jealousy, envy, or hatred. He must have a clean heart, and a clean conscience, or no amount of money or excitement can make him happy.
Chapter XII.
Originality
NO human being ever yet made a success trying to be somebody else, even if that person was a success. Success cannot be copied—cannot be successfully imitated. It is an original force—an individual creation. Every man will be a failure just in proportion as he gets away from himself and tries to be somebody else and to express somebody else instead of himself. Power comes from within or from nowhere. Be yourself. Listen to the voice within. There is room for improvement in every profession, in every trade, and in every business. The world wants men who can do things in new and better ways. Don’t think, because your plan or idea has no precedent, or because you are young and inexperienced, that you will not get a hearing. The man who has anything new and valuable to give to the world will be listened to and will be followed. The man of strong individuality, who dares to think his own thought and originate his own method, who is not afraid to be himself, and is not a copy of someone else, quickly gets recognition. Nothing else will attract the attention of an employer or the rest of the world so quickly as originality and unique ways of doing things, especially if they are effective.
Blaze your own way, make your own path, or you will never make any impression on the world. It is striking originality that attracts attention. The world admires the man who has the courage to lift his head above the crowd, who dares to step to the front and declare himself. Never before was originality so much at a premium. The world makes way for the man with an idea. It is the thinker, the man with original ideas and new and up-to-date methods, who is the real productive force in a community. He is wanted everywhere. But there is very little demand for human machines.
The world is full of followers, leaners, and taggers, who are willing to walk in old trails, and to have their thinking done for them; but it is seeking the man with original force, who leaves the beaten track and pushes into new fields, the physician who departs from the precedent of those who have gone before him, the lawyer who conducts his case in an original way, the teacher who brings new ideas and methods into the schoolroom, and the clergyman who has the courage to proclaim the message which God has given to him, not that given to some other man who has put it into a book. The world wants preachers who get their sermons out of life, not out of a library.
There are a thousand people who will do faithfully what they are told, to one who can lay out a programme or execute it; a thousand who can only follow, to one who can lead. It is a rare thing to find a young man who has the power of initiative and the ability to put a thing through with the force of originality.
What ever your work in life, do not follow others. Do not imitate. Do not do things just as everybody else has done them before, but in new, ingenious ways. Show the people in your specialty that precedents do not cut much of a figure with you, and that you will make your own programme. Resolve that, whether you accomplish much or little in the world, it shall be original—your own. Do not be afraid to assert yourself in a bold individual way. Originality is power, life; imitation is death. Do not be afraid to let yourself out. You grow by being original, never by copying; by leading, never by following. Resolve that you will be a man of ideas, always on the lookout for improvement Think to some purpose. There is always a place for an original man.
There is nothing else which will kill the creative faculty and paralyze growth more quickly than following precedents in everything, and doing everything in the same old way. I have known progressive young men to stop growing, become hopelessly rutty, and lose all their progressiveness by going into their fathers' stores, factories, or places of business, where everything was done in the same old-fashioned way, and precedents were followed in everything. They lost all expansiveness. There was no motive for reaching out for the new and the original, because their fathers would not change. I have seen splendid fellows, who might have become great and grand men, shrivel to pygmies in their fathers' ruts.
How many of our business houses are weighted down with machinery, old, antiquated methods, ponderous bookkeeping, and out-of-date appliances, when new devices, or new methods with short-cut ways of doing things would enable them to economize greatly on room and to get along with much less help; but they cling to the old with a fatal tenacity.
This is why so many old concerns, which have been strong and powerful for generations, gradually shrink, shrivel, get into ruts, and fail, while their newer competitors, the bright young men who have gone out from these houses, do things in a new way, adopt up-to-date methods, keep up with the times, and go on to greater success.
There is a great advertising quality in originality, or uniqueness. The man who does business like the great majority of men, although he may have superior ability, does not attract much attention. But if he makes his own path, adopts original and progressive methods, puts his specialty in a class by itself, and attracts attention, everybody who patronizes him is a traveling advertisement for him.
There is a specialty store in Boston whose progressive proprietors make a study of original ways of doing everything. For example, all change is given in brand new money, direct from the United States treasury or mint. This does not cost much, and causes but little trouble, yet it is a very shrewd advertisement. It is especially attractive to women and children, and has brought a great deal of trade. Aside from the danger of handling old, soiled money, which has been no one knows where, it gives a sense of pleasure to handle new, crisp bills, and brand new, bright coins. This is only one of the many unique methods this concern adopts.
People flock to the most up-to-date establishments, for they know that the newest styles, the latest and freshest goods, the greatest variety, the best display of taste, and the most appropriate things are to be found there. It is well known that those up-to-date houses pay the largest salaries and have the best buyers.
There is a hotel in New York which needs no advertising. It is one of the institutions which people visit out of interest, and they are always talking about it. Other things being equal, they will patronize it. If they cannot afford to have rooms there, they will go there to dine, to see the fashions, and prominent people. The amount of free advertising which this hotel has had, in addition to what, perhaps, other first-class hotels get, would probably have cost, if paid for, half as much as the hotel is worth.
The same is true in every line of endeavor. It is the newest and the most up-to-date concern, that has the latest devices and the freshest, and most original ideas, that draws the people. Do not, however, make the mistake of thinking that if you simply do things in new ways you will necessarily be successful. It is effective originality that counts. There are thousands of men who are always .chasing new ideas, new ways of doing things, who never accomplish anything of note, because they are not effective, not practical. I know a man who adopts every new device that comes along, and has thus practically run through a large estate left him, because he did not have the judgment or the sagacity to select really effective devices or methods in the management of his affairs.
The shrewdest thing a young man can do— to say nothing of the influence upon his character—is to put the greatest possible originality and the highest possible excellence into everything he does; to make a resolution, at the very outset of his career, to stamp his individuality upon everything that goes out of his hands, and to determine that everything he does shall have the imprint of his character upon it as a trade-mark of the highest and best that is in him. If he does this, he will not require a large amount of capital to start a business, and to advertise it. His greatest resources will be in himself. Originality is the best substitute for advertising, as well as the best thing to advertise, if quality goes with it. Some men are absolutely afraid to do things in a new way. They must follow somebody else.
