him that he is the same yesterday, to-day,
and forever. No special fault can be found with his work. Given a
particular piece of work to do, he does it just as a machine would. Such
a young man, too, generally considers himself hard-worked--often
overworked and under-paid--wondering all the time why his employer does
not recognize his value and advance his salary. "I do everything I am
told to do," he argues, "and I do it well. What more can I do?"
This is simply a type of a young man who exists in thousands of offices
and stores. He comes to his work each day with no definite point or
plan in view; he leaves it with nothing accomplished. He is a mere
automaton. Let him die, and his position can be filled in twenty-four
hours. If he detracts nothing from his employer's business he certainly
adds nothing to it. He never advances an idea; is absolutely devoid of
creative powers; his position remains the same after he has been in it
for five years as when he came to it.
Now I would not for a moment be understood as belittling the value of
faithfulness in an employee. But, after all, faithfulness is nothing
more nor less than a negative quality. By faithfulness a man can hold a
position a lifetime. He will keep it just where he found it. But by the
exercise of this single quality he does not add to the importance of the
position any more than he adds to his own value. It is not enough that
it should be said of a young man that he is faithful; he must be
something more. The willingness and capacity to be faithful to the
smallest detail must be there, serving only, however, as a foundation
upon which other qualities are built.
Altogether too many young men are content to remain in the positions in
which they find themselves. The thought of studying the needs of the
next position just above them never seems to enter into their minds. I
believe it is possible for every young man to rise above his position,
and I care not how humble that position may be, nor under what
disadvantages he may be placed. But he must be alert. He must not be
afraid of work, and of the hardest kind of work. He must study not only
to please, but he must go a step beyond. It is essential, of course,
that he should first of all fill the position for which he is engaged.
No man can solve the problem of business before he understands the
rudiments of the problem itself. Once the requirements of a position are
understood and mastered, then its possibilities should be undertaken. It
is foolish to argue, as some young men do, that to go beyond one's
special position is made impossible by an employer. The employer never
existed who will prevent the cream of his establishment from rising to
the surface. The advance of an employee always means the advance of the
employer's interest. Every employer would rather pay a young man five
thousand dollars a year than five hundred. What is to the young man's
interests is in a far greater degree to the interests of his employer. A
five-hundred-dollar clerkship is worth just that amount to an employer,
and nothing more. But a five-thousand-dollar man is fully worth five
times that sum to a business. A young man makes of a position exactly
what he chooses, either a millstone around his neck or a stepping-stone
to larger success. The possibilities lie in every position; seeing and
embracing them rest with its occupant. The lowest position can be so
filled as to lead up to the next and become a part of it. One position
should only be the chrysalis for the development of new strength to
master the other just above it.
A substantial success means several things. It calls, in the first
place, for concentration. There is no truth so potent as that which
tells us that we cannot serve God and Mammon. Nor can any young man
successfully serve two business interests, no matter how closely allied;
in fact, the more closely the interests the more dangerous are they. The
human mind is capable of just so much clear thought, and generally it
does not extend beyond the requirements of one position in these days of
keen competition. If there exists a secret of success, it lies, perhaps,
in concentration more than in any other single element. During business
hours a man should be in business. His thoughts should be on nothing
else. Diversions of thought are killing to the best endeavors. The
successful mastery of business questions calls for a personal interest,
a forgetfulness of self, that can only come from the closest
application and the most absolute concentration. I go so far in my
belief of concentration to business interests in business hours as to
argue that a young man's personal letters have no right to come to his
office address, nor should he receive his social friends at his desk.
Business hours are none too long in the great majority of our offices,
and with a rest of one hour for luncheon, no one has a right to chop off
fifteen minutes here to read an irrelevant personal letter, or fifteen
minutes there to talk with a friend whose conversation distracts the
mind from the problems before it. Digression is just as dangerous as
stagnation in the career of a young man in business. There is absolutely
no position worth the having in business life to-day to which a care of
other interests can be added. Let a man attempt to serve the interests
of one master, and if he serves him well he has his hands and his head
full.
There is a class of ambitious young men who have what they choose to
call "an anchor to the windward" in their business; that is, they
maintain something in addition to their regular position. They do this
from necessity, they claim. One position does not offer sufficient scope
for their powers or talents, does not bring them sufficient income; they
are "forced," they explain, to take on something in addition. I have
known such young men. But so far as I have been able to discern, the
trouble does not lie so much with the position they occupy as with
themselves. When a man turns away from the position he holds to outside
affairs, he turns just so far away from the surest path of success. To
do one thing perfectly is better than to do two things only fairly well.
