I inquired whether the chances for young men in Great Britain are equal
to those in America.
“That is a difficult question to answer,” said Sir Thomas. “Being a
merchant, I can speak of trade opportunities, but in the professions
I really do not know which side of the Atlantic is the better.
Literature, of course, knows no country; neither does art. In the legal
profession, the chances are two to one in favor of the United States.
You make more of your lawyers there; you utilize them in legislation,
in places of trust, while abroad their duties are limited. A good
physician in England will probably make as much money as your leading
ones here. Taking it altogether, there seems to be as good a chance for
professional men on one side as on the other. The British isles are
small compared with the states, but young men are going out every day
into new British fields, just as your young men are pushing out into
every part of your magnificent stretch of country.
“THRIFT IS THE TRUE SECRET OF SUCCESS.”
“When men tell you,” continued the baronet, “that there are no more
chances in this world, tell them that they are mistaken. Your country
abounds in so many that I marvel why any American cares to leave
its shores. There are thousands of manufactures that are still in an
imperfect state; there are millions of acres that are still to be made
productive; there are, seemingly, countless achievements yet to be
undertaken. What I say is best proven by the international yacht races.
Every year we race we believe that we have produced the best possible
boat, but we find, after the race is over, that we can improve it in
some respect. If all men would use their minds in the same way that the
builders of these big yachts use theirs, what a world of improvement
would be made! After every race, we produce something better, something
finer,—the result of brains and workmanship,—and we are not satisfied
yet.
“I have often been asked to define the true secret of success. It
is thrift in all its phases, and, principally, thrift as applied to
saving. A young man may have many friends, but he will find none so
steadfast, so constant, so ready to respond to his wants, so capable of
pushing him ahead, as a little leather-covered book, with the name of a
bank on its cover. Saving is the first great principle of all success.
It creates independence, it gives a young man standing, it fills him
with vigor, it stimulates him with the proper energy; in fact, it
brings to him the best part of any success,—happiness and contentment.
If it were possible to inject the quality of saving into every boy, we
would have a great many more real men.
“Success depends also on character to carry it through life.
“Knowledge should be a compound of what we derive from books, and what
we extract, by our observation, from the living world around us. Both
of these are necessary to the well-informed man; and, of the two, the
last is, by far, the most useful for the practical purposes of life.
The man who can combine the teachings of books with strong and close
observation of life, deserves the name of a well-informed man, and
presents a model worthy of imitation.”
The great passion of Sir Thomas’s life, yachting, has been a costly
indulgence for him, yet he has inadvertently secured more popularity
through his efforts to win the “America’s” Cup than would have been
possible in any other way. The three “Shamrocks” have cost him, all
told, reckoning the expenses of sailing the races as part of the grand
total, more than one million dollars.