WHY SOME SUCCEED AND OTHERS FAIL
Life's highway is strewn with failures, just as the sea bed is strewn
with wrecks.
A large percentage of those who embark in commercial undertakings fail,
according to the records of commercial agencies.
Why do men fail? Why do adventures into business, happily launched,
terminate in disastrous wreck?
Why do the few succeed and the many fail? Some failures are relative
and not absolute; a partial success is achieved; a success that goes
limping along through life; but the goal of ambition is unreached, the
heart's desire unattained.
There are so many elements that enter into business that it is
impossible to more than indicate them. Health, natural aptitude,
temperament, disposition, a right start and in the right place,
hereditary traits, good judgment, common sense, level-headedness, etc.,
are all factors which enter into one's chance of success in life. The
best we can do in one chapter is to hang out the red flag over the
dangerous places; to chart the rocks and shoals, whereon multitudes of
vessels, which left the port of youth with flying colors, favoring
breezes and every promise of a successful voyage, have been wrecked and
lost.
The lack of self-confidence and lack of faith in one's ideas in one's
mission in life have caused innumerable failures.
People who don't get on and who don't know why, do not realize the
power of trifles to mar a career, what little things are killing their
business or injuring their profession; do not realize how little things
injure their credit; such as the lack of promptness in paying bills, or
meeting a note at the bank.
Many men fail because they thought they had the field and were in no
danger from competition, so that the heads of the firm took it easy, or
because some enterprising up-to-date, progressive young man came to
town, and, before they realized it, took their trade away from them,
because they got into a rut, and didn't keep up-to-date stock and an
attractive store.
They don't realize what splendid salesmen, an attractive place of
business, up-to-date methods, and courteous treatment of customers mean.
Men often fail because they do not realize that creeping paralysis,
caused by dry rot, is gradually strangling their business. Many
business men fail because they dare not look their business conditions
in the face when things go wrong, and do not adopt heroic methods, but
continue to use palliatives, until the conditions are beyond cure, even
with a surgeon's knife.
Lots of men fail because they don't know how to get rid of deadwood in
their establishment, or retain non-productive employees, who with
slip-shod methods, and indifference drive away more business than the
proprietors can bring in by advertising.
Many other men fail because they tried bluff in place of capital, and
proper training, or because they didn't keep up with the times.
Lots of young people fail to get ahead and plod along in mediocrity
because they never found their place. They are round pegs in square
holes. Others are not capable of coping with antagonism. Favoritism
of proprietors and managers has killed many a business. A multitude of
men fail to get on because they take themselves too seriously. They
deliver their goods in a hearse, employ surly, unaccommodating clerks.
Bad business manners have killed many a business. Slave-driving
methods, inability to get along with others, lack of system, defective
organizing ability, have cut short many a career.
A great many men are ruined by "side-lines" things outside their
regular vocation. Success depends upon efficiency, and efficiency is
impossible without intense, persistent concentration. Many traveling
men think that they can pick up a little extra money and increase their
income by taking up some "side-line." But it is always the small man,
never the big one, who has a "side-line." Many of these men remain
small, and are never able to rise to a big salaried position because
they split up their endeavor, dissipate their energy. "Side-lines" are
dangerous because they divert the mind, scatter effort, and nothing
great can be accomplished without _intense concentration_.
Many people are always driving success away from them by their
antagonistic manner, and their pessimistic thought. _They work for one
thing, but expect something else_. They don't realize that their
mental attitude must correspond with their ambition; that if they are
working hard to get on, they must expect prosperity, and not kill their
prospects by their adverse mental attitude--their doubts and fears.
Lots of men are ruined by "a sure thing," an inside tip, buying stocks
on other people's judgment.
Many people fail because they lose their grit after they fail, or when
they get down, they don't know how to get up. Many are victims of
their moods, slaves of despondency. Courage and an optimistic outlook
upon life are imperative to the winner. Fear is fatal to success.
