_YOUNG MEN AND SUCCESS._
The line between boys and young men is invisible. Those who pass it
cannot tell where it lies. But the time comes when they no longer admit
to themselves or others that they are boys. They bear about the pleasant
consciousness that they are nearer the heart of a business life than
they were a while before. They may be apprentices, collectors, entry
clerks, shipping clerks, bookkeepers, salesmen behind the counter, or
on the road, but they are no longer boys and they are not yet partners.
A numerous class, they will become largely the business men of the next
generation. Even now they represent immense personal, domestic and public
interests. Who can think of them without emotion! It does not require
a broad sweep of observation and recollection to bring into view from
the two extremes young men who have utterly failed and others who have
won honorable success; those who have sealed their own doom and dragged
others down with them to an abyss of shame and misery, and those who have
become princes in the earth.
It is worth asking at the outset what meaning we ought to attach to the
words “success” and “failure” in business.
We do not account him successful who gains large wealth, leaving it to
his family and even to public institutions of great usefulness, but who
does it at the cost of personal integrity, character and reputation. We
do not need examples of men who have grown rich by doubtful methods of
business, by perversion of office and trust funds, and who have already
sunk or are now sinking into depths of infamy and woe opened by their own
hands.
Nor is he successful who gains wealth honestly, and hoards it—against
all the claims of humanity and the revealed will of God—until his riches
are corrupted, his gold and silver cankered, the rust of them even now,
before the last day, eating his flesh as it were fire.
Men utterly fail, though possessed of millions, who make shipwreck of
character in the sight of their Maker and their fellow-men.
Many fail for lack of qualities and habits, and, it may be,
opportunities, that condition success. But _they do not_ fail who use
all diligence, and their best wisdom and opportunity, and yet become
poor without the loss of a good conscience toward God and man. And they
certainly succeed who amass wealth or a competency while maintaining
their integrity in relation to God and their honor among men.
It may be well to state here some of the well-ascertained facts in regard
to the percentage of success and failure in business, using the words in
their most limited meaning.
Only from three to five in every hundred men who embark in business
have large and permanent success. And these are not chiefly those who
begin with large capital. For the most part they are men who have been
architects of their own fortunes. Beginning as boys on low wages, and
passing through all grades of advancement from the lowest to the highest,
they have at last become strong enough to make their own terms with those
who have gladly recognized their ability and integrity as the equivalent
of large capital; or without such aid they have worked their way to
splendid success.
About ten out of a hundred have moderate success. Without aspiring to the
rank of millionaires they have an abundance for personal and family use,
and are able to share freely, if so inclined, in the beneficence of their
times.
The remaining eighty-five in a hundred are on a sliding scale from
partial success to utter failure. Leaving out of view all the cases
in which men of integrity and ability fail by reason of unavoidable
calamity, or lack of opportunity, how shall we account for the large
percentage of failures? And as the percentage continues from year to
year, and perhaps increases from generation to generation, it seems clear
that the reasons are permanent and powerful.
It certainly throws a deep shadow over households and communities to
think that young men have before them such gloomy prospects. Can we not
brighten them? Must every hundred young men, full of the strength and
enterprise belonging to their age, advance toward the goal of their
ambition under the depressing thought that only from five to twenty are
likely to win prizes? At best the cares and responsibilities and risks
of business men are very great. But I do not believe that circumstances
external to themselves control the business destiny of young men. They
may avoid disastrous failure and win success. At least a very large
percentage of them may win the wholesome success which consists in having
neither poverty nor riches; for this after all may be welcomed as the
safest and best condition. But they may also be prepared by excellence
of character, and by habits of business and of life, for the possession
and use of large wealth, under the great responsibility of stewards who
are yet to give account to the real Proprietor of all the treasures in
the world.
It should be remembered that young men may succeed as clerks and utterly
fail as the responsible heads of business concerns. For this reason the
conditions of success, of which I am about to write, have reference
largely to times beyond the years of apprenticeship and subordination.
Young men may enjoy the confidence of their employers while they are
disqualifying themselves for independent action. Devotion to their
interests may secure rapid advancement in positions and salaries. They
may be extravagant and immoral, and yet have qualities that cover their
faults and commend them to favor. While they remain under the direction
and control of men better and stronger than themselves they may be
congratulated as already successful, while they are bearing about in
their own persons all the conditions of sure and disastrous failure.
The first and fundamental condition of real and permanent success is good
character. This may be set down without qualification. Character is an
engraving. A good character answers to a divine ideal or pattern. It is
not made in a day, and if marred it can be restored. Bearing the deep
cuts and finer lines of truth and righteousness and pureness, it will
bear the violence of temptation in private, social, and business life,
and the severer testing of the last day.
Of course such a character is secretly and openly religious. Only when
young men consent to commit the keeping of their souls and bodies to
Jesus Christ, and to bear any cross that in his love and faithfulness he
may lay upon them, can they be strong in the Lord and the power of his
might.
How suggestive the words of the disciple whom Jesus loved with a
peculiar personal affection: “I have written unto you, young men, because
ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome
the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the
world.”
I hope no young man searching for the conditions of success in his
business life, if he reads these pages, will make light of this, which
is first and most important of all. That cannot be called success which
secures more than heart can wish for the life that now is, and not the
life to come. “Look well to thy goings,” was the earnest counsel of one
who knew well the dangers of the young man. “Look well to thy goings; it
is a narrow path. Look well to thy goings; it is a new path. Look well
to thy goings; it is a slippery path. Look well to thy goings; it is an
eventful path.”
In a long life I have seen many young men begin a business career with
great advantages and brilliant prospects, but their light went out in
darkness because they did not cleanse their ways by taking heed thereto
according to God’s word.
But I have also seen and now have in full view young men who early sought
refuge from their sins, and from all the perils of life, by coming
frankly to Jesus Christ in their conscious need. Invited to his presence,
and assured of his love and help, they took him at his word and found
rest to their souls. There is no harmless lawful pleasure that is denied
them. The peace of God is in their hearts. The service to which they are
called brings its own reward. The joy of the Lord is their strength. They
confess Christ as their Saviour and look forward to the momentous time
when he will fulfil his word and openly confess them. They keep company
with those who bear the Christian name, and give the full vigor of their
young manhood to well-doing in their daily business and in all the
relations of life.
Ask them if they are in bonds that they wish to break. You will get a
quick and emphatic answer: “Ours is the liberty of doing right because we
love to; and that is the glorious liberty of the children of God.”