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diff --git a/15248-8.txt b/15248-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43c88fa --- /dev/null +++ b/15248-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2393 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Success (Second Edition), by Max Aitken Beaverbrook + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Success (Second Edition) + +Author: Max Aitken Beaverbrook + +Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15248] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUCCESS (SECOND EDITION) *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jared Buck and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net). + + + + + + +SUCCESS + +BY LORD BEAVERBROOK + + + + + + +SECOND EDITION + +LONDON STANLEY PAUL & CO 31 ESSEX STREET, STRAND, W.C.2 + +_First published in November 1921_; _Reprinted November 1921_ + + + + + +PUBLISHERS' NOTE + + +The contents of this volume originally appeared as weekly articles by +Lord Beaverbrook in the _Sunday Express_. They aroused so much interest, +and so many applications were received for copies of the various +articles, that it was decided to have them collected and printed in +volume form. + +He who buys _Success_, reads and digests its precepts, will find this +inspiring volume a sure will-tonic. It will nerve him to be up and +doing. It will put such spring and go into him that he will make a +determined start on that road which, pursued with perseverance, leads +onwards and upwards to the desired goal--SUCCESS. + + + +PREFACE + + +The articles embodied in this small book were written during the +pressure of many other affairs and without any idea that they would be +published as a consistent whole. It is, therefore, certain that the +critic will find in them instances of a repetition of the central idea. +This fact is really a proof of a unity of conception which justifies +their publication in a collected form. I set out to ask the question, +"What is success in the affairs of the world--how is it attained, and +how can it be enjoyed?" I have tried with all sincerity to answer the +question out of my own experience. In so doing I have strayed down many +avenues of inquiry, but all of them lead back to the central conception +of success as some kind of temple which satisfies the mind of the +ordinary practical man. + +Other fields of mental satisfaction have been left entirely outside as +not germane to the inquiry. + +I address myself to the young men of the new age. Those who have youth +also possess opportunity. There is in the British Empire to-day no bar +to success which resolution cannot break. The young clerk has the key of +success in his pocket, if he has the courage and the ability to turn the +lock which leads to the Temple of Success. The wide world of business +and finance is open to him. Any public dinner or meeting contains +hundreds of men who can succeed if they will only observe the rules +which govern achievement. + +A career to-day is open to talent, for there is no heredity in finance, +commerce, or industry. The Succession and Death Duties are wiping out +those reserves by which old-fashioned banks and businesses warded off +from themselves for two or three generations the result of hereditary +incompetence. Ability is bound to be recognised from whatever source it +springs. The struggle in finance and commerce is too intense and the +battle too world-wide to prevent individual efficiency playing a bigger +and a better rôle. + +If I have given encouragement to a single young man to set his feet on +the path which leads upwards to success, and warned him of a few of the +perils which will beset him on the road, I shall feel perfectly +satisfied that this book has not been written in vain. + +BEAVERBROOK. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. SUCCESS + + II. HAPPINESS: THREE SECRETS + + III. LUCK + + IV. MODERATION + + V. MONEY + + VI. EDUCATION + + VII. ARROGANCE + +VIII. COURAGE + + IX. PANIC + + X. DEPRESSION + + XI. FAILURE + + XII. CONSISTENCY + +XIII. PREJUDICE + + XIV. CALM + + + + + + +I + + +SUCCESS + + +Success--that is the royal road we all want to tread, for the echo off +its flagstones sounds pleasantly in the mind. It gives to man all that +the natural man desires: the opportunity of exercising his activities to +the full; the sense of power; the feeling that life is a slave, not a +master; the knowledge that some great industry has quickened into life +under the impulse of a single brain. + +To each his own particular branch of this difficult art. The artist +knows one joy, the soldier another; what delights the business man +leaves the politician cold. But however much each section of society +abuses the ambitions or the morals of the other, all worship equally at +the same shrine. No man really wants to spend his whole life as a +reporter, a clerk, a subaltern, a private Member, or a curate. Downing +Street is as attractive as the oak-leaves of the field-marshal; York and +Canterbury as pleasant as a dominance in Lombard Street or Burlington +House. + +For my own part I speak of the only field of success I know--the world +of ordinary affairs. And I start with a contradiction in terms. Success +is a constitutional temperament bestowed on the recipient by the gods. +And yet you may have all the gifts of the fairies and fail utterly. Man +cannot add an inch to his stature, but by taking thought he can walk +erect; all the gifts given at birth can be destroyed by a single curse. + +Like all human affairs, success is partly a matter of predestination and +partly of free will. You cannot make the genius, but you can either +improve or destroy it, and most men and women possess the assets which +can be turned into success. + +But those who possess the precious gifts will have both to hoard and to +expand them. + +What are the qualities which make for success? They are three: +Judgment, Industry, and Health, and perhaps the greatest of these is +judgment. These are the three pillars which hold up the fabric of +success. But in using the word judgment one has said everything. + +In the affairs of the world it is the supreme quality. How many men have +brilliant schemes and yet are quite unable to execute them, and through +their very brilliancy stumble unawares upon ruin? For round judgment +there cluster many hundred qualities, like the setting round a jewel: +the capacity to read the hearts of men; to draw an inexhaustible +fountain of wisdom from every particle of experience in the past, and +turn the current of this knowledge into the dynamic action of the +future. Genius goes to the heart of a matter like an arrow from a bow, +but judgment is the quality which learns from the world what the world +has to teach and then goes one better. Shelley had genius, but he would +not have been a success in Wall Street--though the poet showed a flash +of business knowledge in refusing to lend money to Byron. + +In the ultimate resort judgment is the power to assimilate knowledge +and to use it. The opinions of men and the movement of markets are all +so much material for the perfected instrument of the mind. + +But judgment may prove a sterile capacity if it is not accompanied by +industry. The mill must have grist on which to work, and it is industry +which pours in the grain. + +A great opportunity may be lost and an irretrievable error committed by +a brief break in the lucidity of the intellect or in the train of +thought. "He who would be Cæsar anywhere," says Kipling, "must know +everything everywhere." Nearly everything comes to the man who is always +all there. + +Men are not really born either hopelessly idle, or preternaturally +industrious. They may move in one direction or the other as will or +circumstances dictate, but it is open to any man to work. Hogarth's +industrious and idle apprentice point a moral, but they do not tell a +true tale. The real trouble about industry is to apply it in the right +direction--and it is therefore the servant of judgment. The true secret +of industry well applied is concentration, and there are many +well-known ways of learning that art--the most potent handmaiden of +success. Industry can be acquired; it should never be squandered. + +But health is the foundation both of judgment and industry--and +therefore of success. And without health everything is difficult. Who +can exercise a sound judgment if he is feeling irritable in the morning? +Who can work hard if he is suffering from a perpetual feeling of +malaise? + +The future lies with the people who will take exercise and not too much +exercise. Athleticism may be hopeless as a career, but as a drug it is +invaluable. No ordinary man can hope to succeed who does not work his +body in moderation. The danger of the athlete is to believe that in +kicking a goal he has won the game of life. His object is no longer to +be fit for work, but to be superfit for play. He sees the means and the +end through an inverted telescope. The story books always tell us that +the Rowing Blue finishes up as a High Court Judge. + +The truth is very different. The career of sport leads only to failure, +satiety, or impotence. + +The hero of the playing fields becomes the dunce of the office. Other +men go on playing till middle-age robs them of their physical powers. At +the end the whole thing is revealed as vanity. Play tennis or golf once +a day and you may be famous; play it three times a day and you will be +in danger of being thought a professional--without the reward. + +The pursuit of pleasure is equally ephemeral. Time and experience rob +even amusement of its charm, and the night before is not worth next +morning's headache. Practical success alone makes early middle-age the +most pleasurable period of a man's career. What has been worked for in +youth then comes to its fruition. + +It is true that brains alone are not influence, and that money alone is +not influence, but brains and money combined are power. And fame, the +other object of ambition, is only another name for either money or +power. + +Never was there a moment more favourable for turning talent towards +opportunity and opportunity into triumph than Great Britain now presents +to the man or woman whom ambition stirs to make a success of life. The +dominions of the British Empire abolished long ago the privileges which +birth confers. No bar has been set there to prevent poverty rising to +the heights of wealth and power, if the man were found equal to the +task. + +The same development has taken place in Great Britain to-day. Men are no +longer born into Cabinets; the ladder of education is rapidly reaching a +perfection which enables a man born in a cottage or a slum attaining the +zenith of success and power. + +There stand the three attributes to be attained--Judgment, Industry, and +Health. Judgment can be improved, industry can be acquired, health can +be attained by those who will take the trouble. These are the three +pillars on which we can build the golden pinnacle of success. + + + +II + + +HAPPINESS: THREE SECRETS + + +Near by the Temple of Success based on the three pillars of Health, +Industry, and Judgment, stands another temple. Behind the curtains of +its doors is concealed the secret of happiness. + +There are, of course, many forms of that priceless gift. Different +temperaments will interpret it differently. Various experiences will +produce variations of the blessing. A man may make a failure in his +affairs and yet remain happy. The spiritual and inner life is a thing +apart from material success. Even a man who, like Robert Louis +Stevenson, suffers from chronic ill-health can still be happy. + +But we must leave out these exceptions and deal with the normal man, who +lives by and for his practical work, and who desires and enjoys both +success and health. Granted that he has these two possessions, must he +of necessity be happy? Not so. He may have access to the first temple, +but the other temple may still be forbidden him. A rampant ambition can +be a torture to him. An exaggerated selfishness can make his life +miserable, or an uneasy conscience may join with the sins of pride to +take their revenge on his mentality. For the man who has attained +success and health there are three great rules: "To do justly, and to +love mercy, and to walk humbly." These are the three pillars of the +Temple of Happiness. + +Justice, which is another word for honesty in practice and in intention, +is perhaps the easiest of the virtues for the successful man of affairs +to acquire. His experience has schooled him to something more profound +than the acceptance of the rather crude dictum that "Honesty is the best +policy"--which is often interpreted to mean that it is a mistake to go +to gaol. But real justice must go far beyond a mere fear of the law, or +even a realisation that it does not pay to indulge in sharp practice in +business. It must be a mental habit--a fixed intention to be fair in +dealing with money or politics, a natural desire to be just and to +interpret all bargains and agreements in the spirit as well as in the +letter. + +The idea that nearly all successful men are unscrupulous is very +frequently accepted. To the man who knows, the doctrine is simply +foolish. Success is not the only or the final test of character, but it +is the best rough-and-ready reckoner. The contrary view that success +probably implies a moral defect springs from judging a man by the +opinions of his rivals, enemies, or neighbours. The real judges of a +man's character are his colleagues. If they speak well of him, there is +nothing much wrong. The failure, on the other hand, can always be sure +of being popular with the men who have beaten him. They give him a +testimonial instead of a cheque. It would be too curious a speculation +to pursue to ask whether Justice, like the other virtues, is not a form +of self-interest. To answer it in the affirmative would condemn equally +the doctrines of the Sermon on the Mount and the advice to do unto +others what they should do unto you. But this is certain. No man can be +happy if he suffers from a perpetual doubt of his own justice. + +The second quality, Mercy, has been regarded as something in contrast or +conflict with justice. It is not really so. Mercy resembles the +prerogative of the judge to temper the law to suit individual cases. It +must be of a kindred temper with justice, or it would degenerate into +mere weakness or folly. A man wants to be certain of his own just +inclination before he can dare to handle mercy. But the quality of mercy +is, perhaps, not so common in the human heart as to require this +caution. It is a quality that has to be acquired. But the man of success +and affairs ought to be the last person to complain of the difficulty of +acquiring it. He has in his early days felt the whip-hand too often not +to sympathise with the feelings of the under-dog. And he always knows +that at some time in his career he, too, may need a merciful +interpretation of a financial situation. Shakespeare may not have had +this in his mind when he said that mercy "blesseth him that gives and +him that takes"; but he is none the less right. Those who exercise mercy +lay up a store of it for themselves. Shylock had law on his side, but +not justice or mercy. One is reminded of his case by the picture of +certain Jews and Gentiles alike as seen playing roulette at Monte Carlo. +Their losses, inevitable to any one who plays long enough, seem to +sadden them. M. Blanc would be doing a real act of mercy if he would +exact his toll not in cash, but in flesh. Some of the players are of a +figure and temperament which would miss the pound of flesh far less than +the pound sterling. + +What, then, in its essence is the quality of mercy? It is something +beyond the mere desire not to push an advantage too far. It is a feeling +of tenderness springing out of harsh experience, as a flower springs out +of a rock. It is an inner sense of gratitude for the scheme of things, +finding expression in outward action, and, therefore, assuring its +possessor of an abiding happiness. + +The quality of Humility is by far the most difficult to attain. There +is something deep down in the nature of a successful man of affairs +which seems to conflict with it. His career is born in a sense of +struggle and courage and conquest, and the very type of the effort seems +to invite in the completed form a temperament of arrogance. I cannot +pretend to be humble myself; all I can confess is the knowledge that in +so far as I could acquire humility I should be happier. Indeed, many +instances prove that success and humility are not incompatible. One of +the most eminent of our politicians is by nature incurably modest. The +difficulty in reconciling the two qualities lies in that "perpetual +presence of self to self which, though common enough in men of great +ambition and ability, never ceases to be a flaw." + +But there is certainly one form of humility which all successful men +ought to be able to practise. They can avoid a fatal tendency to look +down on and despise the younger men who are planting their feet in their +own footsteps. The established arrogance which refuses credit or +opportunity to rising talent is unpardonable. A man who gives way to +what is really simply a form of jealousy cannot hope to be happy, for +jealousy is above all others the passion which tears the heart. + +The great stumbling block which prevents success embracing humility is +the difficulty of distinguishing between the humble mind and the +cowardly one. When does humility merge into moral cowardice and courage +into arrogance? Some men in history have had this problem solved for +them. Stonewall Jackson is a type of the man of supreme courage and +action and judgment who was yet supremely humble--but he owed his bodily +and mental qualities to nature and his humility to the intensity of his +Presbyterian faith. Few men are so fortunately compounded. + +Still, if the moral judgment is worth anything, a man should be able to +practise courage without arrogance and to walk humbly without fear. If +he can accomplish the feat he will reap no material reward, but an +immense harvest of inner well-being. He will have found the blue bird of +happiness which escapes so easily from the snare. He will have joined +Justice to Mercy and added Humility to Courage, and in the light of this +self-knowledge he will have attained the zenith of a perpetual +satisfaction. + + + +III + + +LUCK + + +Some of the critics do not believe that the pinnacle of success stands +only on the three pillars of Judgment, Industry, and Health. They point +out that I have omitted one vital factor--Luck. So widespread is this +belief, largely pagan in its origin, that mere fortune either makes or +unmakes men, that it seems worth while to discuss and refute this +dangerous delusion. + +Of course, if the doctrine merely means that men are the victims of +circumstances and surroundings, it is a truism. It is luckier to be born +heir to a peerage and £100,000 than to be born in Whitechapel. Past and +present Chancellors of the Exchequer have gone far in removing much of +this discrepancy in fortune. Again, a disaster which destroys a single +individual may alter the whole course of a survivor's career. But the +devotees of the Goddess of Luck do not mean this at all. They hold that +some men are born lucky and others unlucky, as though some Fortune +presided at their birth; and that, irrespective of all merits, success +goes to those on whom Fortune smiles and defeat to those on whom she +frowns. Or at least luck is regarded as a kind of attribute of a man +like a capacity for arithmetic or games. + +This view is in essence the belief of the true gambler--not the man who +backs his skill at cards, or his knowledge of racing against his +rival--but who goes to the tables at Monte Carlo backing runs of good or +ill luck. It has been defined as a belief in the imagined tendencies of +chance to produce events continuously favourable or continuously +unfavourable. + +The whole conception is a nightmare of the mind, peculiarly unfavourable +to success in business. The laws of games of chance are as inexorable as +those of the universe. A skilful player will, in the long run, defeat a +less skilful one; the bank at Monte Carlo will always beat the +individual if he stays long enough. I presume that the bank there is +managed honestly, although I neither know nor care whether it is. But +this at least is certain--the cagnotte gains 3 per cent. on every spin. +Mathematically, a man is bound to lose the capital he invests in every +thirty throws when his luck is neither good nor bad. In the long run his +luck will leave him with a balanced book--minus the cagnotte. My advice +to any man would be, "Never play roulette at all; but if you must play, +hold the cagnotte." + +The Press, of course, often publishes stories of great fortunes made at +Monte Carlo. The proprietors there understand publicity. Such statements +bring them new patrons. + +It is necessary to dwell on this gambling side of the question, because +every man who believes in luck has a touch of the gambler in him, though +he may never have played a stake. And from the point of view of real +success in affairs the gambler is doomed in advance. It is a frame of +mind which a man should discourage severely when he finds it within the +citadel of his mind. It is a view which too frequently infects young men +with more ambition than industry. + +The view of Fortune as some shining goddess sweeping down from heaven +and touching the lucky recipient with her pinions of gold dazzles the +mind of youth. Men think that with a single stroke they will either be +made rich for life or impoverished for ever. + +The more usual view is less ambitious. It is the complaint that Fortune +has never looked a man's way. Failure due to lack of industry is excused +on the ground that the goddess has proved adverse. There is a third form +of this mental disease. A young man spoke to me in Monte Carlo the other +day, and said, "I could do anything if only I had the chance, but that +chance never comes my way." On that same evening I saw the aspirant +throwing away whatever chance he may have had at the tables. + +A similar type of character is to be found in the young man who +consistently refuses good offers or even small chances of work because +they are not good enough for him. He expects that Luck will suddenly +bestow on him a ready-made position or a gorgeous chance suitable to the +high opinions he holds of his own capacities. After a time people tire +of giving him any openings at all. In wooing the Goddess of Luck he has +neglected the Goddess of Opportunity. + +These men in middle age fall into a well-known class. They can be seen +haunting the Temple, and explaining to their more industrious and +successful associates that they would have been Lord Chancellor if a big +brief had ever come their way. They develop that terrible disease known +as "the genius of the untried." Their case is almost as pitiful or +ludicrous as that of the man of very moderate abilities whom drink or +some other vice has rendered quite incapable. There will still be found +men to whisper to each other as he passes, "Ah, if Brown didn't drink, +he might do anything." + +Far different will be the mental standpoint of the man who really means +to succeed. He will banish the idea of luck from his mind. He will +accept every opportunity, however small it may appear, which seems to +lead to the possibility of greater things. He will not wait on luck to +open the portals to fortune. He will seize opportunity by the forelock +and develop its chances by his industry. Here and there he may go +wrong, where judgment or experience is lacking. But out of his very +defeats he will learn to do better in the future, and in the maturity of +his knowledge he will attain success. At least, he will not be found +sitting down and whining that luck alone has been against him. + +There remains a far more subtle argument in favour of the gambling +temperament which believes in luck. It is that certain men possess a +kind of sixth sense in the realm of speculative enterprise. These men, +it is said, know by inherent instinct, divorced from reasoned knowledge, +what enterprise will succeed or fail, or whether the market will rise or +fall. They are the children of fortune. + +The real diagnosis of these cases is a very different one from that put +forward by the mystic apostles of the Golden Luck. Eminent men who are +closely in touch with the great affairs of politics or business often +act on what appears to be a mere instinct of this kind. But, in truth, +they have absorbed, through a careful and continuous study of events +both in the present and the past, so much knowledge, that their minds +reach a conclusion automatically, just as the heart beats without any +stimulus from the brain. Ask them for the reasons of their decision, and +they become inarticulate or unintelligible in their replies. Their +conscious mind cannot explain the long-hoarded experience of their +subconscious self. When they prove right in their forecast, the world +exclaims, "What luck!" Well, if luck of that kind is long enough +continued it will be best ascribed to judgment. + +The real "lucky" speculator is of a very different character. He makes a +brilliant coup or so and then disappears in some overwhelming disaster. +He is as quick in losing his fortune as he is in making it. Nothing +except Judgment and Industry, backed by Health, will ensure real and +permanent success. The rest is sheer superstition. + +Two pictures may be put before the believer in luck as an element in +success. The one is Monte Carlo--where the Goddess Fortune is chiefly +worshipped--steeped in almost perpetual sunshine, piled in castellated +masses against its hills, gaining the sense of the illimitable from the +blue horizon of the Mediterranean--a shining land meant for clean +exercise and repose. Yet there youth is only seen in its depravity, +while old age flocks to the central gambling hell to excite or mortify +its jaded appetites by playing a game it is bound to lose. + +Here you may see in their decay the people who believe in luck, steeped +in an atmosphere of smoke and excitement, while beauty of Nature or the +pursuits of health call to them in vain. Three badly lighted tennis +courts compete with thirty splendidly furnished casino rooms. But of +means for obtaining the results of exercise without the exertion there +is no end. The Salle des Bains offers to the fat and the jaded the hot +bath, the electric massage, and all the mechanical instruments for +restoring energy. Modern science and art combine to outdo the +attractions of the baths of Imperial Rome. + +In far different surroundings from these were born the careers of the +living captains of modern industry