“The story of my further progress can be of little interest to those
who are beginning life in the financial world. My early preparation in
the New York village was most useful, and, since I had also benefited
from my experience with the world, my position was secure. If a young
man has some preparation for his work, if he secures a proper opening,
and if he behaves himself, there can be no question of his future. In
two years after I entered the service of the Merchants’ Loan and Trust
Company, I was given the position of cashier, at an annual salary of
two thousand dollars, and naturally I was encouraged to find that my
efforts were appreciated. I enjoyed my work, and was more convinced
than ever before that banking was the career for which I was best
fitted by nature.
“Every successful man started in a different way from that adopted by
any other, and there is no rule which can be laid down as certain to
win in the end. Some have received the benefit of a college training,
and others have been self-educated. Some began life in other business
and drifted into banking, and some were employed in financial houses
from the very beginning. It often happens that those who make the most
earnest efforts to succeed accomplish less than others who have had
less preparation for the work. The prizes of life do not always come to
the most deserving. Many things must co-operate to bring great results.
Innate ability, which schools cannot furnish, must find conjunction
with conditions, circumstances, and opportunities which lie outside of
individual control. If you find a man great, distinguished, a business
Saul among his brethren, do not worship him overmuch. Perhaps among the
humble and unrecognized are a score or a hundred as worthy as he, to
whom circumstances were unfavorable or opportunity did not come.
“The public appreciates more and more the importance of investing
money in men, not in buildings. When I hear of large gifts to erect
magnificent halls at our colleges, I think what greater good would be
accomplished if that money were used to help a number of deserving
young men and women through their college courses. When these young
people have finished their work in the world, they may each and all
be able to erect fifty-thousand-dollar buildings for their _alma
maters_. A certain generous-minded man once said to me, ‘I have given
money quite freely to help the distressed, to soften the bitterness of
helpless age, and to alleviate the condition of the unfortunate; but
there was little or no inspiration in it. When, on the other hand, I
have helped a bright boy to secure for himself a good education, my
imagination has become effected. I have seen my dollars—won by hard
application, in sordid ways,—transmitted into intellectual agencies
powerful to effect the thoughts and feelings of generations which will
live when I am dead.’ This sentiment is becoming prevalent among the
thoughtful men of America.”