It was told me once, of one of our best-known actors, that outside of
his stage-knowledge he knew absolutely nothing. But he acted well--so
well that he stands to-day at the head of his profession, and has an
income of five figures several times over. All-around geniuses are
rare--so rare that we can hardly find them. It is a pleasant thing to
be able to talk well on many topics; but, after all, that is but a
social accomplishment. To know one thing absolutely means material
success and commercial and mental superiority. I dare say that if some
of our young men understood the needs of the positions they occupy more
fully than they do, the necessity for outside work would not exist.
Right in line with this phase of a young man's work comes the necessity
of his learning that he cannot do evening work and be employed the
entire day as well. It is the most difficult thing for ambitious young
men to understand that night-work is physically and mentally detrimental
to the best business success. Let a machine run night and day, and
before long it will break down; and what a mechanism of iron and steel
cannot bear, the human organism certainly cannot stand. If a young man
employs his evenings for work, he unfits himself for his work during the
day. The mind needs diversion, recreation, rest; and any mentality kept
at a certain tension for more than seven or eight hours per day will
sooner or later lose its keen perceptive powers. No young man true to
his best and wisest interests will employ his evenings in the same line
of thought as that which engrosses him during the day. Mental work is
unlike manual labor in that it tires without physical exhaustion; and
because the worker does not feel it as much when he uses his head for
ten or twelve hours per day as he would if he used the muscles for that
period of time, he goes, nevertheless, unconsciously beyond his powers
of strength. Unknown to him, the strain leaves its mark upon the mind.
Youthful vigor throws its effects off for a while, but not permanently;
and a man's early breakdown when he should be at the zenith of his
powers in middle life is very often directly traceable to an overtaxing
of his powers in early life. But not only is the effect of a future
character; it is noticeable at the time of the indiscretion. It is seen
in the inability of the mind to respond quickly to some suggestion at
the office; and how can it be otherwise when the mind has been worked
beyond its normal capacity? There is no question in my mind whatever
that a young man is untrue to the interests of his employer when he
allows himself to work during the evening hours. Although he may not be
conscious of it himself, he does not come to his work the following
morning as fresh as he might if the mind had been given a season of
diversion and rest.
I know whereof I speak when I touch upon this subject. In common with
other young men who are wiser than their best advisers, I made the
mistake of evening work. For several years I gave up four or five
evenings of each week to literary work. My family, my best friends, my
physician, warned me to desist. But I knew better. Others, I conceded,
undoubtedly had suffered from what I was doing, but I should not. I was
strong, young, and of excellent physique. I could stand it; others could
not; in fact, I was an exception to the rest of the human race. Two or
three years went by, and I was proud of proving to my advisers that I
was right and they were wrong. But suddenly, with scarce a warning, the
blow came. Irritability and nervousness came first; everything annoyed
me. The closing of a door, or the sudden entrance of a person into the
room, caused me to start. The harder I worked the less I seemed to
accomplish. I could not understand it. Then I began to lie awake for a
half-hour after I retired; after a while the half-hour lengthened into
an hour, then into two hours. Finally I had insomnia. After a bit my
digestion did not seem to be as regular; a heavy feeling possessed me
after eating. I was ordered away; stayed a week when I was told I should
remain for a month. But, of course, I knew better. And what is the
result? For the past three years I have suffered from an indigestion as
constant as it is keen; and to-day I have to regulate my food, my hours,
and my habits, with the pleasing prospect that at least two years of
such living are ahead of me before I can hope for relief. And why?
Simply because of working, years ago, when I should have been resting.
But then I did not understand it. I do now, and I wish that every young
man who reads these words might profit by my error. I am fortunate to
get off with nothing more serious than indigestion, but even that
affliction has pains which only those who have suffered them can begin
to fully realize. Night-work, when employed in the day, does not pay; on
the contrary, it kills. I wish fervently and sincerely that five, eight,
or ten years ago I might have reached this point of wisdom. I did not,
but I write it now and here as a warning to young fellows who value
their health, their happiness, their peace of mind, and a comfortable
feeling in the pits of their stomachs.