and finance--Inchcape, Pirrie, +Cowdray, Leverhulme, or McKenna. These men believed in industry, not in +fortune, and in judgment rather than in chance. The youth of this +generation will do well to be guided by their example, and follow their +road to success. Not by the worship of the Goddess of Luck were the +great fortunes established or the great reputations made. + +It is natural and right for youth to hope, but if hope turns to a belief +in luck, it becomes a poison to the mind. The youth of England has +before it a splendid opportunity, but let it remember always that +nothing but work and brains counts, and that a man can even work himself +into brains. No goddess will open to any man the portals of the temple +of success. Young men must advance boldly to the central shrine along +the arduous but well-tried avenues of Judgment and Industry. + + + +IV + + +MODERATION + + +Judgment, Industry, and Health, as the instruments of success, depend +largely on a fourth quality, which may be called either restraint or +moderation. The successful men of these arduous days are those who +control themselves strictly. + +Those who are learned in the past may point out exceptions to this rule. +But Charles James Fox or Bolingbroke were only competing with equals in +the art of genteel debauchery. Their habits were those of their +competitors. They were not fighting men who safeguarded their health and +kept a cool head in the morning. It is impossible to imagine to-day a +leader of the Opposition who, after a night of gambling at faro, would +go down without a breakfast or a bath to develop an important attack on +the Government. The days of the brilliant debauchee are over. +Politicians no longer retire for good at forty to nurse the gout. The +antagonists that careless genius would have to meet in the modern world +would be of sterner stuff. + +The modern men of action realise that a sacrifice of health is a +sacrifice of years--and that every year is of value. They protect their +constitutions as the final bulwark against the assault of the enemy. A +man without a digestion is likely to be a man without a heart. Political +and financial courage spring as much from the nerves or the stomach as +from the brain. And without courage no politician or business man is +worth anything. Moderation is, therefore, the secret of success. + +And, above all, I would urge on ambitious youth the absolute necessity +of moderation in alcohol. I am the last man in the world to be in favour +of the regulation of the social habits of the people by law. Here every +man should be his own controller and law-giver. But this much is +certain: no man can achieve success who is not strict with himself in +this matter; nor is it a bad thing for an aspiring man of business to be +a teetotaller. + +Take the case of the Prime Minister. No man is more careful of himself. +He sips a single glass of burgundy at dinner for the obvious reason that +he enjoys it, and not because it might stimulate his activities. He has +given up the use of tobacco. Bolingbroke as a master of manoeuvres would +have had a poor chance against him. For Bolingbroke lost his nerve in +the final disaster, whereas the Prime Minister could always be trusted +to have all his wits and courage about him. Mr. Lloyd George is regarded +as a man riding the storm of politics with nerves to drive him on. No +view could be more untrue. In the very worst days of the war in 1916 he +could be discovered at the War Office taking his ten minutes' nap with +his feet up on a chair and discarded newspapers lying like the débris of +a battle-field about him. It would be charitable to suppose that he had +fallen asleep before he had read his newspapers! He even takes his golf +in very moderate doses. We are often told that he needs a prolonged +holiday, but somewhere in his youth he finds inexhaustible reserves of +power which he conserves into his middle age. In this way he has found +the secret of his temporary Empire. It is for this reason that the man +in command is never too busy to see a caller who has the urgency of +vital business at his back. + +The Ex-Leader of the Conservative Party, Mr. Bonar Law, however much he +may differ from the Premier in many aspects of his temperament, also +finds the foundation of his judgment in exercise and caution. As a +player of games he is rather poor, but makes up in enthusiasm for tennis +what he lacks in skill. His habits are almost ascetic in their rigour. +He drinks nothing, and the finest dinner a cook ever conceived would be +wasted on him. A single course of the plainest food suffices his +appetite, and he grows manifestly uneasy when faced with a long meal. +His pipe, his one relaxation, never far absent, seems to draw him with a +magic attraction. As it was, his physical resources stood perhaps the +greatest strain that has been imposed on any public man in our time. +From the moment when he joined the first Coalition Government in 1915 to +the day when he laid down office in 1921 he was beset by cares and +immersed in labours which would have overwhelmed almost any other man. +Neither this nor succeeding Coalition Governments were popular with a +great section of his Conservative followers, and to the task of taking +decisions on the war was added the constant and irritating necessity of +keeping his own supporters in line with the administration. In 1916 he +had to take the vital decision which displaced Mr. Asquith in favour of +Mr. Lloyd George, and during the latter's Premiership he had to suffer +the strain of constantly accommodating himself, out of a feeling of +personal loyalty, to methods which were not congenial to his own nature. +In the face of all these stresses he never would take a holiday, and +nothing except the rigid moderation of his life enabled him to keep the +cool penetration of his judgment intact and his physical vigour going +during those six terrible years. + +The Lord Chancellor might appear to be an exception to the rule. This is +very far from being the case. It is true that his temperament knows no +mean either in work or play. One of the most successful speeches he ever +delivered in the House of Commons was the fruit of a day of violent +exercise, followed by a night of preparation, with a wet towel tied +round the head. And yet he appeared perfectly fresh; he has the +priceless asset of the most marvellous constitution in the British +Empire. Kipling's poem on France suggests an adaptation to describe the +Lord Chancellor: + + "Furious in luxury, merciless in toil, + Terrible with strength renewed from a tireless soil." + +No man has spent himself more freely in the hunting-field or works +harder to-day at games. Yet, with all this tendency to the extreme of +work and play, he is a man of iron resolution and determined +self-control. Although the most formidable enemy of the Pussyfooters and +the most powerful protector of freedom in the social habits of the +people that the Cabinet contains, he is, like Mr. Bonar Law, a +teetotaler. It is this capacity for governing himself which is pointing +upwards to still greater heights of power. + +Mr. McKenna is, perhaps, the most striking instance of what +determination can achieve in the way of health and physique. His rowing +Blue was the simple and direct result of taking pains--in the form of a +rowing dummy in which he practised in his own rooms. The achievement +was typical of a career which has in its dual success no parallel in +modern life. There have been many Chancellors of the Exchequer and many +big men in the City. That a man, after forcing his way to the front in +politics, should transfer his activities to the City and become in a +short four years its most commanding figure is unheard of. And Mr. +McKenna had the misfortune to enter public life with the handicap of a +stutter. He set himself to cure it by reading Burke aloud to his family, +and he cured it. He was then told by his political friends that he spoke +too quickly to be effective. He cured himself of this defect too, by +rehearsing his speeches to a time machine--an ordinary stop-watch, not +one of the H.G. Wells' variety. Indeed, if any man can be said to have +"made himself," it is Mr. McKenna. He bridges the gulf between politics +and the City, and brings one to a final instance of the purely business +man. + +Mr. Gordon Selfridge is an exemplar of the simple life practical in the +midst of unbounded success. He goes to his office every morning +regularly at nine o'clock. In the midst of opulence he eats a frugal +lunch in a room which supplies the one thing of which he is +avaricious--big windows and plenty of fresh air. For light and air spell +for him, as for the rest of us, health and sound judgment. He possesses, +indeed, one terrible and hidden secret--a kind of baron's castle +somewhere in the heart of South England, where he may retire beyond the +pursuit of King or people, and hurl his defiance from its walls to all +the intruders which threaten the balance of the mind. No one has yet +discovered this castle, for it exists only on paper. When Mr. Gordon +Selfridge requires mental relaxation, he may be found poring over the +plans which are to be the basis of this fairy edifice. Moat and parapet, +tower, dungeon, and drawbridge, are all there, only awaiting the Mason +of the future to translate them into actuality. But the success of Mr. +Selfridge lies in his frugality, and not in his dreams. One can afford +to have a castle in Spain when one possesses the money to pay for it. + +It is the complexity of modern life which enforces moderation. Science +has created vast populations and huge industries, and also given the +means by which single minds can direct them. Invention gives these +gifts, and compels man to use them. Man is as much the slave as the +master of the machine, as he turns to the telephone or the telegram. In +this fierce turmoil of the modern world he can only keep his judgment +intact, his nerves sound, and his mind secure by the process of +self-discipline, which may be equally defined as restraint, control, or +moderation. This is the price which must be paid for the gifts the gods +confer. + + + +V + + +MONEY + + +Many serious letters and a half-humorous criticism in _Punch_ suggest +that I am to be regarded as the apostle of a pure materialism. That is +not so. I quite recognise the existence 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 affairs. I +am talking to the young men who want to succeed in business and to build +up a new nation. Criticism based on any other conception of my purpose +is a spent shaft. + +Money--the word has a magical sound. It conjures up before the vision +some kind of enchanted paradise where to wish is to have--Aladdin's lamp +brought down to earth. + +Yet in reality money carries with it only two qualities of value: the +character it creates in the making; the self-expression of the +individuality in the use of it, when once it has been made. The art of +making money implies all those qualities--resolution, concentration, +economy, self-control--which make for success and happiness. The power +of using it makes a man who has become the captain of his own soul in +the process 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 going down stripped into the struggle, with no inheritance but that +of brains and character. Wealth without either the wish, the brains, or +the power to use it is too often the medium through which men pamper the +flesh with good living, and the mind with inanity, until death, +operating through the liver, hurries the fortunate youth into an early +grave. The inheritance tax should have no terrors for the millionaire. + +The value of money is, therefore, first in the striving for it and then +in the use of it. The ambition itself is a fine one--but how is it to be +achieved? + +I would lay down certain definite rules for the guidance of the young +man who, starting with small things, is determined to go on to great +ones:-- + + 1. The first key which opens the door of success is the trading + instinct, the knowledge and sense of the real value of any article. + Without it a man need not trouble to enter business at all, but if + he possesses 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 marble in my village, and this practice of valuing + became a subconscious habit until, so long as I remained in + business, I always had an intuitive perception of the real and not + the face value of any article. + + The young man who will walk through life developing the capacity for + determining values, and then correcting his judgments by his + information, is the man who will succeed in business. + + 2. But supposing that a young man has acquired this sense of + values, he may yet ruin himself before he comes to the fruition of + his talent if he will not practise economy. By economy I mean the + economic conduct of his business. Examine your profit and loss + account 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 over the business. There is nothing like sticking to one + line of business until you have mastered it. A man who has learned + how to conduct a single industry at a profit has conquered the + obstacles which stand in the way of success in the larger world of + enterprise. + + 3. Do not try to cut with too wide a swath. This last rule is the + most important of all. Many promising young men have fallen into + ruin from the neglect of this simple principle. It is so easy for + premature ambition 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 technique will then be perfected and ready for use + on wider fields. The instinct for values, the habit of economy, the + technique of business, are only three forms of the supreme quality + of that judgment which is success. + +For these reasons it is the first £10,000 which counts. There is the +real struggle, the test of character, and the warranty of success. Youth +and strength are given us to use in that first struggle, and a man must +feel those early deals right down to the pit of his stomach if he is +going to be a great man of business. 