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Title: The Young Man in Business
Author: Edward W. Bok
Release Date: March 3, 2010 [EBook #31494]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS ***
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[Illustration: book-cover
THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS
THE DAY'S WORK SERIES]
The Day's Work Series
THE YOUNG MAN
IN BUSINESS
BY
EDWARD BOK
BOSTON
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
MDCCCC
Copyright, 1900
BY EDWARD BOK.
All rights reserved
Colonial press
Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
Boston, U. S. A.
THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS.
A WELL-KNOWN New York millionaire gave it as his opinion not long ago
that any young man possessing a good constitution and a fair degree of
intelligence might acquire riches. The statement was
criticised--literally picked to pieces--and finally adjudged as being
extravagant. The figures then came out, gathered by a careful
statistician, that of the young men in business in New York City, sixty
per cent, were earning less than $1,000 per year, only twenty per cent,
had an income of $2,000, and barely five per cent, commanded salaries
in excess of the latter figure. The great majority of young men in New
York City--that is, between the ages of twenty-three and thirty--were
earning less than twenty dollars per week. On the basis, therefore,
that a young man must be established in his life-profession by his
thirtieth year, it can hardly be said that the average New York young
man in business is successful. Of course, this is measured entirely
from the standpoint of income. It is true that a young man may not, in
every case, receive the salary his services merit, but, as a general
rule, his income is a pretty accurate indication of his capacity.
Now, as every young man naturally desires to make a business success,
it is plain from the above statement that something is lacking; either
the opportunities, or the capabilities in the young men themselves. No
one conversant with the business life of any of our large cities can,
it seems to me, even for a single moment, doubt the existence of good
chances for young men. Take any large city as a fair example: New York,
Boston, Philadelphia, or Chicago, and in each instance there exist more
opportunities than there are young men capable of embracing them. The
demand is far in excess of the supply. Positions of trust are
constantly going begging for the right kind of young men to fill them.
But such men are not common; or, if they be, they have a most
unfortunate way of hiding their light under a bushel, so much so that
business men cannot see even a glimmer of its rays. Let a position of
any real importance be open, and it is the most difficult kind of a
problem to find any one to fill it satisfactorily. Business men are
constantly passing through this experience. Young men are desired in
the great majority of positions because of their progressive 'ideas and
capacity to endure work; in fact, "young blood," as it is called, is
preferred in nine positions out of every ten, nowadays.
The chances for business success for any young man are not wanting. The
opportunities exist, plenty of them. The trouble is that the average
young man of to-day is incapable of filling them, or, if he be not
exactly incapable (I gladly give him the benefit of the doubt), he is
unwilling to fill them, which is even worse. That exceptions can be
brought up to controvert I know, but I am dealing with the many, not
with the few.
The average young man in business to-day is nothing more nor less than
a plodder,--a mere automaton. He is at his office at eight or nine
o'clock in the morning; is faithful in the duties he performs; goes to
luncheon at twelve, gets back at one; takes up whatever he is told to
do until five, and then goes home. His work for the day is done. One
day is the same to him as another; he has a certain routine of duties
to do, and he does them day in and day out, month in and month out. His
duties are regulated by the clock. As that points, so he points.
Verily, it is true of him that he is the same yesterday, to-day, and
forever. No special fault can be found with his work. Given a
particular piece of work to do, he does it just as a machine would.
Such a young man, too, generally considers himself hard-worked--often
overworked and underpaid; wondering all the time why his employer
doesn't recognize his value and advance his salary. "I do everything I
am told to do," he argues, "and I do it well. What more can I do?"
This is simply a type of a young man to be found in thousands of
offices and stores. He goes to his work each day with no definite point
nor plan in view; he leaves it with nothing accomplished. He is a mere
automaton. Let him die, and his position can be filled in twenty-four
hours. If he detracts nothing from his employer's business, he
certainly adds nothing to it. He never advances an idea; is absolutely
devoid of creative powers; his position remains the same after he has
been in it for five years as when he came to it.