A fatal error in the case of many young men is that they reach a point
where they make no progress. Now stagnation in a young man's career is
but a synonym for starvation, since there is no such thing as standing
still in the business world of to-day. Either we go backward or we go
forward. When a young man fails to keep abreast of the possibilities of
his position he recedes constantly, if unconsciously, perhaps. The young
man who progresses is he who enters into the spirit of the business of
his employer, and who points out new methods to him, advances new ideas,
suggests new channels and outputs. There is not a more direct road to
the confidence of an employer than for that employer to see that any one
of his clerks understands the details of his business better than
himself. That young man commands the attention of his chief at once, and
when a vacancy occurs he is apt to step into it, if he does not forge
over the shoulders of others. Young men who think clearly, who can
conceive, create, and carry out, are not so plentiful that even a single
one will be lost sight of. It is no special art, and it reflects but
little credit upon any man, to simply fill a position. That is expected
of him; he is engaged to do that, and it is only a fair return for a
certain payment made. The art lies in doing more than was bargained for;
in proving greater than was expected; in making more of a position than
has ever been made before. A quick conception is needed here, the
ability to view a broad horizon; for it is the liberal-minded man, not
the man of narrow limitations, who makes the success of to-day. A young
man showing such qualities to an employer does not remain in one
position long.
Two traps in which young men in business often fall are a disregard for
small things, and an absolute fear of making mistakes. One of the surest
keys to success lies in thoroughness. No matter how great may be the
enterprise undertaken, a regard for the small things is necessary. Just
as the little courtesies of every-day life make life worth the living,
so the little details form the bone and sinew of a great success. A
thing half or three-quarters done is worse than not done at all. Let a
man be careful of the small things in business, and he can generally be
relied upon for the greater ones, provided, of course, that he possesses
broadness of mind. The man who can overcome small worries is greater
than the man who can override great obstacles. When a young man becomes
so ambitious for large success that he overlooks the small things, he is
pretty apt to encounter failure. There is nothing in business so
infinitesimal that we can afford to do it in a slipshod fashion. It is
no art to answer twenty letters in a morning when they are, in reality,
only half answered. When we commend brevity in business letters we do
not mean brusqueness. Nothing stamps the character of a house so clearly
as the letters it sends out.
The fear of making mistakes keeps many a young man down. Of course
errors in business are costly, and it is better not to make them. But,
at the same time, I would not give a snap of the finger for a young man
who has never made mistakes. But there are mistakes and mistakes; some
easy to be overlooked, and others it is better not to blink at in an
employee. A mistake of judgment is possible with us all; the best of us
are not above a wrong decision. And a young man who holds back for fear
of making mistakes loses the first point of success.
I know there are thousands of young men who feel themselves incompetent
for a business career because of a lack of early education. And here
might come in--if I chose to discuss the subject, which I do not--the
oft-mooted question of the exact value of a college education to the
young man in business. Far abler pens than mine have treated of this; it
is certainly not for me to enter into it here. But I will say this: a
young man need not feel that the lack of a college education will stand
in any respect whatever in the way of his success in the business world.
No college on earth ever made a business man. The knowledge acquired in
college has fitted thousands of men for professional success, but it has
also unfitted other thousands for a practical business career. A college
training is never wasted, although I have seen again and again
five-thousand-dollar educations spent on five-hundred-dollar men. Where
a young man can bring a college education to the requirements of a
practical business knowledge it is an advantage. But before our American
colleges become an absolute factor in the business capacities of men,
their methods of study and learning will have to be radically changed. I
have had associated with me both kinds of young men, collegiate and
non-collegiate, and I must confess that the ones who had a better
knowledge of the practical part of life have been those who never saw
the inside of a college and whose feet never stood upon a campus.
College-bred men and men who never had college advantages have succeeded
in about equal ratios. The men occupying the most important commercial
positions in New York to-day are self-made, whose only education has
come to them from contact with that greatest college of all, the
business world. Far be it from me to depreciate the value of a college
education. I believe in its advantages too firmly. But no young man need
feel hampered because of the lack of it. If business qualities are in
him they will come to the surface. It is not the college education; it
is the young man. Without its possession as great and honorable
successes have been made as with it. Men are not accepted in the
business world upon their collegiate diplomas, nor on the knowledge
these imply. They are taken for what they are, for what they know.
The young man engaged in business to-day in this country has advantages
exceeding those of any generation before him. And I do not say this
simply as an echo of what others before me have said, or to use a
platitudinous phrase. There never was a time in the world's history when
a young man had the opportunity to make something of himself that he has
at the present day. He lives in a country where every success is
possible; where a man can make of himself what he may choose; where
energy and enterprise are appreciated, and a market is always ready for
good wares. Young men have forged to the front wonderfully during the
past ten years. Employers are more than ever willing to lay great
responsibilities on their shoulders. Salaries are higher than ever;
young men never before earned the incomes which are received by some
to-day. All success is possible.