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 affairs are now +familiar to his mentality. With this assured technique nothing will +check the career. "Why," says the innkeeper in an adaptation from +Bernard Shaw's sketch of Napoleon in Italy, "conquering countries is +like folding a tablecloth. Once the first fold is made, the rest is +easy. Conquer one, conquer all." + +Such in effect is the career of the great captains of industry. Yet the +man who attains, by the practice of these rules, a great fortune, may +fail of real achievement and happiness. He may not be able to recognise +that the qualities of the aspirant are not exactly the qualities of the +man who has arrived. The sense of general responsibility must supersede +the spirit of private adventure. + +The stability of credit becomes the watchword of high finance. Thus the +great money master will not believe that periods of depression are of +necessity ruinous. It is true that no great profits will be made in such +years of 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 energy spring up to meet the call of necessity, and +when the boom years come again it finds industry, like a highly trained +athlete, ready to pour out the goods and pay the wages. Economic +methods are nurtured by depression. + +But when all has been said and done, the sceptic may still question us. +Is the capacity to make money something to be desired and striven for, +something worth having in the character, some proof of ability in the +mind? The answer is "Yes." + +Money which is striven for brings with it the real qualities in life. +Here are the counters which mark character and brains. The money brain +is, in the modern world, the supreme brain. Why? Because that which the +greatest number 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 amount of ability which enables a man to cut +a very respectable figure in a Cabinet is extraordinarily low, compared +with that demanded in the world of industry and finance. The politician +will never believe this, but it is so. + +The battles of the market-place are real duels, on which realities of +life and death and fortune or poverty and even of fame depend. Here 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 no man's +favour. But youth can triumph; it has the resolution when the mind is +still plastic to gain that judgment which experience gives. + +My advice to the young men of to-day is simply this: Money is nothing +but the fruit of resolution and intellect applied to the affairs of the +world. To an unshakable resolution fortune will oppose no bar. + + + +VI + + +EDUCATION + + +A great number of letters have reached me from young men who seem to +think that the road to success is barred to them owing to defects in +their education. To them I would send this message: + + Never believe that success cannot come your way because you have + not been educated in the orthodox and regular fashion. + +The nineteenth century made a god of education, and its eminent men +placed learning as the foremost influence in life. + +I am bold enough to dissent, if by education is meant a course of study +imposed from without. Indeed, such a course may be a hindrance rather +than a help to a man entering on a business career. No young man on the +verge of life ought to be in the least discouraged by the fact that he +is not stamped with the hall mark of Oxford or Cambridge. + +Possibly, indeed, he has escaped a grave danger; for if, in the +impressionable period of youth, attention is given to one kind of +knowledge, it may very likely be withdrawn from another. A life of +sheltered study does not allow a boy to learn the hard facts of the +world--and business is concerned with reality. The truth is that +education is the fruit of temperament, not success the fruit of +education. What a man draws into himself by his own natural volition is +what counts, because it becomes a living part of himself. I will make +one exception in my own case--the Shorter Catechism, which was acquired +by compulsion and yet remains with me. + +My own education was of a most rudimentary description. It will be +difficult for the modern English mind to grasp the parish of Newcastle, +New Brunswick, in the 'eighties--sparse patches of cultivation +surrounded by the virgin forest and broken by the rush of an immense +river. For half the year the land is in the iron grip of snow and frost, +and the Miramichi is frozen right down to its estuary--so that "the +rain is turned to a white dust, and the sea to a great green stone." + +It was the seasons which decided my compulsory education. In the winter +I attended school because it was warm inside, and in the summer I spent +my time in the woods because it was warm outside. + +Perhaps the most remarkable instance of what self-education can do is to +be found in the achievements of Mr. J.L. Garvin. He received no formal +education at all in the public school or university sense, and he began +to work for his living at an early age. Yet, not only is he, perhaps, +the most eminent of living journalists, but his knowledge of books is, +if not more profound than that of any other man in England, certainly +wider in range, for it is not limited to any country or language. By his +own unaided efforts he has gained not only knowledge, but style and +judgment. To listen to his talk on literature is not merely to yield +oneself to the spell of the magician, but to feel that the critic has +got his estimate of values right. + +Reading, indeed, is the real source both of education and of style. +Read what you like, not what somebody else tells you that you ought to +like. That reading alone is valuable which becomes part of the reader's +own mind and nature, and this can never be the case if the matter is not +the result of self-selection, but forced on the student from outside. + +Read anything and read everything--just as a man with a sound digestion +and a good appetite eats largely and indifferently of all that is set +before him. The process of selection and rejection, or, in other words, +of taste, will come best and naturally to any man who has the right kind +of brains in his head. Some books he will throw away; others he will +read over and over again. My education owes much to Scott and Stevenson, +stealthily removed from my father's library and read in the hayloft when +I should have been in school. + +As a partiality for the right kind of literature grows on a man he is +unconsciously forming his mind and his taste and his style, and by a +natural impulse and no forced growth the whole world of letters is his. + +There are, of course, in addition, certain special branches of +education needing teaching which are of particular value to the business +life. + +Foremost among these are mathematics and foreign languages. It is not +suggested that a knowledge of the higher mathematics is essential to a +successful career; none the less it is true that the type of mind which +takes readily to mathematics is the kind which succeeds in the realm of +industry and finance. + +One of the things I regret is that my business career was shaped on a +continent which speaks one single language for commercial purposes from +the Arctic Circle to the Gulf of Mexico. Foreign languages are, +therefore, a sealed book to me. But if a man can properly appraise the +value of something he does not possess, I would place a knowledge of +languages high in the list of acquirements making for success. + +But when all is said and done, the real education is the market-place of +the street. There the study of character enables the boy of judgment to +develop an unholy proficiency in estimating the value of the currency of +the realm. + +Experiences teaches that no man ought to be downcast in setting out on +the adventure of life by a lack of formal knowledge. The Lord +Chancellor asked me the other day where I was going to educate one of my +sons. When I replied that I had not thought about the matter, and did +not care, he was unable to repress his horror. + +And yet the real reasons for such indifference are deep rooted in my +mind. A boy is master, and the only master, of his fortune. If he wants +to succeed in literature, he will read the classics until he obtains by +what he draws into himself that kind of instinct which enables him to +distinguish between good work and bad, just as the expert with his eyes +shut knows the difference between a good and a bad cigar. Neither may be +able to give any reason, for the verdict bases on subconscious +knowledge, but each will be right when he says, "Here I have written +well," or "Here I have smoked badly." + +The message, therefore, is one of encouragement to the young men of +England who are determined to succeed in the affairs of the world, and +yet have not been through the mill. The public schools turn out a +type--the individual turns out himself. In the hour of action it is +probable that the individual will defeat the type. Nothing is of +advantage in style except reading for oneself. Nothing is of advantage +in the art of learning to know a good cigar but the actual practice of +smoking. Nothing is of advantage in business except going in young, +liking the game, and buying one's experience. + +In a word, man is the creator and not the sport of his fate. He can +triumph over his upbringing and, what is more, over himself. + + + +VII + + +ARROGANCE + + +What is arrogance? To begin with, it is the besetting sin of young men +who have begun to prosper by their own exertions in the affairs of the +world. It is not pride, which is a more or less just estimate of one's +own power and responsibilities. It is not vanity or conceit, which +consists in pluming oneself exactly on the qualities one does not +possess. Arrogance is in essence something of far tougher fibre than +conceit. It is the sense of ability and power run riot; the feeling that +the world is an oyster, and that in opening its rough edges there is no +need to care a jot for the interests or susceptibilities of others. + +A young man who has surmounted his education, gone out into the world on +his own account, and made some progress in business, is the ready prey +of the bacillus of arrogance. He does not yet know enough of life to +realise the price he will have to pay in the future for the brusqueness +of his manner or the abruptness of his proceedings. He may even fancy +that it is only necessary to be as rude as Napoleon to acquire all the +gifts of the Emperor. This conception is altogether false, though it may +be pardoned to youth in the first rush of success. + +The unfortunate point is that in everyday life the older men will not in +practice confer this pardon. They are annoyed by the presumption the +newcomer displays, and they visit their wrath on him, not only at the +time of the offence, but for years afterwards. + +At the moment this attitude of criticism and hostility the masters of +the field show to the aspirant may not be without its advantages if it +teaches him that justice, moderation, and courtesy are qualities which +still possess merits even for the rising young man. If so, we may thank +Heaven even for our enemies. + +The usual prophecy for curbing arrogant youth on these occasions is the +sure prediction that he will come a smash. As a matter of fact, it is +extraordinarily rare for a man who has conquered the initial +difficulties of success in money-making, if his work is honest, to come +to disaster. None the less, if the young man hears these "ancestral +voices prophesying war," and shivers a little in his bed at night, he +will be none the worse for the cold douche of doubt and enmity. + +Indeed, so long as youth keeps its head it will be the better for the +successive hurdles which obstructive age, or even middle-age, puts in +its path. A few stumbles will teach it care in approaching the next +jump. + +The only real cure for arrogance is a check--not an absolute failure. +For complete disaster is as likely to breed the arrogance of despair as +supreme triumph is to breed the arrogance of invincibility. A set-back +is the best cure for arrogance. + +It would be a false assumption to suppose that temporary humiliations or +mistakes can rid one definitely and finally of the vice I am describing. +Arrogance seems too closely knit into the very fibre of early success. +The firsthand experience of youth is not sufficient to effect the +cure--and it may be that no years and no experience will purge the mind +of this natural tendency. When Pitt publicly announced at twenty-three +that he would never take anything less than Cabinet rank he was +undoubtedly arrogant. He became Premier at twenty-four. But age and +experience moderated his supreme haughtiness, leaving at the end a +residue of pure self-confidence which enabled him to bear up against +blow after blow in the effort