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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Young Man in Business, by Edward W. Bok
+
+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: The Young Man in Business
+
+Author: Edward W. Bok
+
+Release Date: March 3, 2010 [EBook #31494]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif (from files available at www.archive.org)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: book-cover
+
+THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS
+
+THE DAY'S WORK SERIES]
+
+
+The Day's Work Series
+
+THE YOUNG MAN
+
+IN BUSINESS
+
+BY
+
+EDWARD BOK
+
+BOSTON
+
+L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
+
+MDCCCC
+
+Copyright, 1900
+
+BY EDWARD BOK.
+
+All rights reserved
+
+Colonial press
+
+Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
+
+Boston, U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS.
+
+
+A WELL-KNOWN New York millionaire gave it as his opinion not long ago
+that any young man possessing a good constitution and a fair degree of
+intelligence might acquire riches. The statement was
+criticised--literally picked to pieces--and finally adjudged as being
+extravagant. The figures then came out, gathered by a careful
+statistician, that of the young men in business in New York City, sixty
+per cent, were earning less than $1,000 per year, only twenty per cent,
+had an income of $2,000, and barely five per cent, commanded salaries
+in excess of the latter figure. The great majority of young men in New
+York City--that is, between the ages of twenty-three and thirty--were
+earning less than twenty dollars per week. On the basis, therefore,
+that a young man must be established in his life-profession by his
+thirtieth year, it can hardly be said that the average New York young
+man in business is successful. Of course, this is measured entirely
+from the standpoint of income. It is true that a young man may not, in
+every case, receive the salary his services merit, but, as a general
+rule, his income is a pretty accurate indication of his capacity.
+
+Now, as every young man naturally desires to make a business success,
+it is plain from the above statement that something is lacking; either
+the opportunities, or the capabilities in the young men themselves. No
+one conversant with the business life of any of our large cities can,
+it seems to me, even for a single moment, doubt the existence of good
+chances for young men. Take any large city as a fair example: New York,
+Boston, Philadelphia, or Chicago, and in each instance there exist more
+opportunities than there are young men capable of embracing them. The
+demand is far in excess of the supply. Positions of trust are
+constantly going begging for the right kind of young men to fill them.
+But such men are not common; or, if they be, they have a most
+unfortunate way of hiding their light under a bushel, so much so that
+business men cannot see even a glimmer of its rays. Let a position of
+any real importance be open, and it is the most difficult kind of a
+problem to find any one to fill it satisfactorily. Business men are
+constantly passing through this experience. Young men are desired in
+the great majority of positions because of their progressive 'ideas and
+capacity to endure work; in fact, "young blood," as it is called, is
+preferred in nine positions out of every ten, nowadays.
+
+The chances for business success for any young man are not wanting. The
+opportunities exist, plenty of them. The trouble is that the average
+young man of to-day is incapable of filling them, or, if he be not
+exactly incapable (I gladly give him the benefit of the doubt), he is
+unwilling to fill them, which is even worse. That exceptions can be
+brought up to controvert I know, but I am dealing with the many, not
+with the few.
+
+The average young man in business to-day is nothing more nor less than
+a plodder,--a mere automaton. He is at his office at eight or nine
+o'clock in the morning; is faithful in the duties he performs; goes to
+luncheon at twelve, gets back at one; takes up whatever he is told to
+do until five, and then goes home. His work for the day is done. One
+day is the same to him as another; he has a certain routine of duties
+to do, and he does them day in and day out, month in and month out. His
+duties are regulated by the clock. As that points, so he points.
+Verily, it is true of him that he is the same yesterday, to-day, and
+forever. No special fault can be found with his work. Given a
+particular piece of work to do, he does it just as a machine would.
+Such a young man, too, generally considers himself hard-worked--often
+overworked and underpaid; wondering all the time why his employer
+doesn't recognize his value and advance his salary. "I do everything I
+am told to do," he argues, "and I do it well. What more can I do?"