* * * * *
Now, I would not for a moment be understood as belittling the value of
faithfulness in an employee. But, after all, faithfulness is nothing
more nor less than a negative quality. By faithfulness a man may hold a
position a lifetime. He will keep it just where he found it. But by the
exercise of this single quality he does not add to the importance of
the position any more than he adds to his own value. It is not enough
that it may be said of a young man that he is faithful; he must be
something more. The willingness and capacity to be faithful to the
smallest detail must be there, serving only, however, as a foundation
upon which other qualities are built.
Altogether too many young men are content to remain in the positions in
which they find themselves. The thought of studying the needs of the
next position just above them never seems to enter their minds. It is
possible for every young man to rise above his position, and it makes
no difference how humble that position may be, nor under what
disadvantages he may be placed. But he must be alert. He must not be
afraid of work, and of the hardest kind of work. He must study not only
to please, but he must go a step beyond. It is essential, of course,
that he should first of all fill the position for which he is engaged.
No man can solve the problem of business before he understands the
rudiments of the problem itself. Once the requirements of a position
are understood and mastered, then its possibilities should be
undertaken. It is foolish, as some young men argue, that to go beyond
their special position is impossible with their employers. The employer
never existed who will prevent the cream of his establishment from
rising to the surface. The advance of an employee always means the
advance of the employer's interests. An employer would rather pay a
young man five thousand dollars a year than five hundred. What is to
the young man's interest is much more to the interest of his employer.
A five-hundred-dollar clerkship is worth just that amount and nothing
more to an employer. But a five-thousand-dollar man is generally worth
five times that sum to a business. A young man makes of a position
exactly what he chooses: a millstone around his neck, or a
stepping-stone to larger success. The possibilities lie in every
position; seeing and embracing them rest with its occupant. The lowest
position can be so filled as to lead up to the next and become a part
of it. One position should be only the chrysalis for the development of
new strength to master the requirements of another position above it.
* * * * *
The average young man is extremely anxious to get into a business
position in which there are what he calls "prospects" for advancement.
It is usually one of his first questions, "What are my prospects here?"
He seems to have the notion that the question of his "prospects" or
advancement is one entirely in the hands of his employer, whereas it
rarely occurs to him that it is a matter resting entirely with himself.
An employer has, of course, the power of promotion, but that is all. He
cannot advance a young man unless the young man first demonstrates that
he is worthy of advancement. Every position offers prospects; every
business house has in it the possibility of a young man's bettering
himself. But it depends upon him, first. If he is of the average
come-day go-day sort, and does his work in a mechanical or careless
fashion, lacking that painstaking thoroughness which is the basis of
successful work, his prospects are naught. And they will be no greater
with one concern than with another, although he may identify himself
with a score during a year. If, on the contrary, he buckles down to
work, and makes himself felt from the moment he enters his position, no
matter how humble that may be, his advancement will take care of
itself. An employer is very quick to discover merit in an employee, and
if a young man is fitted to occupy a higher position in the house than
he is filling, it will not be long before he is promoted. There are, of
course, instances where the best work that a young man can do goes for
nothing and fails of rightful appreciation, and where such a condition
is discovered, of course the young man must change the condition and go
where his services will receive proper recognition and value. But this
happens only in a very small minority of cases. In the vast majority of
cases where the cry of inappreciation is heard, it is generally the
fact that the crier is unworthy of more than he receives.
No employer can tell a young man just what his prospects are. That is
for the young man himself to demonstrate. He must show first what is in
him, and then he will discover for himself what his prospects are.
Because so many young men stand, still does not prove that employers
are unwilling to advance them, but simply shows that the great run of
young men do not possess those qualities which entitle them to
advancement. There are exceptional cases, of course; but as a rule a
man gets in this world about what he is worth, or not very far from it.
There is not by any means as much injustice done by the employer to the
employee as appears on the surface. Leaving aside all question of
principle, it would be extremely poor policy for a business man to keep
in a minor position a young man who, if promoted, would expand and make
more money for the house.
* * * * *
And right here a word or two may perhaps be fitly said about the
element of "luck" entering into business advancement. It is undeniable
that there are thousands of young men who believe that success in
business is nothing else than what they call "luck." The young men who
forge ahead are, in their estimation, simply the lucky ones, who have
had influence of some sort or other to push them along.