to save the State. + +Arrogance, tempered by experience and defeat, may thus produce in the +end the most effective type of character. But it seems a pity that youth +should suffer so much in the aftermath while it learns the necessary +lessons. But will youth listen to the advice of middle-age? + +For every man youth tramples on in the arrogance of his successful +career a hundred enemies will spring up to dog with an implacable +dislike the middle of his life. A fault of manner, a deal pressed too +hard in equity, the abruptness by which the old gods are tumbled out to +make room for the new--all these are treasured up against the successful +newcomer. In the very heat of the strife men take no more reckon of +these things than of a flesh wound in the middle of a hand-to-hand +battle. It is the after recollection on the part of the vanquished that +breeds the sullen resentment rankling against the arrogance of the +conqueror. Years afterwards, when all these things seem to have passed +away, and the very recollection of them is dim in the mind of the young +man, he will suddenly be struck by an unlooked-for blow dealt from a +strange or even a friendly quarter. He will stagger, as though hit from +behind with a stone, and exclaim, "Why did this man hit me suddenly from +the dark?" Then searching back in the chamber of his mind he will +remember some long past act of arrogance--conceived of at the time +merely as an exertion of legitimate power and ability--and he will +realise that he is paying in maturity for the indiscretions of his +youth. + +He may be engaged in some scheme for the benefit of a people or a nation +in which there is not the faintest trace of self-interest. He may even +be anxious to keep the peace with all men in the pursuit of his aim. But +he may yet be compelled to look with sorrow on the wreck of his idea +and pay the default for the antagonisms of his youth. It is not, +perhaps, in the nature of youth to be prudent. The game seems +everything; the penalties either nil or remote. But if prudence was ever +vital in the early years, it is in the avoidance of those unnecessary +enmities which arrogance brings in its train. + +It might be supposed that middle-age was preaching to youth on a sin it +had outlived. That is not the case. Unfortunately, arrogance is not +confined to any period of life. But in early age it is a tendency at +once most easy to forgive and to cure. Carried into later years, with no +perception of the fault, it becomes incurable. Worse than that, it +usually turns its possessor into a mixture of bore and fool. + +Wrapped up in the mantle of his own self-esteem, the sufferer fails to +catch the drift of sentiment round him, or to put himself in touch with +the opinions of others. His chair in any room is soon surrounded by +vacant seats or by patient sufferers. The vice has, in fact, turned +inwards, and corroded the mentality. Far better the enemies and the +mistakes of youth than this final assault on the fortress of inner calm +and happiness within the mind. + +The arrogant man can neither be friends with others nor, what is worse +still, be friends with himself. The intense concentration on self which +the mental habit brings not only disturbs any rational judgment of the +values of the outer world, but poisons all sanity, calm, and happiness +at the very source of being. It is hard to shed arrogance. It is more +difficult to be humble. It is worth while to make the attempt. + + + +VIII + + +COURAGE + + +Courage! It sounds an easy quality to possess, bringing with it the +dreams of V.C.s, and bestowing on every man worth the name the power to +endure physical danger. But courage in business is a more complex +affair. It presupposes a logical dilemma which can only be escaped in +the field of practice. + +The man who has nothing but courage easily lets this quality turn into +mere stubbornness, and a crass obstinacy is as much a hindrance to +business success as a moral weakness. Yet to the man who does not +possess moral courage the most brilliant abilities may prove utterly +useless. There is the folly of resistance and the folly of complaisance. +There is the tendency towards eternal compromise and the desire for +futile battle. Until the mind of youth has adjusted itself between the +two extremes and formed a technique which is not so much independent of +either tendency as inclusive of both, youth cannot hope for great +success. + +The evils which pure stubbornness brings in its train are perfectly +clear. Men cling to a business indefinitely in the fond wish that a loss +may yet be turned into a profit. They hope on for a better day which +their intelligence tells them will never dawn. For this attitude of mind +stupidity is a better word than stubbornness, and a far better word than +courage. When reason and judgment bid us give up the immediate battle +and start afresh on some new line, it is intellectual cowardice, not +moral courage, which bids us persevere. This obstinacy is the reverse of +the shield of which courage is the shining emblem--for courage in its +very essence can never be divorced from judgment. + +But it is easy for the character to run to the other extreme. There is a +well-known type of Jewish business man who never succeeds because he is +always too ready to compromise before the goal of a transaction has been +attained. To such a mind the certainty of half a loaf is always better +than the probability of a whole one. One merely mentions the type to +accentuate the paradox. Great affairs above all things require for their +successful conduct that class of mind which is eminently sensitive to +the drift of events, to the characters or changing views of friends and +opponents, to a careful avoidance of that rigidity of standpoint which +stamps the doctrinaire or the mule. The mind of success must be +receptive and plastic. It must know by the receptivity of its capacities +whether it is paddling against the tide or with it. + +But it is perfectly clear that this quality in the man of affairs, which +is akin to the artistic temperament, may very easily degenerate into +mere pliability. Never fight, always negotiate for a remnant of the +profits, becomes the rule of life. At each stage in the career the +primroses will beckon more attractively towards the bonfire, and the +uphill path of contest look more stony and unattractive. In this process +the intellect may remain unimpaired, but the moral fibre degenerates. + +I once had to make a choice of this nature in the days of my youth when +I was forming the Canada Cement Company. One of the concerns offered +for sale to the combine was valued at far too high a price. In fact, it +was obvious that only by selling it at this over-valuation could its +debts be paid. The president of this overvalued concern was connected +with the most powerful group of financiers that Canada has ever seen. +Their smile would mean fortune to a young man, and their frown ruin to +men of lesser position. The loss of including an unproductive concern at +an unfair price would have been little to me personally--but it would +have saddled the new amalgamated industry and the investors with a +liability instead of an asset. It was certainly far easier to be pliable +than to be firm. Every kind of private pressure was brought to bear on +me to accede to the purchase of the property. + +When this failed, all the immense engines for the formation of public +opinion which were at the disposal of the opposing forces were directed +against me in the form of vulgar abuse. And that attack was very +cleverly directed. It made no mention of my refusal to buy a certain +mill for the combine at an excessive cost to the shareholding public. On +the contrary, those who had failed to induce me to break faith with the +investing public appealed to that public to condemn me for forming a +Trust. + +I am prepared now to confess that I was bitterly hurt and injured by the +injustice of these attacks. But I regret nothing. Why? Because these +early violent criticisms taught me to treat ferocious onslaughts in +later life with complete indifference. A certain kind of purely cynical +intelligence would hold that I should have been far wiser to adopt the +pliable rôle. But that innate judgment which dwells in the recesses of +the mind tells me that my whole capacity for action in affairs would +have been destroyed by the moral collapse of yielding to that threat. +Pliability would have become a habit rather than a matter of judgment +and will, for fortitude only comes by practice. + +Every young man who enters business will at some time or another meet a +similar crisis which will determine the bias of his career and dictate +his habitual technique in negotiation. + +But he may well exclaim, "How do you help me? You say that courage may +be stubbornness and even stupidity--and compromise a mere form of +cowardice or weakness. Where is the true courage which yet admits of +compromise to be found?" + +It is the old question: How can firmness be combined with adaptability +to circumstances? There is no answer except that the two qualities +_must_ be made to run concurrently in the mind. One must be responsive +to the world, and yet sensible of one's own personality. It is only the +special circumstance of a grave crisis which will put a young man to +this crucial test of judgment. The case will have to be judged on its +merits, and yet the final decision will affect the whole of his career. +But one practical piece of advice can be given. Never bully, and never +talk about the whip-hand--it is a word not used in big business. + +The view of the intellect often turns towards compromise when the +direction of the character is towards battle. Such a conflict of +tendencies is most likely to lead to the wise result. The fusion of +firmness with a careful weighing of the risks will best attain the real +decision which is known as courage. The intellectual judgment will be +balanced by the moral side. Any man who could attain this perfect +balance between these two parallel sides of his mind would have +attained, at a single stroke, all that is required to make him eminent +in any walk of life. One regards perfection, but cannot attain it. None +the less, it is out of this struggle to combine a sense of proportion +with an innate hardihood that true courage is born; and courage is +success. + + + +IX + + +PANIC + + +Panic is the fear which makes great masses of men rush into the abyss +without due reason. It is, in fact, a mass sentiment with which there is +no reasoning. Yet at one time or another in his career every man in +business will be confronted with a stampede of this character, and if he +does not understand how to deal with it, he will be trampled in the mud. + +The purely stubborn man will be the first to go under. He will say, and +may be perfectly right in saying, that there is no real cause for +anxiety. He will prepare to run slap through the storm, and refuse to +reef a single financial sail. He forgets that the mere existence of +panic in the minds of others is in itself as hard a factor in the +situation as the real value of the properties on the market which are +being stampeded. The atmosphere of the business world is a reality even +when the views which produce it are wrong. To face a panic one must +first of all realise the intrinsic facts, and then allow for the +misreading of others. It is the plastic and ingenious mind which will +best grapple with these unusual circumstances. It will invent weapons +and expedients with which to face each new phase of the position. +"Whenever you meet an abnormal situation," said the sage, "deal with it +in an abnormal manner." That is sound advice. But a business panic is, +after all, a rare phenomenon--something a man need only have to face +once in a lifetime. It is the panic in the mind of the individual which +is the perpetual danger. How many men are there who let this perpetual +fear of financial disaster gnaw at their minds like a rat in the dark? +Those who only see the mask put on in the daytime would be astonished to +know the number of men who lay awake at night quaking with fear at some +imagined disaster, the day of which will probably never come. These are +the men who cannot keep a good heart--who lack that particular kind of +courage which prevents a man becoming the prey of his own nervous +imagination. They sell out good business enterprises at an absurdly low +price because they have not got the nerve to hold on. Those who buy them +secure the profits. One may pity the sellers, but cannot blame the +buyers. Those who have the courage of their judgment are bound to win. +These pessimists foresee all the possibilities, and just because they +foresee too much, it may be that they will spin out of the disorder of +their own minds a real failure which a little calmness and courage would +have avoided. + +The moment a man is infected with this internal panic-fear, he ceases to +be able to exercise his judgment. He is convinced, let us say, that the +raw material of his industry is running short. He sees himself with +contracts on hand which he will not be able to complete. Very likely +there is not the remotest risk of any such shortage arising, but, in the +excess of his anxiety, he buys too heavily, and at too high a price. His +actions become impulsive rather than reasoned. It is true that in the +perfectly balanced temperament action will follow on judgment so quickly +that the two operations cannot be distinguished. Such decisions may +appear to be precipitate or impulsive, but they are not really so. But +the young man who has the disease of fear in his brain cells will act on +an impulse which is purely irrational, because it is based on a blind +terror and not on a reasoned experience. + +When a man is in this state of mind, the best thing he can do is to +delay his final decisions until he has really thought matters out. If he +does this, the actual facts of the case may, on reflection, prove far +less serious than the impulsive and diseased mind has supposed. + +But it must follow that a man who can only trust his judgment to operate +after a period of time must be in the second class, compared with the +formed judgment which can flash into sane action in a moment. He must +always be a day behind the fair--a quality fatal to real success. + +How can the victim exorcise from his mind this dread of the +unknown--this partly conscious and partly subconscious form of fear, +"which eats the heart alway"? Nothing can throw off the grip which this +acute anxiety has fixed on the brain, except a resolute effort of will +and intelligence. I, myself, would give one simple recipe for the cure. +When you feel inclined to be anxious about the present, think of the +worst anxiety you ever had in the past. Instead of one grip on the mind, +there will be two distinct grips--and the greater grip of the past will +overpower the lesser one in the present. "Nothing," a man will say, "can +be as bad as that crisis of old, and yet I survived it successfully. If +I went through that and survived, how far less arduous and dangerous is +the situation to-day?" A man can thus reason and will himself into the +possession of a stout heart. + +If a man can still the panic of his own heart, he will need to fear very +little all the storms which may rage against him from outside. "It is +the nature of tense spirits," says Lord Rosebery, "to be unduly elated +and unduly depressed." A man who can conquer these extremes and turn +them into common level of effort is the man who will be master in the +sphere of his own soul, and, therefore, capable of controlling the vast +currents which flow from outside. He may rise to that height of calmness +once exhibited by Lord Leverhulme, who, when threatened with panic in +his business, remarked, "Yes, of course, if the skies fall, all the +larks will be killed." + +Panic, therefore, whether external or internal, is an experience which +tests at once the body, the mind, and the soul. The internal panic is an +evil which can only be cured by a resolute application of the will and +intellect to the subconscious self. The panic of a world suddenly +convulsed in its markets is like a thunderstorm, sweeping from the +mountains down the course of a river to where some town looks out on the +bay. It comes in a moment from the wild, and passes as swiftly into the +sea. It has the evanescence of a dream and yet all the force of reality. +It consists of air and rain, and yet the lighter substance, driven with +the force of a panic passion, can uproot the solid materials, as the +tornado the tall trees and the stone dwellings of humanity, and turn the +secular lives of men into desolation and despair. When it has passed, +all seems calm, and only the human wreckage remains to show the power of +the storm that has swept by. + +To face these sudden blows which seem to come out of the void, men must +have their reserves of character and mentality well in hand. The first +reserve is that of intellect. + +Never let mere pride or obstinacy stand in the way of bowing to the +storm. Firmness of character should on these terrible occasions be +turned inside out, and be formed into a plasticity of intellect which +finds at once its inspiration and its courage in the adoption of novel +expedients. The courage of the heart will let no expedient of the +ingenuity be left untried. But both ingenuity and courage will find +their real source in a health which has not yet exhausted the resources +of the body. Firmness which is not obstinacy, health which is not the +fad of the valetudinarian, adaptability which is not weakness, +enterprise which is not rashness--these are the qualities which will +preserve men in those evil days when the "blast of the terrible one is +against the wall." + + + +X + + +DEPRESSION + + +Depression is not a word which sounds cheerfully in the ears of men of +affairs. But the actuality is not as bad as the term. It differs in +every respect from Panic. It is not a sudden and furious gust breaking +on a peaceful situation, irrational both in its onset and in its passing +away, but something which can be foreseen, and ought to be foreseen, by +any prudent voyager on the waters of business. The wise mariner will +furl his sails before the winds blow too strong. + +Nor is depression in itself a disaster. It is merely the wholesome +corrective which Nature applies to the swollen periods of the world's +affairs. As with trade and commerce, so with the individual. + +The high-spirited man pays for his hours of elation and optimism, when +every prospect seems to be open to him and the sunshine of life a thing +which will last for ever, by corresponding states of reaction and gloom, +when the whole universe seems to be involved in a conspiracy against his +welfare. The process is a salutary if not a pleasant one--and has been +applied remorsely ever since Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. + +So it is with the volume of the world's business. However well men may +try to balance the trend of affairs so as to produce a normal relation +between the output and the needs of humanity, the natural laws do not +cease to operate in a rhythmic alternation between the high prices which +stimulate production and the glut of goods which overtakes the demand of +the market and breaks the price. + +But this change in the sequence from boom to depression is not an +unmixed evil. Prosperity spells extravagance in production. While the +good times endure, there is no sufficient incentive either to economy or +to invention. A concern which is selling goods at a high profit as fast +as it can make them will not trouble to manage its affairs on strict +economic lines. It is when the pinch begins to be felt that men will +investigate with relentless zeal their whole method of production, will +welcome every procedure which reduces cost, and seek for every new +invention which promises an economy. Depression is the purge of +business. The lean years abolish the adipose deposit of prosperity. The +athlete is once more trained down fine for the battle. + +Men who realise these facts will not, therefore, grumble overmuch at bad +times. They will, at least, have had the sense to see that those times +were bound to come, and have refused to believe that they had entered +into a perpetual paradise of high prices. In this respect free will +makes the individual superior to the alternations of the market. He, at +least, is not compelled to be always either exalted or depressed. If he +cannot be the master of the market, he is, at least, master of his own +fate. + +How, then, should men deal with the alternate cycles of flourishing and +declining trade? There is a celebrated dictum, "Sell on arising market, +buy on a falling one." + +That man will be safest who will reject this time-worn theory, or will +only accept it with profound modifications. The advice I tender on this +subject is as applicable to Throgmorton Street as it is good for Mincing +Lane. The danger of the dictum is that it commits the believer to rowing +for ever against the tide. + +Let us take the case of buying on a falling market. That a man should +abstain from all buying transactions while the market is falling is an +absurd proposition. But it is none the less true in the main that such a +course is a mistaken one. The machinery of his industry must, of course, +be kept in motion, or it will rust and cease to be able to move in +better times. But it is unwise to embark on new enterprises and +commitments when commerce, finance, and industry are all stagnant. And +very frequently buying on a falling market means just this. + +It is like sowing in the depths of winter seeds which would mature just +as well if they were sown in March. No; it is when the tide has +definitely turned that new enterprises should be undertaken. The iron +frost is then broken, and the sower may go out to scatter in the +spring-time seeds which will bring in their harvest. To buy before the +turn is to incur the cost of carrying stocks for many unnecessary +months. + +The converse of the proposition is to sell on a rising market. +Certainly. Sell on a rising market, but do not stop selling because the +market ceases to rise. A great part of the art of business is the +selling capacity and the organisation of sales, but to carry out a +preordained system of selling on an abstract theory is mere folly. To +cease selling just because the market is not rising at a given moment, +and to wait for a better day--which may not dawn--is to burden a firm +unduly with the carrying of stocks and commodities. + +There is a saying in Canada, "Go, while the going is good." The +phrase--an invitation to sell--finds its origin in the state of the +roads. When the winter is making, the roads are hard and smooth for +sleighing, and are kept so by the continual fresh falls of snow, and you +can speed swiftly over the firm surface. But when the winter is +breaking, the falls of snow cease, and the sleigh leaps with a crash and +a bump over great gullies, tossing the traveller from side to side and +dashing his head against the dashboard. These depressions are called +"thank you marms," because that is the ejaculation with which the victim +informs his companions that he has recovered his equanimity. The man who +will never sell on a falling market is the man who will not face the +"thank you marms." He will "go while the going is good," but he will not +accept the corollary to the dictum, "But don't stop because going is +bad." He has not the nerve to face the bump and come up smiling. Don't +be afraid to sell on a falling market, or you will be afraid to sell at +all until you are forced to sell at far lower prices because of the +weight of stocks or commitments which must be liquidated at any cost. It +is precisely in time of depression that the men of business ought to +press their selling and organise their sales organisation to the utmost +limit. If finance, commerce, and industry could only be persuaded to +take this course in the slack times, then every action in this direction +would cure the evil by lessening the duration of the bad times. Not +till the surplus stocks have been unloaded will the winter pass and the +summer come again in the enterprise of the world. Selling is the final +cure for depression. + + + +XI + + +FAILURE + + +The bitterest thing in life is failure, and the pity is that it is +almost always the result of some avoidable error or misconception. With +the rare exception of a man who is by nature a criminal or a waster, +there need be no such thing as failure. Every man has a career before +him, or, at worst, every man can find a niche in the social order into +which he can fit himself with success. + +The trouble in so many cases is that it takes time and opportunity for a +man to discover in what direction his natural bent lies. He springs from +a certain stock or class, and the circumstances which surround him in +youth naturally dictate to him the choice of a career. In many cases it +will be a method of living to which he is totally unsuited. But once he +is embarked on it the clogs are about his feet, and it is hard to break +away and begin all over again. And this ill-fitting of men to jobs may +not even embrace so wide a divergence as that between one kind of +activity and business and another. A young man may be in the right +business for him, and yet in the wrong department of it. In any case, +the result is the same. The employer votes him no use, or at least just +passable, or second rate. Much worse, the employee knows himself that he +has failed to make good, and that at the best nothing but a career of +mediocrity stretches out before him. He admits a failure, and by that +very act of admission he has failed. The waters of despair close above +his head, and the consequence may be ruin. + +Such mistakes spring from a wrong conception of the nature of the human +mind. We are too apt to believe in a kind of abstraction called "general +ability," which is expected to exhibit itself under any and every +condition. According to this doctrine, if a man is clever at one thing +or successful under one set of circumstances, he must be equally clever +at everything and equally successful under all conditions. Such a view +is manifestly untrue. + +The mind of man is shut off into separate compartments, often capable of +acting quite independently of each other. No one would dream of +measuring the capacity of the individual for domestic affection by that +of his power for oratory, or his spirituality by his business instinct. +And what is true of the larger distinctions of the soul is also true of +that particular part of the mind which is devoted to practical success. +Specialised aptitude for one particular branch of activity is the +exception rather than the rule. The contrary opinion may, indeed, easily +lead to