+
+This is simply a type of a young man to be found in thousands of
+offices and stores. He goes to his work each day with no definite point
+nor plan in view; he leaves it with nothing accomplished. He is a mere
+automaton. Let him die, and his position can be filled in twenty-four
+hours. If he detracts nothing from his employer's business, he
+certainly adds nothing to it. He never advances an idea; is absolutely
+devoid of creative powers; his position remains the same after he has
+been in it for five years as when he came to it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, I would not for a moment be understood as belittling the value of
+faithfulness in an employee. But, after all, faithfulness is nothing
+more nor less than a negative quality. By faithfulness a man may hold a
+position a lifetime. He will keep it just where he found it. But by the
+exercise of this single quality he does not add to the importance of
+the position any more than he adds to his own value. It is not enough
+that it may be said of a young man that he is faithful; he must be
+something more. The willingness and capacity to be faithful to the
+smallest detail must be there, serving only, however, as a foundation
+upon which other qualities are built.
+
+Altogether too many young men are content to remain in the positions in
+which they find themselves. The thought of studying the needs of the
+next position just above them never seems to enter their minds. It is
+possible for every young man to rise above his position, and it makes
+no difference how humble that position may be, nor under what
+disadvantages he may be placed. But he must be alert. He must not be
+afraid of work, and of the hardest kind of work. He must study not only
+to please, but he must go a step beyond. It is essential, of course,
+that he should first of all fill the position for which he is engaged.
+No man can solve the problem of business before he understands the
+rudiments of the problem itself. Once the requirements of a position
+are understood and mastered, then its possibilities should be
+undertaken. It is foolish, as some young men argue, that to go beyond
+their special position is impossible with their employers. The employer
+never existed who will prevent the cream of his establishment from
+rising to the surface. The advance of an employee always means the
+advance of the employer's interests. An employer would rather pay a
+young man five thousand dollars a year than five hundred. What is to
+the young man's interest is much more to the interest of his employer.
+A five-hundred-dollar clerkship is worth just that amount and nothing
+more to an employer. But a five-thousand-dollar man is generally worth
+five times that sum to a business. A young man makes of a position
+exactly what he chooses: a millstone around his neck, or a
+stepping-stone to larger success. The possibilities lie in every
+position; seeing and embracing them rest with its occupant. The lowest
+position can be so filled as to lead up to the next and become a part
+of it. One position should be only the chrysalis for the development of
+new strength to master the requirements of another position above it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The average young man is extremely anxious to get into a business
+position in which there are what he calls "prospects" for advancement.
+It is usually one of his first questions, "What are my prospects here?"
+He seems to have the notion that the question of his "prospects" or
+advancement is one entirely in the hands of his employer, whereas it
+rarely occurs to him that it is a matter resting entirely with himself.
+An employer has, of course, the power of promotion, but that is all. He
+cannot advance a young man unless the young man first demonstrates that
+he is worthy of advancement. Every position offers prospects; every
+business house has in it the possibility of a young man's bettering
+himself. But it depends upon him, first. If he is of the average
+come-day go-day sort, and does his work in a mechanical or careless
+fashion, lacking that painstaking thoroughness which is the basis of
+successful work, his prospects are naught. And they will be no greater
+with one concern than with another, although he may identify himself
+with a score during a year. If, on the contrary, he buckles down to
+work, and makes himself felt from the moment he enters his position, no
+matter how humble that may be, his advancement will take care of
+itself. An employer is very quick to discover merit in an employee, and
+if a young man is fitted to occupy a higher position in the house than
+he is filling, it will not be long before he is promoted. There are, of
+course, instances where the best work that a young man can do goes for
+nothing and fails of rightful appreciation, and where such a condition
+is discovered, of course the young man must change the condition and go
+where his services will receive proper recognition and value. But this
+happens only in a very small minority of cases. In the vast majority of
+cases where the cry of inappreciation is heard, it is generally the
+fact that the crier is unworthy of more than he receives.
+
+No employer can tell a young man just what his prospects are. That is
+for the young man himself to demonstrate. He must show first what is in
+him, and then he will discover for himself what his prospects are.
+Because so many young men stand, still does not prove that employers
+are unwilling to advance them, but simply shows that the great run of
+young men do not possess those qualities which entitle them to
+advancement. There are exceptional cases, of course; but as a rule a
+man gets in this world about what he is worth, or not very far from it.
+There is not by any means as much injustice done by the employer to the
+employee as appears on the surface. Leaving aside all question of
+principle, it would be extremely poor policy for a business man to keep
+in a minor position a young man who, if promoted, would expand and make
+more money for the house.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And right here a word or two may perhaps be fitly said about the
+element of "luck" entering into business advancement. It is undeniable
+that there are thousands of young men who believe that success in
+business is nothing else than what they call "luck." The young men who
+forge ahead are, in their estimation, simply the lucky ones, who have
+had influence of some sort or other to push them along.