When a young man gets into that frame of mind which makes him believe
that "luck" is the one and only thing which can help him along, or that
it is even an element in business, it may be safely said that he is
doomed to failure. The only semblance to "influence" there is in
business is found where, through a friendly word, a chance is opened to
a young man. But the only thing that "influence" can do begins and ends
with an opportunity. The strongest influence that can be exerted in a
young man's behalf counts for very little if he is found to be
incapable of embracing that chance. And so far as "luck" is concerned,
there is no such thing in a young man's life or his business success.
The only lucky young man is he who has a sound constitution, with good
sense to preserve it; who knows some trade or profession thoroughly or
is willing to learn it and sacrifice everything to its learning; who
loves his work and has industry enough to persevere in it; who
appreciates the necessity of self-restraint in all things, and who
tempers his social life to those habits which refresh and not impair
his constitution. That is luck,--the luck of having common sense. That
is the only luck there is,--the only luck worth having; and it is
something which every right-minded young man may have if he goes about
it the right way.
Things in this world never just happen. There is always a reason for
everything. So with success. It is not the result of luck; it is not a
thing of chance. It comes to men only because they work hard and
intelligently for it, and along legitimate lines.
* * * * *
Now a word about a young man's salary. It is human nature to wish to
make all the money we honestly can: to get just as large a return for
our services as possible. There is no qualifying that statement, and as
most of the comforts of this life are had through the possession of
sufficient money, it is perfectly natural that the subject of what we
earn should be prominent in our minds. But too many young men put the
cart before the horse in this question of salary. It is their first
consideration. They are constantly asking what salaries are paid in
different business callings, and whether this profession or that trade
is more financially productive. The question seems to enter into their
deliberations as a qualifying factor as to whether they shall enter a
certain trade or profession. I never could quite see the point of this
nor the reason for it. Of what significance to you or to me are the
salaries which are paid to others? They signify nothing. If the highest
salary paid to the foremost men in a certain profession is $10,000 per
year, what does that fact prove? There is no obstacle to some one's
else going into that same profession and earning $25,000. The first
consideration, when a young man thinks of going into business, is not
which special trade or profession is most profitable, but which
particular line he is most interested in and best fitted for. What
matters it to a man that fortunes are made in the law if he has
absolutely no taste or ability for that profession? Of what value is it
to a young man who loves mechanical engineering to know that there are
doctors who earn large incomes? What difference do the productive
possibilities of any line of work make to us if we are not by nature
fitted for that work?
When a young man is always thinking of the salary he is receiving, or
the salary he "ought to get," he gives pretty good proof that he is not
of a very superior make. The right sort of a young fellow doesn't
ever-lastingly concern himself about salary. Ability commands income.
But a young man must start with ability, not with salary. That takes
care of itself.
* * * * *
Now, a substantial business success means several things. It calls, in
the first place, for concentration. There is no truth more potent than
that which tells us we cannot serve God and Mammon. Nor can any young
man successfully serve two business interests, no matter how closely
allied; in fact, the more closely the interests the more dangerous are
they. The human mind is capable of just so much clear thought, and
generally it does not extend beyond the requirements of one position in
these days of keen competition. If there exists a secret of success, it
lies, perhaps, in concentration more than in any other single element.
During business hours a man should be in business. His thoughts should
be on nothing else. Diversions of thought are killing to the best
endeavors. The successful mastery of business questions calls for a
personal interest, a forgetfulness of self, that can only come from the
closest application and the most absolute concentration. I go so far in
my belief of concentration to business interests in business hours as
to argue that a young man's personal letters should not be sent to his
office address, nor should he receive his social friends at his desk.
Business hours are none too long in the great majority of our offices,
and, with a rest of one hour for luncheon, no one has a right to lop
off fifteen minutes here to read an irrelevant personal letter, or
fifteen minutes there to talk with a friend whose conversation
distracts the mind from the problems before it. A young man cannot draw
the line between his business life and his social life too closely. It
is all too true of thousands of young men that they are better
conversant during the base-ball season with the batting average of some
star player, or the number of men "put out at second" by some other
player, than they are with the details of their business.
Digression is just as dangerous as stagnation in the career of a young
man in business. There is absolutely no position worth the having in
business life to-day to which a care of other interests can be added.
