the whiner, by his own conduct places himself at a fearful disadvantage. Nobody wants the man who poses as a victim of “hard luck,” who says that he “can not get a job.”
Man is so constituted that he does his best work when happiest. He is constructed on the happiness plan, so that when he is most harmonious, he is most efficient. Discord is always an enemy to his achievement, as well as to his comfort and happiness. It is the greatest whittler away of vitality and energy we have.
When the mind is full of discords, worry, and anxiety, when brain and body are out of tune, it is impossible even for a genius to express the perfect music of a full, free life.
People do not realize how rapidly vitality is wasted in friction, in worry and anxiety, is harsh, discordant notes which destroy the harmony of life.
How many completely exhaust themselves in needless worrying and bickering over things which are not worth while! How many burn up their life force in giving way to a hot temper, in quibbling over trifles, in bargain hunting, in systemless work, in a hundred ways, when a little thought and attention to the delicate human instrument on which they are playing would prevent all this attrition and keep the instrument in splendid tune!
If a young man should draw out of the bank a little at a time, the money which he had been saving for years for the purpose of going into business for himself, and throw it away in dissipation, we should regard him as very foolish, and predict his failure. But many of us throw away success and happiness capital just as foolishly, for every bit of friction that comes into our lives subtracts so much from our success. We can not do two things with our energy at the same time. If we use it up in friction, we can not expend it in effective work.
“He could not keep himself in tune,” would be a good explanation of thousands of failures. Many of these failures could have accomplished great things if they could only have kept themselves in harmony, if they could only have cut out of their lives the friction, the worry and the anxiety which whittled away their energy and wasted their life forces.
The keynote of life’s harmony is cheerfulness. Every muscle and every nerve must be tuned until it responds to that vibration. As the piano tuner eliminates the least discord in sound, so the coming man will tune out the discordant notes of passion, of hatred, of jealousy and of worry, so that there shall be no inharmony in the instrument. He will no more think of starting out in the morning to play on the most delicately constructed instrument ever made when it is out of tune, than a great master musician would think of playing in public on an instrument that was out of tune.
Gloom, despondency, worry about the future, and all discordant passion must be tuned out of this life instrument before it will express the exquisite melodies, the ravishing harmonies which the Creator intended it to express.
Chapter XIV.
Almost A Success
Many give up just this side of success. They start out in life with great enthusiasm, but it generally oozes out before they reach their goal. All along life’s course we see people who have fallen out of the running at different stages. Men may be industrious, honest, enthusiastic, well educated, and have had good opportunities, but lack persistency and courage, and withdraw from the race when the unseen goal is only a little ahead.
How surprised they would be if the veil were lifted! But the failure to take the last few steps has made all the difference to them between failure, or mediocrity, and the longed-for success.
An army which no human being could number lies encamped around the great city of Success, close to its walls, near to its very gates, but it has never entered the city and it never will enter it. Thousands of people in this great army of the defeated would tell you, if questioned, that they never had a fair chance, that their education was neglected, and they never had any one to favor them. Yet many of them were born and reared under the shadow of the night schools and splendid public libraries, and had all their evenings and a great deal of day time at their command, while the Abe Lincolns and thousands of other poor boys got their education by the light of pine knots before the fire in log cabins, or amid other lowly environments, and marched past them with triumphant step on their way to victory.
Nearly every successful person has felt, during years of struggle and endeavor, that he was accomplishing very little, and that life might still be a failure. But those who have achieved good results kept on trying, no matter how dark the night, or how great the obstacles.
There is no genius like that of holding on, and making continuous effort under difficulties.
There are a thousand people who have talent to one who has grit. Brilliancy gives up, and talent gets disheartened before difficulty and lets go.
There are some very brilliant men in public life who almost do great things, men who raise great expectations in some particular line, but who never win out. They remain perpetual prospectuses of works which are never published.
I believe that more people fail from the lack of staying power than from almost anything else.
Many are willing to pay any price to attain their ambition, except that of plain, downright hard work. They are willing to expend any amount of energy in scheming, in cunning devices or short-cuts and abridged methods; but the thought of many years of tedious, laborious endeavor, the sacrificing of a thousand and one little comforts and pleasures, seems to be too much for them.
Hosts of people spend many precious years trying to find success bargains, marked downs; trying to devise a quicker method than hard work.
Some men have the peculiar faculty of putting things through, of getting things done, and this is always a sign of strength, of creative ability; an indication of leadership. Almost anybody can start a thing, but it is a rare man who can carry everything he undertakes to a finish, and it is the finish which counts.
Chapter XV.
The Born Leader
A stranger, unfamiliar with American methods, on going into one of our big establishments might get the impression that the hundreds of employees who are hurrying and scurrying about, doing a great deal of talking and bustling, are responsible for the enormous volume of business being done. But if he should go into a certain private office in the establishment, he would probably find sitting there at his desk, a quiet, serene, level-headed man; a man probably of very few words, who dominates and controls all the activities of the hundreds or thousands of employees. He is the head and center, the moving force behind all the hurry, bustle, and show.
The man who aspires to leadership must be an organizer. He must not only read men like an open book, but also judge accurately what to do with them; how to weigh, measure, and place them.
It seems as natural and as easy for some people to lead, to command, and to control others, as to breathe. There is something in their very personalities that dominates others. They are born leaders. They do not need to exercise great will-power. They conquer by the very force of their presence—their character—as Hercules conquered those who looked upon his gigantic, powerful figure. No matter what situation they are in, they dominate.
Put a lot of strange cattle together and they will very quickly decide