But a young man must be alert to every opportunity. He cannot forget
himself for a moment in business. A man's best working years are not
many, and when they are upon him he must make hay, and all the hay he
can. No young man can afford to reach the age of thirty without feeling
that he is settled in a business way. Before that time he flounders; but
at thirty the floundering time should be over. He should have found that
special trade or profession for which he thinks he is most capable. This
age is generally accepted, I believe, for the reason that a man is most
likely to do his best work between thirty and forty; after forty a man's
work is not apt to have that energy and snap that is born of youth, and
the tendency is first shown in his willingness to deputize details to
others. I do not mean to say that a man begins to decline at forty; on
the contrary, he is at his prime, and he remains so for ten or fifteen
years. But he is better for judgment than he is for working out details.
A man's real work, his energetic work, his laborious work, is generally
done before he reaches thirty-five.
And not only must he practically make himself between thirty and forty,
but he must not spend all that he earns. He must lay aside a goodly
portion of his earnings. It is a cruel but a hard fact that the business
world has very little use for what are termed old men nowadays; and in
these times of keen competitive strife a man is judged to be old very
early from the cold commercial point of view. He may not consider
himself as being old, but he is no longer considered to be "in the race"
with the younger men, who naturally have quicker perceptions and whose
sense of alertness is necessarily keener. The most successful man at
forty is very often the man who is quietly pushed aside at sixty. If
young men earning good incomes between thirty and forty would look a
little ahead, and consider the inevitable fact that as they grow older
their value is very apt to lessen in a commercial sense, they would save
themselves much after-humiliation and sorrowful retrospection. It is
hard for a young man at, say, thirty-five, in the full flush and vigor
of manhood, to realize that a time will come when others as clever as
himself and a bit cleverer will pass him by. But the cold fact exists,
nevertheless, and he is wise who, at his prime, thinks of a time which
is almost sure to come to every man who lives.
And yet, while a young man may be ambitious for success in business, he
cannot afford to get impatient or restless. Not long ago I received a
letter from a young fellow which particularly reflected the feeling that
I mean. He wrote me that he was twenty, and was impatient because he did
not make the progress in his business which he felt that he should. He
confessed that he was not so very much dissatisfied with his salary,
which was twenty-two dollars per week, although he thought it ought to
be forty dollars. Unfortunately for him, however, his employers did not
seem to think so, and he was quite sure he was "being kept back." He
conceded that he was "becoming impatient," but insisted that he had
reason to feel so.
Well, I felt precisely the same way when I was twenty; only my salary
was eighteen dollars and thirty-three cents per week, and I felt quite
sure that the figures ought to be reversed. And there were several
positions just beyond me, too, which I felt I should justly be asked to
occupy. But I was not, and, of course, I felt aggrieved. I considered
myself imposed upon. Now when I look back upon that time I can see that
the reason my salary was not thirty-three dollars and eighteen cents was
simply because I was incapable of earning that amount. I was not worth
it to my employer. And the reason I did not get those several positions
just ahead of me was because I could not have filled them if I had
gotten them--not one of them. But I am a little more than twenty now,
and my correspondent, when he is about ten years older, will understand
a great many things that are not very clear to him just now. Of course
he probably will not choose to believe this; youths of twenty are not
apt to believe much that is told them, since they have so little to
learn!
But, if I were back to twenty again, and, with my later knowledge, were
earning twenty-two dollars per week, I should not only be satisfied, but
I should be intensely thankful. I think, too, that the knowledge that
there were thousands of men of forty and fifty years who were not
earning as much would help me to endure the ordeal. I think that instead
of rebelling at the fact that I was earning twenty-two dollars, I should
rather devote my time to trying to find the best way of doubling it. I
might not be able to make twenty-five dollars for a year or two, but I
should endeavor to do so. In fact, if we look over the field, there are
more young men of twenty-one who are worth less than twenty-five dollars
per week than there are who are worth that or more. And one proof of
this is found in the fact that in New York City alone there are tens of
thousands of young men at that age who are not earning eighteen dollars
per week. In addition to all this I might be tempted to believe that too
rapid advance might not be the best thing in the world for me. Too large
an income, even when deserved, is far often more of a hindrance to a
young man of twenty-one or thereabouts than a help. What I should feel
willing to do would be this: if I felt that my employer was a man of
honor and judgment I should leave myself in his hands for a while. I
should do him the courtesy of believing that he knew more than I did. A
man at fifty is sometimes apt to know more--if only a very little
more--than a boy of twenty; and if I had his confidence and felt that I
was pleasing him with my services, I should let him go at that--for a
time, at any rate.