Let a man attempt to serve the interests of one master, and if he
serves him well he has his hands and his head full. There is a class of
ambitious young men who have what they choose to call "an anchor to the
windward" in their business. That is, they maintain something outside
of their regular position. They do this from necessity, they claim. One
position does not offer sufficient scope for their powers or talents;
does not bring them sufficient income, and they are "forced," they
explain, to take on something in addition. I have known such young men.
But, so far as I have been able to discern, the trouble does not lie so
much with the position they occupy as with themselves. When a man turns
away from the position he holds to outside affairs, he turns just so
far away from the surest path of success. To do one thing perfectly is
better than to do two things only fairly well. It was told me once, of
one of our best known actors, that outside of his stage knowledge he
knew absolutely nothing. But he acted well,--so well that he stands at
the head of his profession, and has an income of five figures several
times over. All around geniuses are rare--so rare that we can hardly
find them. To know one thing absolutely means material success and
commercial and mental superiority. I dare say that if some of our young
men understood more fully than they do the needs of the positions they
occupy, the necessity for outside work would not exist.
Stagnation in a young man's career is but a synonym for starvation,
since there is no such thing as standing still in the business world.
We go either backward or forward; we never stand still. When a young
man fails to keep abreast of the possibilities of his position he
recedes constantly, though perhaps unconsciously. The young man who
progresses is he who enters into the spirit of the business of his
employer, and who points out new methods to him, advances new ideas,
suggests new channels and outputs. There is no more direct road to the
confidence of an employer than for him to see that any one of his
clerks has an eye eager for the possibilities of business. That young
man commands the attention of his chief at once, and when a vacancy
occurs he is apt to step into it, if, indeed, he does not forge over
the shoulders of others. Young men who think clearly, can conceive good
ideas and carry them out, are not so plentiful that even a single one
will be lost sight of. It is no special art, and it reflects but little
credit upon any man simply to fill a position. That is expected of him;
he is engaged to do that, and it is only a fair return for a certain
payment made. The art lies in doing more than was bargained for; in
proving greater than was expected; in making more of a position than
has ever been made before. A quick conception is needed here, the
ability to view a broad horizon; for it is the liberal-minded man, not
the man of narrow limitations, who makes the success of to-day. A young
man showing such qualities to an employer does not remain in one
position long.
* * * * *
Two traps in which young men in business often fall are a disregard for
small things, and an absolute fear of making mistakes. One of the
surest keys to success lies in thoroughness. No matter how great may be
the enterprise undertaken a regard for the small things is necessary.
Just as the little courtesies of every-day life make life the worth
living, so the little details form the bone and sinew of a great
success. A thing half or three-quarters done is worse than not done at
all. Let a man be careful of the small things in business, and he can
generally be relied upon for the greater ones. The man who can overcome
small worries is greater than the man who can override great obstacles.
When a young man becomes so ambitious for large success that he
overlooks the small things, he is pretty apt to encounter failure.
There is nothing in business so infinitesimal that we can afford to do
it in a slipshod fashion. It is no art to answer twenty letters in a
morning when they are, in reality, only half answered. When we commend
brevity in business letters, we do not mean brusqueness. Nothing stamps
the character of a house so clearly as the letters it sends out.
The fear of making mistakes keeps many a young man down. Of course,
errors in business are costly, and it is better not to make them. But,
at the same time, I would not give a snap of the fingers for a young
man who has never made mistakes. But there are mistakes and mistakes;
some easy to be excused; others not to be overlooked in the case of any
employee. A mistake of judgment is possible with us all; the best of us
are not above a wrong decision. And a young man who holds back for fear
of making mistakes loses the first point of success.
A young man in business nowadays, with an ambition to be successful,
must also be careful of his social life. It is not enough that he
should take care of himself during the day. To social dissipations at
night can be traced the downfall of hundreds upon hundreds of young
men. The idea that an employer has no control over a young man's time
away from the office is a dangerous fallacy. An employer has every
right to ask that those into whose hands he entrusts responsibilities
shall follow social habits which will not endanger his interests upon
the morrow. So far as social life is concerned, young men generally run
to both extremes. Either they do not go out at all, which is
stagnating, or they go out too much, which is deadly. Only here and
there is found one who knows the happy medium. A certain amount of
social diversion is essential to everybody, boy, man, girl, or woman.
