Where can one develop inspiration to action to search for self-improvement better than in a religions school? And who has greater know-how and necessary knowledge to teach character than those who are devoting their entire lives to the church, striving to purify their own souls while trying to save the souls of others’? As the weeks passed into months and months into years, I developed a secret ambition to be like my religious father –the pastor whom I admired and loved.
But I also loved my mother, and I missed her very much. Like so many boys living away from home at private schools, I was homesick, and like them, every time I saw my mother or wrote to her, I would beg her to bring me home permanently.
After two years at Nauvoo, she felt I was ready. Equally important, she was ready. Or perhaps it was motherly love, for she too, longed to have me with her. Although there was some question of my ability to adjust to a new environment, she knew that she could always send me back to Nauvoo if it became desirable. I was ready, and she was too.
The Upward Climb
Early in life, Mother had learned to sew, and because she had initiative, talent and sensitivity, she became proficient at it. Shortly after I left for Nauvoo, she realized that a change of home and business environment was desirable for her, too. She was now in a position to do something about it, for she didn’t have to be concerned with arranging for someone to care for me while she was at work.
She obtained a position in a very exclusive ladies’ import establishment known as Dillon’s. Within two years, she was in complete charge of all designing, fitting, and sewing, and she had developed a reputation among the exclusive clientele of being an outstanding designer and dressmaker. Her earnings were sufficiently great to enable her to get her own apartment in a nicer neighborhood.
Within a block of our apartment was a rooming house where the landlady did her own home cooking, and I had my meals there. The food was wonderful–beef stew, baked beans, homemade pies, mashed potatoes and gravy–notwithstanding the jovial complaints of the adult boarders, who were the most interesting people in the world to an eleven-year-old boy: show people. They liked me, too. I was the only child there.
Like thousands of men and women who grasp the opportunity to make the upward climb in this land of unlimited opportunity, mother saved enough money to establish her own business. Her reputation as a designer and dressmaker brought good clients, but she lacked the know-how to utilize bank credit. (Many small businesses would become big businesses if the owners would only learn that banks are in business to help small businesses become large through sound financing.)
Because of lack of working capital or the proper utilization of bank credit, mother’s dressmaking establishment never expanded beyond her personal work and that of two full-time employees. Like most persons who endeavor to establish their own business, she, too, had her financial problems. But these problems brought to us many of the true riches of life, such as the joy of giving.
I made my spending money (which was partly savings money, for I had established a savings account) by building a Saturday Evening Post and newspaper route. Although each night mother asked me to tell her about my troubles, she never bothered to tell me about her own. But I could sense them. One morning, I noticed that she seemed to be quite worried. Later that day, before she returned home, I drew out what was to me a big chunk of my savings and purchased a dozen of the best roses I could buy.
My mother’s joy at this token of love inspired me to realize the true joy of the giver. Often over the years she would tell her friends with a mother’s pride about the dozen beautiful, long-stemmed roses and what they had done for her. This experience made me realize that money was a good thing to have–for the good it could do.
January 6 was always an important date in my mother’s life and in mine, for that was her birthday. One January 6, when for some reason–perhaps because of Christmas shopping–my bank account was down to less than a dollar, I was very much concerned, for I wanted desperately to buy her a birthday gift. That morning I prayed for guidance.
At the lunch hour, while walking home from school, my ears were tuned to the cracking of the ice beneath my feet. Suddenly I stopped and turned around. Something told me to go back and take a look. I walked back, picked up a crumpled green paper, and was amazed to find a ten-dollar bill! (That something you will hear more about.)
I was excited, but I decided not to buy a gift after all. I had a better plan.
Mother was home for lunch. As she was clearing the table, she picked up her plate and found a handwritten birthday note and the ten-dollar bill. Once again I found the joy of the giver, for it seemed that this was a day when everyone else had forgotten her birthday She was delighted with this gift, which at the time seemed to her quite a sum.
Decisions Are Important when Followed Through with Action
These personal experiences will indicate that each new decision that a child or an adult makes in a given set of circumstances begins patterns of thought that later create a tremendous impact in his life. When an adult makes a decision, it is likely to be foolish or sound, depending on his past experiences in coming to decisions. For the little things that are good ripen into big things that are good. And the little things that are bad ripen into big things that are bad. And this applies to decisions.
But good decisions must be followed through with action. Without action, a good decision becomes meaningless, for the desire itself can die through lack of an attempt to achieve its fulfillment. That’s why you should act immediately on a good decision.
When You Go for Something, don’t Come Back Until You Get It
I was twelve years of age when an older neighbor boy whom I respected invited me to attend a Boy Scout meeting. I went and had a lot of fun, so I joined his troop– Troop 23, under a scoutmaster named Stuart P. Walsh, who was attending the University of Chicago.
I’ll never forget him. He was a man of character. He wanted every boy in his troop to become a first-class scout within a short space of time, and he inspired each boy to want his troop to be the best in the city of Chicago. Perhaps that’s one reason why it was.
Another was his firm conviction: to get what you expect–inspect, when you teach, inspire, train, and supervise others.
Every scout in Troop 23 made a weekly report of the good turns he had done each day in the week–the ways he had helped someone else without receiving compensation of any kind. This made each boy look for the opportunity to do a good deed–and because he looked, he found the opportunity.
Stuart P. Walsh imprinted in the memory of each member of Troop 23, in indelible pattern, the principles of the Scout Law: “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.”
But more important, he inspected to see if each scout in his troop knew how to relate, assimilate, and use each of these principles–not just to memorize them like a parrot, but to use them like a man. I can hear him say now: “When you go after something –don’t come back until you get it!”
In the next chapter, you will see how this principle taught by my old scoutmaster became so ingrained in me that it formed, at first without my realizing it, another step on the road to the success system that never fails. The six-year-old newsboy about whom you read in the beginning of this chapter had not yet awakened to where he was going–but he was on his way.
Little Hinges That Swing Big Doors
All success swings on the three phrases listed below. Once you truly understand what they
