THE ROAD TO SUCCESS
OR
EASY LESSONS FOR EVERY DAY LIFE
The way to success in anything is always an upward climb, the down grade is always a flat failure.
In considering this matter, it will be well to remember and bear constantly in mind, that it is easier to slide down hill than it is to climb up.
We may say, therefore, that success is purely a question of exertion.
The road to and up the slope of the hill of life is roomy enough and to spare for everybody, and there need not be any crowding. But the way is strewn with wrecks, many submerged before beginning their journey, others lodged in some cranny half way up, and others start up so bravely and so rashly that they can not stop at the summit where the prize is situated, but their momentum carries them over and down to the bottom on the other side.
The steady, earnest worker plods along, sees that his footing is firmly fixed before he takes a next step. He grabs at some retaining point and never lets go of it until he has hold of another support.
When he reaches the top, he can stop and breathe, likewise flatter himself that he has succeeded by hard work and steady perseverance.
The fact is, that unless a man is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, that is, well provided by his ancestors with a goodly supply of this world’s goods, there is no royal road to anything. No man can roll about like a smooth pebble and hope to land into a mossy hollow.
When a man starts off on a voyage he generally has some definite destination in view, some object to be attained when he reaches it. Nobody can spend his life traveling about for the mere purpose of keeping in motion. There is no advantage in this except to the transportation companies.
Here is the keynote to success—character. We do not know what character is, we know only that it accomplishes results.
Why do some men succeed and others fail, assuming that they all start out on the same plane equally well equipped? The reason why can not be told, it lies in the man himself, it is his character.
We are living in an age when new things are utilized; new ways of doing business are demanded. We run to specialties more than we did in the past. Even ten years make a difference in business methods.
If you have aspirations, are they up to the times?
Not so very long ago, one man made everything about a machine. If he had a watch to make, he made the case, the wheels, the springs and all the parts, and also put them together into a perfect instrument. Now, a dozen or more men make, not the watch, but each of the several parts. The cases are machine made by one man; another rolls the springs, another turns the screws, another the wheels, and so on. Every thing is done piecemeal, so to speak, and none of the workers is able to make a perfect watch. So it is with clothing, with furniture, tin and iron ware.
The doctor is a specialist. Something ails your eyes—you must go to an eye specialist, the throat specialist knows nothing about the eyes. Have you a fever? You go to a bacteriologist to find out what germ is infecting you. Formerly you took a dose of salts and senna, or other nauseating drug.
You have a case of collection, but your regular lawyer makes a specialty of criminal cases and can not help you. Perhaps you have been injured in an automobile accident and want damages from the owner, but your regular lawyer does not know anything about damage cases, he is a corporation lawyer, or a divorce lawyer, or a patent attorney, or takes admiralty cases only.
A bookkeeper applies for employment. Do you know anything about cards? This is the question. You know about playing cards, but the employer keeps his accounts on loose cards, not in heavy books.
There is division of labor in every pursuit, and no man can become learned in all of one thing. He may acquire a smattering, but there are no more universal geniuses, the world of industry has become complicated, unlimited, and special.
We see then, the futility of trying all of one thing or aspiring to reach all of one thing. You can not succeed because you have a mere smattering of many details, and not a perfect knowledge of any single detail.
This however, makes the road to success much easier than in the old days. You can become perfect in some one thing, and life is not too short to learn it; it can be mastered.
It goes without saying, that in our intercourse with men we must put them on an equality with us and place ourselves on an equality with them. Are you an inferior man? Then go elsewhere for employment. “I want skilled workmen,” says the employer. “I want a physician that will cure me, not one to experiment upon me,” says the sick man. It is always man to man now-a-days. No cringing, remember, and on the other hand, no bluffing.