Many a young man fails because he can not multiply himself in others,
can not delegate his work, is lost in detail. Other men fail in an
attempt to build up a big business; their minds are not trained to
grasp large subjects, to generalize, to make combinations; they are not
self-reliant, depending upon other people's judgment and advice.
Many a man who works hard himself, does not know how to handle men, and
does not know how to use other people's brains.
Thousands of youths fail to get on because they never fall in love with
their work. Work that is drudgery never succeeds.
Fifty years ago, a stable-boy cleaned the horses of a prosperous hotel
proprietor, who drove into Denver for supplies. That boy became
Governor of Colorado, and later the hotel-keeper, with shattered
fortunes, was glad to accept a place as watchman at the hand of the
former stable-boy.
Life is made up of such contrasts. Every successful man, in whatever
degree and in whatever line, has, at every step of his life, been on
seemingly equal terms with hundreds of his fellows who, later, reached
no such measure of success as he. Every miserable failure has had at
some time as many chances, and at least as much possibility of
cultivating the same qualities, as the successful people have had at
some time in their lives.
Since humble birth and handicaps of every sort and degree have not
prevented success in the determined man; since want has often spurred
to needed action and obstacles but train to higher leaping, why should
men fail? What causes the failures and half-successes that make up the
generality of mankind?
The answer is manifold, but its lesson is plain. As one writer has
expressed it, "_Every mainspring of success is a mainspring of failure,
when wound around the wrong way._" Every opportunity for advancement,
for climbing for success, is just as much an opportunity for failure.
Every success quality can be turned to one's disadvantage through
excessive development or wrong use. No matter how broad and strong the
dike may be, if a little hole lets the water through, ruin and disaster
are sure. Possession of almost all the success-qualities may be
absolutely nullified by one or two faults or vices. Sometimes one or
two masterful traits of character will carry a person to success, in
spite of defects that are a serious clog.
The numerous failures who wish always to blame their misfortunes upon
others, or upon external circumstances, find small comfort in
statistics compiled by those who have investigated the subject. In
analyzing the causes of business failure in a recent year
_Bradstreet's_ found that seven-tenths were due to faults of those
failing, and only three-tenths to causes entirely beyond their control.
Faults causing failure, with per cent. of failures caused by each, are
given as follows: incompetence, 19 per cent.; inexperience, 7.8 per
cent.; lack of capital, 30.3 per cent.; unwise granting of credit, 3.6
per cent.; speculation, 2.3 per cent. It may be explained that "lack
of capital" really means attempting to do too much with inadequate
capital. This is a purely commercial analysis of purely commercial
success. Character delinquencies must be read between the lines.
Forty successful men were induced, not long ago, to answer in detail
the question, "What, in your observation, are the chief causes of the
failure in life of business or professional men?" The causes
attributed by these representative men were as follows:
Bad habits; bad judgment; bad luck; bad associates; carelessness of
details; constant assuming of unjustifiable risks; desire to become
rich too fast; drinking; dishonest dealings; desire of retrenchment;
dislike to say no at the proper time; disregard of the Golden Rule;
drifting with the tide; expensive habits of life; extravagance: envy;
failure to appreciate one's surroundings; failure to grasp one's
opportunities; frequent changes from one business to another; fooling
away of time in pursuit of a so-called good time, gambling;
inattention; incompetent assistants; incompetency; indolence; jealousy.
Lack of attention to business; of application; of adaptation; of
ambition; of business methods; of capital; of conservatism; of close
attention to business; of confidence in self; of careful accounting; of
careful observation; of definite purpose; of discipline in early life;
of discernment of character; of enterprise; of energy; of economy; of
faithfulness; of faith in one's calling; of industry; of integrity; of
judgment; of knowledge of business requirements; of manly character; of
natural ability; of perseverance; of pure principles; of proper
courtesy toward people; of purpose; of pluck; of promptness in meeting
business engagements; of system. Late hours; living beyond one's
income; leaving too much to one's employees; neglect of details; no
inborn love for one's calling; over-confidence in the stability of
existing conditions; procrastination; speculative mania; selfishness;
self-indulgence in small vices; studying ease rather than vigilance;
social demoralization; thoughtless marriages; trusting one's work to
others; undesirable location; unwillingness to pay the price of
success; unwillingness to bear early privations; waste; yielding too
easily to discouragement.
