Part 6 (1/2)
Getting out of debt means a revision of our code to the extent of ceasing to live beyond our means and saving something with which to pay off what we owe. Some men can do this successfully--others fail while seemingly trying their best to succeed--and still others do nothing to stem the tide. With these it is a matter of how the tide serves. If favoring winds should drive them to opulence they would more than likely pay up, particularly those imbued with _sufficient personal honor_ to ”make good.”
Such are the exigencies of life, we may as well concede that a vast majority at some time or other find it necessary to owe more than they can readily pay. Emergencies arise which force us into expenses that require credit, and if we have so ordered our lives that when the pinch comes _we have no credit established_ the fact that we pay out our last dollar and go hungry to bed does not bring us much sympathy. Thus it would seem that to be able to say: ”I pay as I go,” or, ”I owe no man a dollar,” or, ”I never live beyond my means” is not much of a boast, when, after a death in the family, or other unforeseen circ.u.mstances, we find ourselves broke and nowhere to turn for accommodation.
It has been aptly said that ”_People can save themselves to death._” In other words, one may develop the saving habit to such an extent that ”Laugh and Live” can find no room beside us on the perch of our existence. We must admit that the systematic saver of pennies misses a lot as he goes along, and, with time, degenerates into a sort of ”Kill Joy.” In the matter of regulating his family to his way of thinking he usually has an uphill job. Sons leave home as soon as they can; daughters marry and breathe a sigh of relief, leaving mother behind to slave on _in order that the h.o.a.rd may grow_.
While all of this is true it only represents extreme cases, therefore it should not be construed that this chapter is launched against _the habit of saving_. Rather, its purpose is to suggest the thought of not ”_over-saving_” at the expense of _personal welfare_. Our best plan would be to save in reason, not forgetting that life is here to enjoy as we go along. Then, too, we must have a _credit rating_ among our fellow mortals, just the same as a business person must have credit rating among financial inst.i.tutions.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Squaring Things With Sister--From ”The Habit of Happiness”_]
Credit in business is worth more than money because it allows for expansion whereas money in the bank is only good _as far as it goes_.
Many a merchant who bought and sold for cash all his life found when he came to enlarge his business that one thing was lacking--_credit_. The fact that he had always paid cash threw a doubt upon his financial condition when he proposed to borrow. He had neglected to build up a credit as he went along. The business world only knew him as a man who paid cash and exacted cash. Taken at his fullest inventory he had ”scalped” a living out of the world for which he had done but little to make happier or better. One calamity might easily scuttle his prospects forever--for instance, a fire, or a bank failure. And without credit it would be difficult to start over again.
By all means we must save something for the ”rainy day” as we go along--and our savings can be made up of other things than actual cash in bank. One item of our savings is the habit of _keeping up our appearances_. Living beyond our means does not incorporate the thought that, in order to save every possible cent, we should become slipshod and shabby. Carelessness in dress takes away from our rating as nothing else will for it has to do with first impressions of those with whom we come in contact. Gentility pays dividends of the highest order, being, as it is, a badge of character. Neatness _bespeaks character_, and it is just as cheap in dollars and cents to keep ourselves respectably clothed as to indulge in shoddy apparel under the delusion that we have saved money on the purchase price. Good clothing, costing more at the start, lasts long _and looks well as long as it lasts_. Shoddy apparel never is anything else but shoddy, and well might it proclaim the shoddy man.
When we throw away our opportunity to present a genteel appearance, just for the sake of the bank roll, we doom ourselves to defeat in the pursuit of knowledge. We cannot get all we want to know by the mere reading of books. We must mingle with people; we must interchange thought that we may crystallize what we know into practical knowledge so it can be made into tools to work with. While a man of brains is welcome everywhere the matter of his appearance has a lot to do with how he is received and with whom he may fraternize.
”Isn't it a pity,” we hear people say, ”that, with all his brains, he hasn't sense enough to make himself presentable?” But the worst phase of the situation is that the unkempt man sooner or later loses faith in himself and either ceases to h.o.a.rd at the expense of his gentility or he gives up his opportunity to mingle with others and lapses into habits consistent with miserly thoughts.
The phrase ”_a happy medium_” is well known and decidedly applicable to the subject of saving as we go along so that we may avert the sorrows which follow in the wake of _living beyond our means_. It suggests a desirable middle course which permits us to adopt a sane policy, rather than flying to an extreme.
It cannot be said that we are living beyond our means when by reason of our a.s.sociation with men of affairs we need to spend more money and thereby save less in preparing ourselves for the larger opportunities which will naturally follow. Young men often go through college on their ”uppers,” so to speak. There is not a cent which they could honestly save as they went along without cheating themselves. The point is that their situations in life force them to spend rather than to save money.
But in so doing the real saving was in the spending thereof. _They enlarged their knowledge and decreased their bank accounts for the time being._ What man parts with in an emergency is no license, however, for him to fall back into profligacy. Never should a man entirely lose the idea of putting something by. The college boy in this case has simply invested his money in an education instead of a bank account.
Once on the highroad of life with a plan of action well defined and a regular income _the habit of putting money away should become a fixed procedure_. In no other way do we acc.u.mulate except by investment, and investment means putting away money at interest or in some project which promises better returns.
If we were to interview a thousand men on the subject of saving and draw upon their experiences we would find that by investing money at interest we pursue the safest course, far safer, in fact, than the seeking of outside investments that _promise_ greater returns. The latter invites the mind away from the regular avocation and educates it in time to _take chances_ that are likely to turn into _setbacks_. The mind, instead of applying itself to the duty of making the most out of its regular employment, allows its interest to become scattered over too broad a field.
It is not within the province of all men to become wealthy and, after all, wealth is not the only desideratum; the happiest of mortals are found in the middle walks of life and not in the extremes. The struggle should be to escape the life which saps our strength, keeps our nerves on edge and drives us away from the _green pastures_.
CHAPTER XV
INITIATIVE AND SELF-RELIANCE
The late Elbert Hubbard defined the man with initiative as the one who did the right thing at the right time without being told. At this point it may be definitely stated that such a man would naturally be _self-reliant._ Such a man would not lean on his friends. He would _stand up_ with them.... He would be found fighting his own battles without crying for help.
Once a cub reporter was ordered by his city editor to go and interview a certain man. After an awkward pause the youngster inquired: ”Where can I find him?” Smiling scornfully into his eyes the city editor replied: ”Wherever he is.”
This would seem to have been the start and finish of this youngster's newspaper career, but quite the reverse was true. He took the lesson well to heart, thus starting himself on the road to self-reliance. If he had repeated the offense it is likely he would have lost his job and also _his nerve_--thereby spoiling his chances for a successful career.
The fact that he did not, but went on and made of himself a famous newspaper man, proves that he lost no time in developing _initiative and self-reliance_.
There is no questioning the vast importance these two words mean to all of us. Many a man who did not grasp the significance of initiative became a ”_leaner_” for the rest of his life. Many a man also missed his chances by doing _just as he was told_ and nothing more. His work ended there. In due course it is inevitable that such a man should become part of the great army of discontented ne'er-do-wells who help to block the pavements in front of the loafing places.
Hesitation, vacillation and growing diffidence take the place of self-reliance. He falls to the bottom like a stone. And there he rests--a drag anchor in the mire. His job gets the best of him because he lacks initiative. Once stranded he becomes an arrant coward--_afraid of his own shadow_.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _A Scene from ”In Again--Out Again”_]