However great the obstacles between you and your goal may be or have
been, do not lay the blame of your failure upon them.
Other people have succeeded in overcoming just as great obstacles.
Remove such hindrances from the path for others, if you can, or tell
them a way to go around. Even lead them a little distance and cheer
them on.
But so far as you yourself are concerned, do not stop to excuse any
delinquency or half-heartedness or defeat by the plea of circumstance
or environment.
The great nature makes its own environment, and dominates circumstance.
It all depends upon the amount of force in your own soul.
While you apply this rule to yourself and make no scapegoat of "fate,"
you must have consideration for the weakness of others, and you must
try and better the conditions of the world as you go along.
You are robust and possessed of all your limbs. You can mount over the
great boulder which has fallen in the road to success, and go on your
way to your goal all the stronger for the experience.
But behind you comes a one-legged man--a blind man--a man bowed to the
earth with a heavy burden, which he cannot lay down.
It will require weeks, months, years of effort on their part to climb
over that rock which you surmounted in a few hours.
So it is right and just for you to call other strong ones to your aid
and roll the boulder away or blast it out of the path.
That is just exactly the way you should think of the present industrial
conditions.
In spite of them, the strong, well-poised, earnest and determined soul
can reach any desired success.
But there are boulders in the road which do not belong there, boulders
which cause hundreds of the pilgrims who are lame or blind or burdened,
to fall by the wayside and perish.
It is your duty to aid in removing these obstacles and in making the
road a safe and clear thoroughfare for all who journey.
Do not sit down by the roadside and say you have been hindered by these
difficulties, that is to confess yourself weak.
Do not mount over them and rush to your goal and say coldly to the
throngs behind you, "Oh, everybody can climb over that rock who really
tries--didn't I?" That is to announce yourself selfish and
unsympathetic.
No doubt the lame, the blind and the burdened _could_ attain the goal
despite the rocks if they were fired by a consciousness of the divine
force within them; that consciousness can achieve _all things under all
circumstances_.
But there will always be thousands of pilgrims toiling wearily toward
the goal who have not come to this realization.
If there are unjust, unfair and unkind restrictions placed about them,
see to it that you do all in your power to right what is wrong.
But never wait to attain your own success because of these restrictions
or obstacles.
Believe absolutely in your own God-given power to overcome anything and
everything.
Think of yourself as performing miracles with God's aid.
Desire success so intensely that you attract if as the magnet attracts
the steel.
Help to adjust things as you go along, but never for a moment believe
that the lack of adjustment can cause you to fail.