Surely, here is material enough for a hundred sermons if one cared to
preach them. Without attempting to discuss all these causes of
failure, some few may be profitably examined.
No youth can hope to succeed who is timid, who lacks faith in himself,
who has not the courage of his convictions, and who always seeks for
certainty before he ventures. "Self-distrust is the cause of most of
our failures," said one. "In the assurance of strength there is
strength, and they are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith
in themselves or their powers."
"The ruin which overtakes so many merchants," said another, "is due,
not so much to their lack of business talent, as to their lack of
business nerve. How many lovable persons we see in trade, endowed with
brilliant capacities, but cursed with yielding dispositions--who are
resolute in no business habits and fixed in no business principles--who
are prone to follow the instincts of a weak good nature, against the
ominous hints of a clear intelligence; now obliging this friend by
indorsing an unsafe note, and then pleasing that neighbor by sharing
his risk in a hopeless speculation, and who, after all the capital they
have earned by their industry and sagacity has been sunk in benevolent
attempts to assist blundering or plundering incapacity, are doomed, in
their bankruptcy, to be the mark of bitter taunts from growling
creditors and insolent pity from a gossiping public."
Scattering one's forces has killed many a man's success. Withdrawal of
the best of yourself from the work to be done is sure to bring final
disaster. Every particle of a man's energy, intellect, courage, and
enthusiasm is needed to win success in one line. Draw off part of the
supply of any one or all of these, and there is danger that what is
left will not suffice. A little inattention to one's business at a
critical point is quite sufficient to cause shipwreck. The pilot who
pays attention to a pretty passenger is not likely to bring his ship to
port. Attractive side issues, great schemes, and flattering promises
of large rewards, too often lure the business or professional man from
the safe path in which he may plod on to sure success. Many a man
fails to become a great man, by splitting into several small ones,
choosing to be a tolerable Jack-at-all-trades, rather than to be an
unrivalled specialist.
Lack of thoroughness is another great cause of failure. The world is
overcrowded with men, young and old, who remain stationary, filling
minor positions, and drawing meager salaries, simply because they have
never thought it worth while to achieve mastery in the pursuits they
have chosen to follow.
Lack of education has caused many failures; if a man has success
qualities in him, he will not long lack such education as is absolutely
necessary to his success. He will walk fifty miles if necessary to
borrow a book, like Lincoln. He will hang by one arm to a street lamp,
and hold his book with the other, like a certain Glasgow boy. He will
study between anvil blows, like Elihu Burritt; he will do some of the
thousand things that other noble strugglers have done to fight against
circumstances that would deprive them of what they hunger for.
"The five conditions of failure," said H. H. Vreeland, president of the
Metropolitan Street Railway Company of New York, "may be roughly
classified thus: first, laziness, and particularly mental laziness;
second, lack of faith in the efficiency of work; third, reliance on the
saving grace of luck; fourth, lack of courage, initiative and
persistence: fifth, the belief that the young man's job affects his
standing, instead of the young man's affecting the standing of his job."
Look where you will, ask of whom you will, and you will find that not
circumstances, but personal qualities, defects and deficiencies, cause
failures. This is strongly expressed by a wealthy manufacturer who
said: "Nothing else influences a man's career in life so much as his
disposition. He may have capacity, knowledge, social position, or
money to back him at the start; but it is his disposition that will
decide his place in the world at the end. Show me a man who is,
according to popular prejudice, a victim of bad luck, and I will show
you one who has some unfortunate, crooked twist of temperament that
invites disaster, He is ill-tempered, or conceited, or trifling, or
lacks enthusiasm."