+
+When a young man gets into that frame of mind which makes him believe
+that "luck" is the one and only thing which can help him along, or that
+it is even an element in business, it may be safely said that he is
+doomed to failure. The only semblance to "influence" there is in
+business is found where, through a friendly word, a chance is opened to
+a young man. But the only thing that "influence" can do begins and ends
+with an opportunity. The strongest influence that can be exerted in a
+young man's behalf counts for very little if he is found to be
+incapable of embracing that chance. And so far as "luck" is concerned,
+there is no such thing in a young man's life or his business success.
+The only lucky young man is he who has a sound constitution, with good
+sense to preserve it; who knows some trade or profession thoroughly or
+is willing to learn it and sacrifice everything to its learning; who
+loves his work and has industry enough to persevere in it; who
+appreciates the necessity of self-restraint in all things, and who
+tempers his social life to those habits which refresh and not impair
+his constitution. That is luck,--the luck of having common sense. That
+is the only luck there is,--the only luck worth having; and it is
+something which every right-minded young man may have if he goes about
+it the right way.
+
+Things in this world never just happen. There is always a reason for
+everything. So with success. It is not the result of luck; it is not a
+thing of chance. It comes to men only because they work hard and
+intelligently for it, and along legitimate lines.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now a word about a young man's salary. It is human nature to wish to
+make all the money we honestly can: to get just as large a return for
+our services as possible. There is no qualifying that statement, and as
+most of the comforts of this life are had through the possession of
+sufficient money, it is perfectly natural that the subject of what we
+earn should be prominent in our minds. But too many young men put the
+cart before the horse in this question of salary. It is their first
+consideration. They are constantly asking what salaries are paid in
+different business callings, and whether this profession or that trade
+is more financially productive. The question seems to enter into their
+deliberations as a qualifying factor as to whether they shall enter a
+certain trade or profession. I never could quite see the point of this
+nor the reason for it. Of what significance to you or to me are the
+salaries which are paid to others? They signify nothing. If the highest
+salary paid to the foremost men in a certain profession is $10,000 per
+year, what does that fact prove? There is no obstacle to some one's
+else going into that same profession and earning $25,000. The first
+consideration, when a young man thinks of going into business, is not
+which special trade or profession is most profitable, but which
+particular line he is most interested in and best fitted for. What
+matters it to a man that fortunes are made in the law if he has
+absolutely no taste or ability for that profession? Of what value is it
+to a young man who loves mechanical engineering to know that there are
+doctors who earn large incomes? What difference do the productive
+possibilities of any line of work make to us if we are not by nature
+fitted for that work?
+
+When a young man is always thinking of the salary he is receiving, or
+the salary he "ought to get," he gives pretty good proof that he is not
+of a very superior make. The right sort of a young fellow doesn't
+ever-lastingly concern himself about salary. Ability commands income.
+But a young man must start with ability, not with salary. That takes
+care of itself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, a substantial business success means several things. It calls, in
+the first place, for concentration. There is no truth more potent than
+that which tells us we cannot serve God and Mammon. Nor can any young
+man successfully serve two business interests, no matter how closely
+allied; in fact, the more closely the interests the more dangerous are
+they. The human mind is capable of just so much clear thought, and
+generally it does not extend beyond the requirements of one position in
+these days of keen competition. If there exists a secret of success, it
+lies, perhaps, in concentration more than in any other single element.
+During business hours a man should be in business. His thoughts should
+be on nothing else. Diversions of thought are killing to the best
+endeavors. The successful mastery of business questions calls for a
+personal interest, a forgetfulness of self, that can only come from the
+closest application and the most absolute concentration. I go so far in
+my belief of concentration to business interests in business hours as
+to argue that a young man's personal letters should not be sent to his
+office address, nor should he receive his social friends at his desk.
+Business hours are none too long in the great majority of our offices,
+and, with a rest of one hour for luncheon, no one has a right to lop
+off fifteen minutes here to read an irrelevant personal letter, or
+fifteen minutes there to talk with a friend whose conversation
+distracts the mind from the problems before it. A young man cannot draw
+the line between his business life and his social life too closely. It
+is all too true of thousands of young men that they are better
+conversant during the base-ball season with the batting average of some
+star player, or the number of men "put out at second" by some other
+player, than they are with the details of their business.
