Success (Second Edition)

istence of other ambitions in the walks of Art, Religion, or Literature. But at the very outset I confined the scope of my advice to those who wish to triumph in practical

ore the vision some kind of enchanted paradise where t

ocess of its acquirement also the master of the circumstances which surround him. He can shape his immediate world to his own liking. Apart from these two faculties, character in acquirement, power in use, money has little value, and is just as likely to be a curse as a blessing. For this reason the money master will care little for leaving vast wealth to his descendants. He knows that they would be better men for

ving for it and then in the use of it. The ambition

guidance of the young man who, starting with sma

sesses it even in a rudimentary form he can cultivate it in the early days when the mind is still plastic, until it develops beyond all recognition. When I was a boy I knew the value in exchange of every m

ity for determining values, and then correcting his judgments

before you go out to conquer the financial world, and then go out for conquest-if the account justifies the enterprise. Too many men spend their time in laying down "pipe-lines" for future profits which may not arrive or only arrive for some newcomer who has taken

ition to launch men out into daring schemes for which they have neither the resources nor the experience. Acquire the knowledge of values, practise economy, and learn to read the minds of men, and your techniqu

iness. They must shake the very fibre of his being as the conception of a great picture shakes an artist. But the first ten thousand made, he can advance with greater freedom and take affairs in his stride. He will have the confidence of experience, and can paint with a big brush because all the details of affai

ortune, may fail of real achievement and happiness. He may not be able to recognise that the qualities of the aspirant are not exa

depression. But the lean years will not last for ever. Industry during the period of deflation goes through a process like that of an over-fat man taking a Turkish bath. The extravagances are eliminated, new invention and

capacity to make money something to be desired and striven for, something worth

of men strive for will produce the fiercest competition of intellect. Politics are for the few; they are a game, a fancy, or an inheritance. Leaving out the man of genius who flares out, perhaps, once or twice in a century, the

men fight with a precipice behind them, not a pension of ￡2,000 a year. The young men who go down into that press must win their spurs by

g but the fruit of resolution and intellect applied to the affairs o