Part 27 (2/2)
Let the world look to it, then, that the exalted qualities of youth which make it indiscreet, audacious, exhilarant--yes, and spotless, too--be not discouraged, repressed, destroyed; for these qualities are ”the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
Speaking to the world of business and of society, I therefore plead for tolerance of all the fresh, clean, high, and splendid--absurd, if you will--”illusions” of the young man seeking his seat at the table where all men eat, and where all, at the end, must drink the same hemlock cup.
For if these ”illusions” are destroyed and replaced with the wisdom of the serpent, Tennyson's ”Locksley Hall” will, sure enough and in sad reality, be replaced by the ”Locksley Hall Sixty Years After.” Take the young man, then, by the hand, take him to your heart, and, instead of destroying, catch, if you can, some of the glory, the faith, the freshness, the ”illusions” of his youth; remembering that Wordsworth uttered an ultimate note when he said:
”Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar.
Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory, do we come From G.o.d, who is our home.”
And it is these clouds of glory that still surround the young man when he stands brave and sweet and full of faith, and with his mother's precious precepts and counsels ringing in his ears, before the great old world, wrinkled by its infinite centuries.
But you, young man, you for whom I am asking the world's helpful regard--when you read this do not go to pitying yourself. That is fatal. Do not get the notion that the world is not giving you your just due. If you have such an idea, thrust it instantly from you. If you think the world has downed you, up and at it again. If, a second time, it knocks you out, still up and at it again. And keep smiling.
Never whine--you deserve defeat if you do that.
Be a ”thoroughbred,” as the expression of the hour has it. After ”you conquer and prevail,” you will find that the world has a kindly and even a loving heart. All you have to do is to keep in condition and keep fighting. And that ought to be pleasant to any male creature--what more can he want? Just go right ahead with faith in G.o.d, believing in all the virtues and keeping up your nerve. But if you get to pitying yourself, you are lost, and ought to be.
Furthermore, do not succ.u.mb to the fiction that there are fewer ”chances” for young men now than there used to be. Never was there a period when there were so many opportunities as there are this very day--_high-grade_ opportunities. They are for high-grade men--and that is what you are, is it not? If not, why not? The calls for men of fine equipment daily rise from every business, and are never satisfied.
And these calls are for young men, too. Indeed, it is not the young man, but the old and middle-aged man who has the right to complain.
The exactions of modern business are discriminating in favor of the man under forty. There are calls for all kinds of men. But the fiercest demand is for first-cla.s.s men. You have only to be a _first-cla.s.s man_ in order to be sought for by scores of firms and corporations--and on your own terms. No! it is not the fact that there are no chances for young men to-day. The chances are all around you.
CHAPTER XII
THE YOUNG MAN'S SECOND WIND; OR FACING THE WORLD AT FIFTY
Life has three tragedies: loss of honor, loss of health, and the black conclusion of men past middle life who think they have failed--played the game and lost. The young man starting out in life has my heart; but the man past fifty who feels that he has failed has my heart absolutely and with emphasis. Apparently he has so much to contend against--the onsweep of the world, the pitying att.i.tude of those of his own age who have succeeded, and, over all, his secret feeling of despair. But the last is the only fatal element in his problem.
As a matter of fact, the man past middle life who has not achieved distinct success very possibly has only been ”finding himself,” to use Mr. Kipling's expression. Perhaps he has only been growing. Certainly he has been acc.u.mulating experience, knowledge, and the effective wisdom which only these can give. And if his failure has not been because he is a fraud, and because people found it out--if he has been, and is, genuine--it may be that he has been unconsciously preparing for continuous, enduring, and possibly great success, if he only will.
I should say that the very first thing for this man to do is to see that he does not get soured. That att.i.tude of character is an acid which will destroy all success. Keep yourself sweet, no matter how snail-like your progress has been, no matter how paltry your apparent achievements. If you are already soured on men and the world, change that condition by a persistent habit of optimism. All death shows an acid reaction. Hopefulness is the alkaline in character.
Make ”looking on the bright side” a habit. It can be done. Mingle with people as much as possible--especially with the young and buoyant and beautifully hopeful. Be a part of pa.s.sing events. Read the daily newspapers. Form the habit of picking out the brighter aspects of occurrences. There is an astonis.h.i.+ng tonic in the daily newspaper.
When you read it, the blood of the world's great vitality is pouring through you.
I know a man who is now a millionaire, but who at the age of forty was without a dollar. He is now not over fifty-five. He had spent all those forty years watching for his opportunity--aye, getting ready for it. When it came, his beak was sharpened, his talons keen as needles and strong as steel, and he swooped down upon that opportunity like a bird of prey.
”No,” said he, ”I did not get discouraged. I was living, and my wife and children were living; and Vanderbilt was not doing any more than that, after all. I felt all the time that I was getting ready. I worked a good deal harder than I have since I achieved my fortune.
Somehow, up to the time it came I had not felt equal to my chance; for I knew that my opportunity would be a large one when it came, and I knew that it would come. It did come.”
Business men said for the first two or three years, ”What a change of luck Mr. ---- has had! But he is not equal to it. He has never accomplished anything heretofore.”
Yes, but he had been getting ready. He had been saving vitality, building up character, indexing and pigeonholing experiences, acc.u.mulating and systematizing a long-continued series of observations and all the potentialities of intellect and personality out of which, when applied to proper conditions, success alone is forged.
And so he gathered to himself great riches, and the poor man of a few years ago is now--of course, of course, and alas! if you like--a member of one of the most powerful trusts in the country.
Get yourself into the current of Circ.u.mstance--”in the swim,” as the colloquialism has it. A man of large experience and important achievement said to me not long ago: ”I am afraid I am getting to be a back number.” That was a distinct note of degeneration. If he thought so that thought was the best evidence of the fact.
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