There are some men whose failure to succeed in life is a problem to
others, as well as to themselves. They are industrious, prudent, and
economical; yet after a long life of striving, old age finds them still
poor. They complain of ill luck, they say fate is against them. But
the real truth is that their projects miscarry, because they mistake
mere activity for energy. Confounding two things essentially
different, they suppose that if they are always busy, they must of
necessity be advancing their fortunes; forgetting that labor
misdirected is but a waste of activity.
The worst of all foes to success is sheer, downright laziness. There
is no polite synonym for laziness. Too many young men are afraid to
work. They are lazy. They aim to find genteel occupations, so that
they can dress well, and not soil their clothes, and handle things with
the tips of their fingers. They do not like to get their shoulders
under the wheel, and they prefer to give orders to others, or figure as
masters, and let some one else do the drudgery. There is no place in
this century for the lazy man. He will be pushed to the wall. Labor
ever will be the inevitable price for everything that is valuable.
A metropolitan daily newspaper not long ago invited confessions by
letter from those who felt that their lives had been failures. The
newspaper agreed not to disclose the name or identity of any person
making such a confession, and requested frank statements. Two
questions were asked: "Has your life been a failure? Has your business
been a failure?"
Some of the replies were pitiable in the extreme.
Some attributed their failures to a cruel fate which seemed to pursue
them and thwart all their efforts, some to hereditary weaknesses,
deformities, and taints, some to a husband or a wife, others to
"inhospitable surroundings," and "cruel circumstances."
It is worthy of note that not one of these failures mentioned laziness
as a cause.
Here are some of the reasons they did give:
"J. P. T." considered that his life was a failure from too much genius.
He said he thought he could do anything, and therefore he couldn't wait
to graduate from college, but left and began the practise of law, was
principal of an academy, overworked himself, and had too many irons in
the fire. He failed, he said, from dissipating his energies, and
having too much confidence in men.
"Rutherford," said he had four chances to succeed in life, but lost
them all. The first cause of his failure was lack of perseverance. He
tired of the sameness and routine of his occupation. His second
shortcoming was too great liberality, too much confidence in others.
Third, economy was not in his dictionary. Fourth, "I had too much
hope, even in the greatest extremities." Fifth, "I believed too much
in friends and friendships. I couldn't read human nature, and did not
make allowance enough for mistakes." Sixth, "I never struck my
vocation." Seventh, "I had no one to care for, to spur me on to do
something in the world. I am seventy years old, never drank, never had
bad habits, always attended church. But I am as poor as when I started
for myself."
"G. C. S." failed dismally. "My weakness was building air-castles. I
had a burning desire to make a name in the world, and came to New York
from the country. Rebuffed, discouraged, I drifted. I had no heart
for work. I lacked ability and push, without which no life can be a
success."
"Lacked ability and push."--Push _is_ ability. Laziness is lack of
push. Nothing can take the place of push. Push means industry and
endurance and everlasting stick-to-it-ive-ness.
"A somewhat varied experience of men has led me, the longer I live,"
said a great man, "to set less value on mere cleverness; to attach more
and more importance to industry and physical endurance."
Goethe said that industry is nine-tenths of genius, and Franklin that
diligence is the mother of good luck. A thousand other tongues and
pens have lauded work. Idleness and shiftlessness may be set down as
causing a large part of the failures of the world.
On every side we see persons who started out with good educations and
great promise, but who have gradually "gone to seed." Their early
ambition oozed out, their early ideals gradually dropped to lower
standards. Ambition is a spring that sets the apparatus going. All
the parts may be perfect, but the lack of a spring is a fatal defect.
Without wish to rise, desire to accomplish and to attain, no life will
succeed largely.
"Chief among the causes which bring positive failure or a disappointing
portion of half success to thousands of honest strugglers is
vacillation," said Thomas B. Bryan.