There are hundreds of young men in business to-day who feel just as
restless and impatient as did this correspondent. But these young men
should bear a few things in mind. They should remember, first of all,
that between the years of twenty and twenty-five a young man acquires
rather than achieves. It is the learning period of life, the
experience-gaining time. Knowledge that is worth anything does not come
to us until we are past twenty-five. The mind before that age is
incapable of forming wise judgments. The great art of accurate decision
in business matters is not acquired in a few weeks of commercial life.
It is the result of years. It is not only the power within himself, but
the experience behind him, that makes a successful business man. The
commercial world is only a greater school than the one of slates and
slate-pencils. No boy, after attending school for five years, would
consider himself competent to teach. And surely five years of commercial
apprenticeship will not fit a young man to assume a position of trust,
nor give him the capacity to decide upon important business matters. In
the first five years--yes, in the first ten years--of a young man's
business life he is only in the primary department of the great
commercial world. It is for him, then, to study methods, to observe
other men--in short, to learn and not hope to achieve. That will come
later. Business, simple as it may look to the young man, is,
nevertheless, a very intricate affair, and it is only by years of
closest study that we master an understanding of it.
The electric atmosphere of the American business world is all too apt to
make our young men impatient. They want to fly before they can even walk
well. Ambition is a splendid thing in any young man. But getting along
too fast is just as injurious as getting along too slow. A young man
between twenty and twenty-five must be patient. I know patience is a
difficult thing to cultivate, but it is among the first lessons we must
learn in business. A good stock of patience, acquired in early life,
will stand a man in good stead in later years. It is a handy thing to
have and draw upon, and makes a splendid safety-valve. Because a young
man, as he approaches twenty-five, begins to see things more plainly
than he did five years before, he must not get the idea that he is a
business man yet, and entitled to a man's salary. If business questions
which he did not understand five years before now begin to look clearer
to him, it is because he is passing through the transitory state that
divides the immature judgment of the young man from the ripening
penetration of the man. He is simply beginning. From that point he will
grow, and his salary will grow as he grows. But Rome was not built in a
day, and a business man is not made in a night. As experience comes, the
judgment will become mature; and by the time the young man reaches
thirty he will begin to realize that he did not know as much at
twenty-five as he thought he did. And when he is ready to learn from
others he will begin to grow wise. And when he reaches that state where
he is willing to concede that he has not a "corner" in knowledge, he
will be stepping out of the chrysalis of youth.
And so to a young man in business or just starting in business I would
say, remember these very essential truths.
Above all things, before a young man attempts to make a success he
should convince himself that he is in a congenial business. Whether it
be a trade or a profession--both are honorable and productive--let him
satisfy himself, above everything else, that it enlists his personal
interest. If a man shows that he has his work at heart his success can
be relied on. Personal interest in any work will bring other things; but
all the other essentials combined cannot create personal interest. That
must exist first; then two thirds of the battle is won. Fully satisfied
that he is in that particular line of business for which he feels a
stronger, warmer interest than for any other, then he should remember:
First, that, whatever else he may strive to be, he must, above all, be
absolutely honest. From honorable principles he can never swerve. A
temporary success is often possible on what are not exactly dishonest,
but "shady" lines. Such success, however, is only temporary, with a
certainty of permanent loss. The surest business successes--yes, the
only successes worth the making--are built upon honest foundations.
There can be no "blinking" at the truth or at honesty, no half-way
compromise. There is but one way to be successful, and that is to be
absolutely honest; and there is but one way of being honest. Honesty is
not only the foundation, but the capstone as well, of business success.
Second, he must be alert, alive to every opportunity. He cannot afford
to lose a single point, for that single point might prove the very link
that would make complete the whole chain of a business success.
Third, he must ever be willing to learn, never overlooking the fact that
others have long ago forgotten what he has still to learn. Firmness of
decision is an admirable trait in business. The young man whose opinion
can be tossed from one side to another is poor material. But youth is
full of errors, and caution is a strong trait.
Fourth, if he be wise he will entirely avoid the use of liquors. If the
question of harm done by intoxicating liquor is an open one, the
question of the actual good derived from it is not.
Fifth, let him remember that a young man's strongest recommendation is
his respectability. Some young men, apparently successful, may be flashy
in dress, loud in manner, and disrespectful of women and sacred things.
But the young man who is respectable always wears best. The way a young
man carries himself in his private life ofttimes means much to him in
his business career. No matter where he is, or in whose company,
respectability, and all that it implies, will always command respect.