And particularly so to a young man with a career to make. To come into
contact with the social side of people is broadening; it is educative.
"To know people," says a writer, "you must see them at play." Social
life can be made a study at the same time that it is made a pleasure.
To know the wants of people, to learn their softer side, you must come
into contact with their social natures. No young man can afford to deny
himself certain pleasures, or a reasonable amount of contact with
people in the outer world. It is to his advantage that people should
know he exists,--what his aims and aspirations are. His evening
occupations should be as widely different as possible from those which
occupy his thoughts in the daytime. The mind needs a change of thought
as well as the body needs a change of raiment. The familiar maxim, "All
work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," contains a vast amount of
truth.
At the same time, nothing is more injurious to the chances of a young
man in business than an overindulgence in the pleasures of what, for
the want of a better word, we call "society." It is a rough but a true
saying that "a man cannot drink whisky and be in business." Perhaps a
softer interpretation of the idea would be this: that a man cannot be
in society and be in business. This is impossible, and nothing that a
young man can bear in mind will stand him to such good account as this
fact. No mind can be fresh in the morning that has been kept at a
tension the night before by late hours, or befogged by indulgence in
late suppers. We need more sleep at twenty-five than we do at fifty,
and the young man who grants himself less than eight hours' sleep every
night just robs himself of so much vitality. The loss may not be felt
or noticed at present, but the process of sleeping is only Nature's
banking system of principal and interest. A mind capable of the
fulfilment of its highest duties should be not only receptive to ideas,
but quick to comprehend a point. With a fresh mind and a clear brain, a
young man has two of the greatest levers of success. These cannot be
retained under social indulgences. The dissipation of a night has its
invariable influence upon the work of the morrow. I do not preach total
abstinence from any habits to which human nature is prone. Every man
ought to know what is good for him and what is injurious to his best
interests. An excess of anything is injurious, and a young man on the
threshold of a business career cannot afford to go to the extreme in
any direction. He should husband his resources, for he will need them
all.
For no success is easily made nowadays. Appearances are tremendously
deceptive in this respect. We see men making what we choose to regard
and call quick success, because at a comparatively early age they
acquire position or means. But one needs only to study the conditions
of the business life of to-day to see how impossible it is to achieve
any success except by the very hardest work. No young man need approach
a business career with the idea that success is easy. The histories of
successful men tell us all too clearly the lessons of patience and the
efforts of years. Some men compass a successful career in less time
than others. And if the methods employed are necessarily different, the
requirements are precisely the same. It is a story of hard work in
every case, of close application and of a patient mastery of the
problem in hand. Advantages of education will come in at times and push
one man ahead of another. But a practical business knowledge is apt to
be a greater possession.
* * * * *
I know there are thousands of young men who feel themselves incompetent
for a business career because of a lack of early education. And here
might come in--if I chose to discuss the subject, which I do not--the
oft-mooted question of the exact value of a college education to the
young man in business. But I will say this: a young man need not feel
that the lack of a college education will stand in any respect whatever
in the way of his success in the business world. No college on earth
ever made a business man. The knowledge acquired in college has fitted
thousands of men for professional success, but it has also unfitted
other thousands for a practical business career. A college training is
never wasted, although I have seen again and again five-thousand-dollar
educations spent on five-hundred-dollar men. Where a young man can
bring a college education to the requirements of a practical business
knowledge, it is an advantage. But before our American colleges become
an absolute factor in the business capacities of men their methods of
study and learning will have to be radically changed. I have had
associated with me both kinds of young men, collegiate and
non-collegiate, and I must say that those who had a better knowledge of
the practical part of life have been those who never saw the inside of
a college and whose feet never stepped upon a campus. College-bred men,
and men who never had college advantages, have succeeded in about equal
ratios. The men occupying the most important commercial positions in
New York to-day are self-made, whose only education has come to them
from contact with that greatest college of all, the business world. Far
be it from me to depreciate the value of a college education. I believe
in its advantages too firmly. But no young man need feel hampered
because of the lack of it. If business qualities are in him they will
come to the surface. It is not the college education; it is the young
man. Without its possession as great and honorable successes have been
made as with it. Men are not accepted in the business world upon their
collegiate diplomas, nor on the knowledge these imply.
* * * * *
There are a great many young men in business to-day who grow impatient.