Many a business man has made his fortune by promptly deciding at some
nice juncture to expose himself to a considerable risk. Yet many
failures are caused by ill-advised changes and causeless vacillation of
purpose. The vacillating man, however strong in other respects, is
always pushed aside in the race of life by the determined man, the
decisive man, who knows what he wants to do and does it; even brains
must give way to decision. One could almost say that no life ever
failed that was steadfastly devoted to one aim, if that aim were not in
itself unworthy.
I am a great believer in a college education, but a great many college
graduates have made failures of their lives who might have succeeded
had they not gone to college, because they depended upon theoretical,
impractical knowledge to help them on, and were not willing to begin at
the bottom after graduation.
On every hand we see men who did well in college, but who do very
poorly in life. They stood high in their classes, were conscientious,
hard workers, but somehow when they get out into life, they do not seem
able to catch on. They are not practical. It would be hard to tell
why they never get ahead, but there seems to be something lacking in
their make-up, some screw loose somewhere. These brilliant graduates,
but indifferently successful men, are often enigmas to themselves.
They don't understand why they don't get on.
There is no doubt that ill-health is often the cause of failure, but
this is often due to a wrong mental attitude, wrong thinking. The
pessimistic, discouraged mental attitude is very injurious to good
health. Worry, fear, anxiety, jealousy, extreme selfishness, poison
the system, so that it does not perform its functions perfectly, and
will cause much ill-health.
A complete reversal of the mental attitude would bring robust health to
multitudes of those who suffer from "poor health." If people would
only think right, and live right, ill-health would be very rare. A
wrong mental attitude is the cause of a large part of physical
weakness, disease, and suffering.
It has been said that the two chief factors of success are industry and
health. But the history of human triumphs over difficulties shows that
the sick, the crippled, the deformed, have often outrun the strong and
hale to the goal of success, in spite of tremendous physical handicaps.
Many such instances are cited in other chapters of this volume.
Where men have built an abiding success, industry and perseverance have
proven the foundation stone? of their great achievements. Every man
may lay this foundation and build on it for himself. Whatever a man's
natural advantages may be, great or small, industry and perseverance
are his, if he chooses. By the exercise of these qualities he may
rise, as others have done, to success, if like Palissy he
"Labors and endures and waits
And what he can not find creates."
WHEN IS SUCCESS A FAILURE?
When you are doing the lower while the higher is possible.
When you are not a cleaner, finer, larger man on account of your
life-work.
When you live only to eat, drink, have a good time, and accumulate
money.
When you do not carry a higher wealth in your character than in your
pocketbook.
When your highest brain cells have been crowded out of business by
greed.
When it has made conscience an accuser, and shut the sunlight out of
your life.
When all sympathy has been crushed out by selfish devotion to your
vocation.
When the attainment of your ambition has blighted the aspirations and
crushed the hopes of others.
When you plead that you never had time to cultivate your friendships,
politeness, or good manners.
When you have lost on your way your self-respect, your courage, your
self-control, or any other quality of manhood.
When you do not overtop your vocation; when you are not greater as a
man than as a lawyer, a merchant, a physician, or a scientist.
When you have lived a double life and practised double-dealing.
When it has made you a physical wreck--a victim of "nerves" and moods.
When the hunger for more money, more land, more houses and bonds has
grown to be your dominant passion.
When it has dwarfed you mentally and morally, and robbed you of the
spontaneity and enthusiasm of youth. When it has hardened you to the
needs and sufferings of others, and made you a scorner of the poor and
unfortunate.
When there is a dishonest or a deceitful dollar in your possession;
when your fortune spells the ruin of widows and orphans, or the
crushing of the opportunities of others.
When your absorption in your work has made you practically a stranger
to your family.
When you go on the principle of getting all you can and giving as
little as possible in return.
When your greed for money has darkened and cramped your wife's life,
and deprived her of self-expression, of needed rest and recreation, or
amusement of any kind.
When the nervous irritability engendered by constant work, without
relaxation, has made you a brute in your home and a nuisance to those
who work for you.
When you rob those who work for you of what is justly their due, and
then pose as a philanthropist by contributing a small fraction of your
unjust gains to some charity or to the endowment of some public
institution.