grave error in the judgment of men, and therefore in the +management of affairs. There is no art in which either the barrister, +the politician, or, for that matter, the journalist excels so much as in +the rapid grasp of a logical position, the power of assimilating great +masses of material against it or for it, and of putting out the results +of this research again in a lucid and convincing form. Anyone listening +to such an exposition would be tempted to believe that here was a man of +such high general ability that he would be perfectly capable of handling +in practice, and with superb ability, the affairs he has been +explaining. And yet such a judgment would be wrong. The expositor would +be a failure as an active agent. It would not be difficult to find the +exact converse to the case. The greatest of all the editors of big +London newspapers will fail entirely to appreciate a careful and logical +statement of a situation when it is subjected to him. But place before +him the raw material and the implements of his own profession, and his +infallible instinct for news will enable him to produce a newspaper far +transcending that which his more logical critic could have achieved. + +Leaving aside a few strange exceptions, a musician is not a soldier, a +barrister not a stockbroker, a poet not a man of business, or a +politician a great organiser. Anyone who had strayed in youth to the +wrong profession and failed might yet prove himself an immense success +in another, and these broad distinctions at the top ramify downwards +until the general truth is equally applicable to all the subdivisions of +business and even to all the administrative sections of particular +firms. + +To take a single practical instance, there is the department of +salesmanship and the department of finance. Salesmanship requires, above +all, the spirit of optimism. That same spirit carried into the sphere of +finance might ruin a firm. The success in one branch might therefore +well be the failure in the other, and vice versa. No young man, +therefore, has failed until he has succeeded. + +If I had to choose one single and celebrated instance of this doctrine I +should find it in the career of Lord Reading, Viceroy of India. + +It may be objected that, as he is of the Jewish race and religion, his +is not a fair test case by which to try the abilities and aptitudes of +the young men of Great Britain. I do not accept the distinction. The +powers and mental aptitudes of the Jews are exactly the same as ours, +except that they come to full flower earlier. The precocity of this +maturity is interpreted as a special genius for affairs--which it is +not. + +Lord Reading started his career on the Stock Exchange, where he failed +utterly. No doubt experience would have brought him a reasonable measure +of success; but it was equally clear that this was not the sphere for +his preeminent abilities. He therefore broke boldly away and entered at +the Bar, where his intellect secured him a reputation and an income, +especially in commercial cases, which left his competitors divided +between admiration and annoyance. In a single year he made £40,000. The +peg had found the round hole. His eminence procured him the +Attorney-Generalship. Yet with all his ability and his personal +popularity he was not a real success in the House of Commons. +Parliamentary warfare was not his aptitude. So he became Lord Chief +Justice. His great personal character and reputation gave Lord Reading +in his new position a certain reputation as a great Lord Chief. From my +own limited experience I do not agree. I had to watch closely a certain +case he was trying, and I did not think Lord Reading was a great judge. +He failed to carry the jury with him; the final Court of Appeal ordered +a new trial, which resulted in the reversal of the judgment. Such a +thing might happen to any judge, but a strong one would have put a +prompt end to proceedings which were obviously vexatious and entailed +great cost by the delay on defendants, who had obviously been dragged +improperly into the action. But his real opportunity came with his +mission to the United States during the war. No ambassador had ever +achieved such popularity and influence or brought back such rich sheaves +with him. As a diplomatist, a man of law, and a man of business, he +shone supreme. Once more, since his days at the commercial bar, he had +found the real field for his talents. + +From the Law Courts he has journeyed to a position of great +responsibility in India. Some voices are already acclaiming the success +of the new Viceroy. It will be wiser to wait until it is clear whether +his versatile genius will find successful play in its new environment. + +But the moral of Lord Reading's career is plain. Do not despair over +initial failure. Seek a new opening more suited to your talents. Fight +on in the certain hope that a career waits for every man. + + + +XII + + +CONSISTENCY + + +Nothing is so bad as consistency. There exists no more terrible person +than the man who remarks: "Well, you may say what you like, but at any +rate I have been consistent." This argument is generally advanced as the +palliation for some notorious failure. And this is natural For the man +who is consistent must be out of touch with reality. There is no +consistency in the course of events, in history, in the weather, or in +the mental attitude of one's fellow-men. The consistent man means that +he intends to apply a single foot-rule to all the chances and changes of +the universe. + +This mental standpoint must of necessity be founded on error. To adopt +it is to sacrifice judgment, to cast away experience, and to treat +knowledge as of no account. The man who prides himself on his +consistency means that facts are nothing compared to his superior sense +of intellectual virtue. But to attack consistency is quite a different +thing from elevating inconsistency to the rank of an ideal. The man who +was proud of being inconsistent, not from necessity but from choice, +would be as much of a fool as his opposite. Life, in a word, can never +be lived by a theory. + +The politicians are the most prominent victims of the doctrine of +consistency. They practice an art which, above all others, depends for +success on opportunism--on dealing adequately with the chances and +changes of circumstances and personalities. And yet the politician more +than anyone else has to consider how far he dare do the right thing +to-day in view of what he said yesterday. The policy of a great nation +is often diverted into wrong channels by the memories of old speeches, +and statesmen fear men who mole in Hansard. + +Again, I do not recommend inconsistency as a good thing in itself. If a +politician believes in some great general economic policy such as Free +Trade or Protection, he will only be justified in changing his mind +under the irresistible pressure of a change of circumstance. He will be +slow, and rightly, to change his standpoint until the evidence carries +absolute conviction. + +In business consistency of mental attitude is a terrible vice, for a +simple and obvious reason. By an inevitable process like the swaying of +the solstice the business world alternates between periods of boom and +periods of depression. The wheel is always revolving, fast or slow, +round the full cycle of over-or under-production. It is clear that a +policy which is right in one stage of the process must necessarily be +wrong in the other. What would happen to a man who said, "I am +consistent. I always buy," or to one who replied, "No man can charge me +with lack of principle. I invariably sell"? Their stories would soon be +written in the _Gazette_. + +This is the most obvious instance of the perils of consistency in the +world of business. But, quite apart from this, nothing but fluidity of +judgment can ever lead the man of affairs to success. + +I once took the chairmanship of a bank which had passed into a state of +torpor threatening final decay. There was not a living fibre in it, and +my task was to try to galvanise the corpse. I sought here and there and +in every direction for an opening, like a boxer feeling for a weak point +in his opponent's guard. My fellow directors, who had served on the +board for many years, were shrewd business men, but if the bank had not +lost the capacity for either accepting or creating new situations it +would not have been in a state of decay. The board met once a week, and +the directors gathered together before the meeting at the +luncheon-table. "What surprise proposal are you going to spring on us +to-day?" they used to ask me. And the mere fact that the proposal was of +the nature of a surprise was almost invariably the only criticism +against it. I may have been wrong in surprising my colleagues by the +various projects that I put forward, but in the propositions themselves +I proved right. + +The criticism was really based on the doctrine of consistency fatal to +all business enterprise. + +Suppose an amalgamation was contemplated one day I would be a buyer of +another bank, and if by next week this plan had fallen through I would +be strongly in favour of selling to a bigger bank. "But you are +inconsistent," said my colleagues. My answer is that what the business +needed was life and movement at all costs, and that buying or selling, +consistency or inconsistency were neither here nor there. + +The prominent capitalist is often open to this particular charge. On +Wednesday, says the adversary, he was all for this great scheme; on +Friday he has forgotten all about it and has another one. This is +perfectly true--but then between Wednesday and Friday the weather has +changed completely. Is the barometer fickle or inconsistent because it +registers an alteration of weather? + +Nevertheless, the men of affairs who follow facts to success rather than +consistency to failure must expect to pay the penalty. Or at least, if +they are to avoid the punishment for being right they must take enormous +precautions. + +The principle penalty is the prompt criticism that although the +successful business man plays the game with vigour, nerve, and sinew, +yet he plays it according to his own rules. The truth is that there is +no other way in which to play the game. Fluidity of judgment, adversely +described as fickleness and inconsistency, is the essence of success. + +But the criticism is damaging. There are only two ways of combating it, +the wrong one and the right one. The wrong method is that of +hypocrisy--claiming a consistency which does not exist. The right one is +to cultivate the art of pleasing, so that inconsistency may be forgiven. +Friends may thus be retained though business policies vary. This is the +highest art of financial diplomacy. + +Those who by some misfortune of character or upbringing are incapable of +this practice must make up their minds to face the abuse which their +successful practice of inconsistency will entail. They will not, if they +are wise, cultivate hypocrisy, not because the practice will damage them +in the esteem of their colleagues and neighbours, for, on the contrary, +it will enhance their repute, but because it will damage their own +self-respect. They would know that they were right in following fact and +fortune, and yet would be making a public admission that they were +wrong. + + + +XIII + + +PREJUDICE + + +The most common, and, perhaps, the most serious of vices is prejudice. +It is a thing imbibed with one's mother's milk, fortified by all one's +youthful surroundings, and only broken through, if at all, by experience +of the world and a deliberate mental effort. + +Prejudice is, indeed, a vice in the most serious sense of the term. It +is more damaging and corroding in its effects than most of the evil +habits which are usually described by that term. It is destructive of +judgment and devastating in its effect on the mentality because it is a +symptom of a narrowness of outlook on the world. The man who can learn +to outlive prejudice has broken through an iron ring which binds the +mind. And yet we all come into the world of affairs in early youth with +that ring surrounding our temples. We have subconscious prejudices even +where we have no conscious ones. Family, tradition, early instruction +and upbringing fasten on every man preconceptions which are hard to +break. + +I write out of my own experience. I was brought up as the son of a +minister of the Church of Scotland, who left Edinburgh University as a +young man to take up a ministry in Canada. The Presbyterian faith was, +therefore, the one in which I was brought up in my boyhood, and I still +feel in my inner being a prejudice, which I cannot defend in reason, +against those doctrines which traverse the Westminster Confession of +Faith. However much thought and experience have modified my views on +religious questions, my tendency is to become the Church of Scotland +militant if any other denomination challenges its views or organisation. + +Such are the prepossessions which surround youth. They are formidable, +whether they take the shape of religion or politics or class--and a +fixed form of religious belief is probably the most operative of them +all. It is quite possible that but for subconscious training of the +mind inbred through the generations neither man nor society would have +been able to survive. None the less, now that man has attained the stage +of social reason, prejudice is rather a weakness