They are in a position for a certain time; they are satisfactory to
their employers, and then, because they are not promoted, they grow
restless. These young men generally overlook a point or two. In the
first place, they overlook the very important point that between the
years of twenty and twenty-five a young man acquires rather than
achieves. It is the learning period of life, the experience-gaining
time. Knowledge that is worth anything does not come to us until we are
past twenty-five. The mind, before that age, is incapable of forming
wise judgment. The great art of accurate decision in business matters
is not acquired in a few weeks of commercial life. It is the result of
years. It is not only the power within him, but also the experience
behind him, that makes a successful business man. The commercial world
is only a greater school than the one of slates and slate-pencils. No
boy, after attending school for five years, would consider himself
competent to teach. And surely five years of commercial apprenticeship
will not fit a young man to assume a position of trust, nor give him
the capacity to decide upon important business matters. In the first
five years, yes, the first ten years, of a young man's business life,
he is only in the primary department of the great commercial world. It
is for him, then, to study methods, to observe other men--in short, to
learn and not to hope to achieve. That will come later. Business,
simple as it may look to the young man, is, nevertheless, a very
intricate affair, and it is only by years of closest study that we
master an understanding of it.
The electric atmosphere of the American business world is all too apt
to make our young men impatient. They want to fly before they can even
walk well. Ambition is a splendid thing in any young man. But he must
not forget that, like fire and water, it makes a good servant but a
poor master. Getting along too fast is just as injurious as getting
along too slow. A young man between twenty and twenty-five must be
patient. I know patience is a difficult thing to cultivate, but it is
among the first lessons we must learn in business. A good stock of
patience, acquired in early life, will stand a man in good stead in
later years. It is a handy thing to have and draw upon, and makes a
splendid safety-valve. Because a young man, as he approaches
twenty-five, begins to see things more plainly than he did five years
before, he must not get the idea that he is a business man yet, and
entitled to a man's salary. If business questions, which he did not
understand five years before, now begin to look clearer to him, it is
because he is passing through the transitory state that separates the
immature judgment of the young man from the ripening penetration of the
man. He is simply beginning. Afterward he will grow, and his salary
will grow as he grows. But Rome wasn't built in a day, and a business
man isn't made in a night. As experience comes, the judgment will
become mature, and by the time the young man reaches thirty he will
begin to realize that he didn't know as much at twenty-five as he
thought he did. When he is ready to learn from others he will begin to
grow wise. And when he reaches that state where he is willing to
concede that he hasn't a "corner" on knowledge in this world, he will
be stepping out of the chrysalis of youth.
* * * * *
There is another point upon which young men are often in doubt, and
that is, just how far it pays to be honest in business. "Does it really
pay to be honest in business?" they ask, and they are sincere and in
earnest in the question.
Now, the simple fact of the matter is that a business success is
absolutely impossible upon any other basis than one of the strictest
honesty.
The great trouble with young men, nowadays, is that their ideas are
altogether too much influenced by a few unfortunate examples of
apparent success which are prominent--too prominent, alas!--in American
life to-day. These "successful men"--for the most part identified in
some way with politics--are talked about incessantly; interviewed by
reporters; buy lavish diamonds for their wives, and build costly
houses,--all of which is duly reported in the newspapers. Young men
read these things and ask themselves, "If he can do it, why not I?"
Then they begin to look around for some "short cut to success," as one
young fellow expressed it to me not long ago. It is owing to this
practice of "cutting across lots" in business that scores of young men
find themselves, after awhile in tight places. And the man who has once
had about him an unsavory taint in his business methods rarely, very
rarely, rids himself of that atmosphere in the eyes of his
acquaintances. How often we see some young man in business,
representative of the very qualities that should win success. Every one
agrees that he is brilliant. "He is clever," is the general verdict.
His manner impresses one pleasantly, he is thoroughly businesslike, is
energetic, and yet, somehow, he never seems to stick to one place.
People wonder at it, and excuse it on the ground that he hasn't found
the right place. But some day the secret is explained. "Yes, he is
clever," says some old business man, "but do you know he isn't--well,
he isn't quite safe!" "Quite safe!" How much that expresses; how
clearly that defines hundreds and hundreds of the smartest young men in
business to-day. He is everything else--but he isn't "quite safe!" He
is not dishonest in any way, but he is, what is equally as bad, not
quite reliable. To attain success he has, in other words, tried to "cut
across lots." And rainbow-chasing is really a very commendable business
in comparison to a young man's search for the "royal road to success."
No success worth attaining is easy; the greater the obstacles to
overcome, the surer is the success when attained. "Royal roads" are
poor highways to travel in any pursuit, and especially in a business
calling.
It is strange how reluctant young men are to accept, as the most vital
truth in life, that the most absolute honesty is the only kind of
honesty that succeeds in business. It isn't a question of religion or
religious beliefs. Honesty does not depend upon any religious creed or
dogma that was ever conceived. It is a question of a young man's own
conscience. He knows what is right and what is wrong. And yet, simple
as the matter is, it is astonishing how difficult it is of
understanding. An honest course in business seems too slow to the
average young man. "I can't afford to plod along. I must strike and
strike quickly," is the sentiment. Ah, yes, my friend, but not
dishonestly. No young man can afford even to think of dishonesty.
Success on honorable lines may sometimes seem slower in coming, but
when it does come it outrivals in permanency all the so-called
successes gained by other methods. To look at the methods of others is
always a mistake. The successes of to-day are not given to the
imitator, but to the originator. It makes no difference how other men
may succeed--their success is theirs and not yours. You cannot partake
of it. Every man is a law unto himself. The most absolute integrity is
the one and the only sure foundation of success. Such a success is
lasting. Other kinds of success may seem so, but it is all in the
seeming, and not in the reality. Let a young man swerve from the path
of honesty, and it will surprise him how quickly every avenue of
permanent success is closed against him. It is the young man of
unquestioned integrity who is selected for the important position. No
business man ever places his affairs in the hands of a young man whom
he feels he cannot unhesitatingly trust. And to be trusted means to be
honest. Honesty, and that alone, commands confidence. An honest life,
well directed, is the only life for a young man to lead. It is the one
life that is compatible with the largest and surest business success.
* * * * *
And so it is easy enough for any young man to succeed, provided he is
willing to bear in mind a few very essential truths. And they are:
Above all things he should convince himself that he is in a congenial
business. Whether it be a trade or a profession,--both are honorable
and profitable,--let him satisfy himself, above everything else, that
it enlists his personal interest. If a man shows that he has his work
at heart his success can be relied on. Personal interest in any work
will bring other things; but all the other essentials combined cannot
create personal interest. That must exist first; then two-thirds of the
battle is won. Fully satisfied that he is in the particular line of
business in which he feels a stronger, warmer interest than in any
other, then he should remember:
First--That, whatever else he may strive to be, he must be absolutely
honest. From honorable principles he never should swerve. There can be
no half-way compromise.
Second--He must be alert, alive to every opportunity. He cannot afford
to lose a single point, for that single point may prove to be the very
link that would make complete the whole chain of a business success.
Third--He must ever be willing to learn, never overlooking the fact
that others have long ago forgotten what he has still to learn.
Firmness of decision is an admirable trait in business. The young man
whose opinions can be tossed from one side to the other is poor
material. But youth is full of errors, and caution is a strong trait.
Fourth--If he be wise he will entirely avoid the use of liquors. If the
question of harm done by intoxicating liquor is an open one, the
question of the actual good derived from it is not.
Fifth--Let him remember that a young man's strongest recommendation is
his respectability. Some young men, apparently successful, may be
flashy in dress, loud in manner, disrespectful to women and irreverent
toward sacred things. But the young man who is respectable always wears
best. The way a young man carries himself in his private life ofttimes
means much to him in his business career. No matter where he is, or in
whose company, respectability, and all that it implies, will always
command respect.
* * * * *
If any young man wishes a set of rules even more concise, here it is:
Get into a business you like.
Devote yourself to it.
Be honest in everything.
Be cautious. Think carefully about a thing before you act.
Sleep eight hours every night.
Do everything that means keeping in good health.
Don't worry. Worry kills more men than work does.
Avoid liquors of all kinds.
If you must smoke, smoke moderately.
Shun discussion on two points,--religion and politics.
Marry a good woman, and have your own home.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Young Man in Business, by Edward W. Bok
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