than a strength. + +The greatest prejudice in social life is that against persons--not +against people known to one, for in that case it is dislike or +indifference or even hatred, but against some individual not even known +by sight. + +A mentions B to C. "Oh!" says C. "I loathe that man." "But have you ever +met him?" says A. "No, and I don't want to, but I know quite enough +about him." + +"But what do you know against him?" + +"Well, I know that E told D, who told me, that he was black through and +through, and a bad man." + +A few weeks afterwards C sits next B at dinner; finds him an excellent +sort of man to talk to and to do business with, and henceforward goes +about chanting his praises. Thus is personal prejudice disproved by the +actual fact. It is a curious freak of circumstance, not easily +accounted for, that men who possess that fascination of personality +which makes them firm friends and violent enemies are most liable to be +adversely judged out of that lack of knowledge which is called +prejudice. + +There is another form of the error which is found in the business world. +Men of affairs conceive quite irrational dislikes for certain types of +securities or transactions. They are given, perhaps, an excellent offer, +out of which they might make a considerable profit. They turn the matter +down without further consideration. Their ostensible reason is that they +are not accustomed to deal in that particular class of security. Their +real reason for refusing is that they are the victims of their own +environment, and that they have not the intellectual courage or force to +break away from it even when every argument proves that it would be to +their advantage to do so. Their intellects have become musclebound by +habit or tradition. + +The fourth and, perhaps, the most violent form of prejudice, outside the +sphere of religion, may be found in politics. Men embrace certain +political conceptions, and, though the whole world breaks into ruins, +and is reconstructed around them, nothing will alter their original +ideas. The Radical says that the Tory does not change his spots, and the +Tory is convinced that a Radical is still a direct emanation of the evil +one. In the middle of these conflicting antagonisms the real road to +national peace, prosperity, and security is missed by those who prefer +prejudice to the lessons which reality teaches. The most infamous case +of all to the unbending partisan is that of a man who has so far +outlived the prejudices of party as to be able to criticise one side +without joining another. + +The advantage of prejudice is the preservation of tradition; its +disadvantage is the inability which it brings to an individual or to a +nation to adapt life to the change of circumstance. It is, therefore, at +once both the vice of youth and of age. Youth is prejudiced by +upbringing; age is prejudiced because it cannot adapt itself to the +circumstances of a changing world. But both youth and age can fight by +the power of the human will against the tendencies which steep them in +their own prepossessions. + +Youth can say: "I will forget that I was brought up to be a Scotsman +and a Presbyterian, and so prejudiced against all Roman Catholics or +Jews; the world is open to me, I will form my own convictions and judge +men and religion on their merits." The subconscious self will still +operate, but its extravagances will be checked by reason and will. + +Age can say to itself: "It is true that all that has happened in the +past is part of my experience, and therefore of me. I have formed +certain conclusions from what I have observed, but the data on which I +have formed them are constantly changing. The moment that I cease to be +able to accept and pass into my own experience new factors which my past +would reject as unpleasant or untrue I have become stereotyped in +prejudice and the truth of actuality is no longer in me, and when touch +with the world is lost the only alternative is retirement or disaster." + +The more quickly youth breaks away from the prejudices of its +surroundings, the more rapid will be its success. The harder that age +fights against prepossessions, born of the past, which gather round to +obstruct the free operation of its mind, the longer will be the period +of a happy, successful, and active life. + +Prejudice is a mixture of pride and egotism, and no prejudiced man, +therefore, will be happy. + + + +XIV + + +CALM + + +The last two essays have dealt with the more depressing sides of +practical life--the sudden tempest which sweeps down on the business +man, or the long period of depression which is the necessary prelude to +the times in which optimism is justified. But it is on the note of +optimism, and not of pessimism, that I would conclude, and after the +storm comes the calm. What is calm to the man of experience in affairs? +It is the end to which turbulent and ambitious youth should devote +itself in order that it may attain to happiness in that period of +middle-age which still gives to assured success its real flavour. Youth +is the time of hope; old age is the time for looking back on the +pleasures and achievements of the past--when success or failure may seem +matters of comparative unimportance. Successful middle-age stands +between the two. Its calm is not the result either of senility or +failure. It represents that solid success which enables a man to +adventure into fresh spheres without any perturbation. New fields call +to him--Art, or Letters, or Public Service. Success is already his, and +it will be his own fault if he does not achieve happiness as well. + +Successful middle-age appears to me to be the ideal of practical men. I +have tried to indicate the method by which it can be attained by any +young man who is sufficiently resolute in his purpose. Finance, +Commerce, and Industry are, under modern conditions, spheres open to the +talent of any individual. The lack of education in the formal sense is +no bar to advancement. Every young man has his chance. But will he +practise industry, economy, and moderation, avoid arrogance and panic, +and know how to face depression with a stout heart? Even if he is a +genius, will he know how not to soar with duly restrained wings? + +The secret of power is the method by which the fire of youth is +translated into the knowledge of experience. In these essays I have +suggested a short cut to that knowledge. I once had youth, and now I +have experience, and I believe that youth can do anything if its desire +for success is sufficiently strong to curb all other desires. I also +believe that a few words of experience can teach youth how to avoid the +pitfalls of finance which wait for the most audacious spirits. I write +out of the conviction of my own experience. + +But, above all, stands the attainment of happiness as the final form of +struggle. Happiness can only be attained as the result of a prolonged +effort. It is the result of material surroundings and yet a state of the +inner mind. It is, therefore, in some form or another at once the +consequence of achievement and a sense of calm. The flavour is +achievement, but the fruit should be the assured sense of happiness. + + "One or another + In money or guns may surpass his brother. + But whoever shall know, + As the long days go. + That to live is happy, has found his heaven." + +It is in ignoring this doctrine of the poet that so many men go wrong. +They practise the doctrines of success: they attain it, and then they +lose happiness because they cannot stop. The flower is brilliant, but +the fruit has a sour taste. The final crown in the career of success is +to know when to retire. + +"Call no man happy," says the ancient sage, "until he is dead," drawing +his moral from the cruel death of a great King. I would say, call no man +successful until he has left business with enough money to live the kind +of life that pleases him. The man who holds on beyond this limit is +laying up trouble for himself and disappointment for others. + +Success in the financial world is the prerogative of young men. A man +who has not succeeded in the field before middle-age comes upon him, +will never succeed in the fundamental sense of the term. An honourable +and prosperous career may, indeed, lie before him, but he will never +reach the heights. He will just go on from year to year, making rather +more or rather less money, by a toil to which only death or old age will +put a term. And I have not written this book for the middle-aged, but +for the young. To them my advice would be, "Succeed young, and retire +as young as you can." + +The fate of the successful who hold on long after they have amassed a +great, or at least an adequate, fortune, is written broad across the +face of financial history. The young man who has arrived has formed the +habit and acquired the technique of business. The habit has become part +of his being. How hard it is to give it up! His technique has become +almost universally successful. If he has made £50,000 by it, why not go +on and make half a million; if he has made a million, why not go on and +make three? All that you have to do, says the subtle tempter, is to +reproduce the process of success indefinitely. The riches and the powers +of the world are to be had in increasing abundance by the mere exercise +of qualities which, though they have been painfully acquired, have now +become the very habit of pleasure. How dull life would seem if the +process of making money was abandoned; how impossible for a man of ripe +experience to fail where the mere stripling had succeeded? The +temptation is subtle, but the logic is wrong. Success is not a process +which can reproduce itself indefinitely in the same field. The dominant +mind loses its elasticity: it fails to appreciate real values under +changed conditions. Victory has become to it not so much a struggle as a +habit. Then follows the decline. The judgment begins to waver or go +astray out of a kind of self-worship, which makes the satisfaction of +self, and not the realisation of what is possible, the dominant object +in every transaction. There will be plenty of money to back this +delusion for a time, and plenty of flatterers and sycophants to play up +to and encourage the delusion. The history of Napoleon has not been +written in vain. Here we see a first-class intellect going through this +process of mental corruption, which leads from overwhelming success in +early youth, to absolute disaster in middle-age. The only hope for the +Napoleon of Finance is to retire before his delusions overtake him. + +But what is the man who retires early from business to do? Some form of +activity must fill the void. The answer to the question is to be found +in a change of occupation. To some, recreation, and the pursuit of some +art or science or study may bring satisfaction, but these will be the +exceptions. Some kind of public service will beckon to the majority. And +it is natural that this should be the case. Politics, journalism, the +management of Commissions or charitable organisations, all require much +the same kind of aptitudes and draw on the same kind of experiences +which are acquired by the successful man of affairs. The difference is +that they are not so arduous, because they are rarely a matter of life +and death to any man--and certainly can never be so to a man with an +assured income. + +On the other hand, from the point of view of society, it is a great +advantage to a nation that it should have at its disposal the services +of men of this kind of capacity and experience. What public life needs +above all things is the presence in it of men who have a knowledge of +reality. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the landowning +classes supplied this kind of direction to the State as the fruit of +their leisure, and, despite some narrowness and selfishness, they +undoubtedly did their work well. But they were disappearing as a class +before the war, and the war has practically destroyed them. Nor are the +world-wide industrial, commercial, and economic problems of the +twentieth century particularly suitable to their form of intellect. The +policy of Great Britain of to-day ought to be founded on a knowledge +both of markets and production. It is here that the retired man of +affairs can help. Simply to go on making money after all personal need +for it has passed is, therefore, a form of selfishness, and, in +consequence, will not bring happiness, and in the ultimate calculation +that life can hardly be called successful which is not happy. + +My final message is one of hope to youth. Dare all, yet keep a sense of +proportion. Deny yourself all, and yet do not be a prig. Hope all, +without arrogance, and you will achieve all without losing the capacity +for moderation. Then the Temple of Success will assuredly be open to +you, and you will pass from it into the inner shrine of happiness. + + + +_Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Success (Second Edition), by Max Aitken Beaverbrook + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUCCESS (SECOND EDITION) *** + +***** This file should be named 15248-8.txt or 15248-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/2/4/15248/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jared Buck and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net). + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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