+
+Digression is just as dangerous as stagnation in the career of a young
+man in business. There is absolutely no position worth the having in
+business life to-day to which a care of other interests can be added.
+Let a man attempt to serve the interests of one master, and if he
+serves him well he has his hands and his head full. There is a class of
+ambitious young men who have what they choose to call "an anchor to the
+windward" in their business. That is, they maintain something outside
+of their regular position. They do this from necessity, they claim. One
+position does not offer sufficient scope for their powers or talents;
+does not bring them sufficient income, and they are "forced," they
+explain, to take on something in addition. I have known such young men.
+But, so far as I have been able to discern, the trouble does not lie so
+much with the position they occupy as with themselves. When a man turns
+away from the position he holds to outside affairs, he turns just so
+far away from the surest path of success. To do one thing perfectly is
+better than to do two things only fairly well. It was told me once, of
+one of our best known actors, that outside of his stage knowledge he
+knew absolutely nothing. But he acted well,--so well that he stands at
+the head of his profession, and has an income of five figures several
+times over. All around geniuses are rare--so rare that we can hardly
+find them. To know one thing absolutely means material success and
+commercial and mental superiority. I dare say that if some of our young
+men understood more fully than they do the needs of the positions they
+occupy, the necessity for outside work would not exist.
+
+Stagnation in a young man's career is but a synonym for starvation,
+since there is no such thing as standing still in the business world.
+We go either backward or forward; we never stand still. When a young
+man fails to keep abreast of the possibilities of his position he
+recedes constantly, though perhaps unconsciously. The young man who
+progresses is he who enters into the spirit of the business of his
+employer, and who points out new methods to him, advances new ideas,
+suggests new channels and outputs. There is no more direct road to the
+confidence of an employer than for him to see that any one of his
+clerks has an eye eager for the possibilities of business. That young
+man commands the attention of his chief at once, and when a vacancy
+occurs he is apt to step into it, if, indeed, he does not forge over
+the shoulders of others. Young men who think clearly, can conceive good
+ideas and carry them out, are not so plentiful that even a single one
+will be lost sight of. It is no special art, and it reflects but little
+credit upon any man simply to fill a position. That is expected of him;
+he is engaged to do that, and it is only a fair return for a certain
+payment made. The art lies in doing more than was bargained for; in
+proving greater than was expected; in making more of a position than
+has ever been made before. A quick conception is needed here, the
+ability to view a broad horizon; for it is the liberal-minded man, not
+the man of narrow limitations, who makes the success of to-day. A young
+man showing such qualities to an employer does not remain in one
+position long.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two traps in which young men in business often fall are a disregard for
+small things, and an absolute fear of making mistakes. One of the
+surest keys to success lies in thoroughness. No matter how great may be
+the enterprise undertaken a regard for the small things is necessary.
+Just as the little courtesies of every-day life make life the worth
+living, so the little details form the bone and sinew of a great
+success. A thing half or three-quarters done is worse than not done at
+all. Let a man be careful of the small things in business, and he can
+generally be relied upon for the greater ones. The man who can overcome
+small worries is greater than the man who can override great obstacles.
+When a young man becomes so ambitious for large success that he
+overlooks the small things, he is pretty apt to encounter failure.
+There is nothing in business so infinitesimal that we can afford to do
+it in a slipshod fashion. It is no art to answer twenty letters in a
+morning when they are, in reality, only half answered. When we commend
+brevity in business letters, we do not mean brusqueness. Nothing stamps
+the character of a house so clearly as the letters it sends out.
+
+The fear of making mistakes keeps many a young man down. Of course,
+errors in business are costly, and it is better not to make them. But,
+at the same time, I would not give a snap of the fingers for a young
+man who has never made mistakes. But there are mistakes and mistakes;
+some easy to be excused; others not to be overlooked in the case of any
+employee. A mistake of judgment is possible with us all; the best of us
+are not above a wrong decision. And a young man who holds back for fear
+of making mistakes loses the first point of success.
+
+A young man in business nowadays, with an ambition to be successful,
+must also be careful of his social life. It is not enough that he
+should take care of himself during the day. To social dissipations at
+night can be traced the downfall of hundreds upon hundreds of young
+men. The idea that an employer has no control over a young man's time
+away from the office is a dangerous fallacy. An employer has every
+right to ask that those into whose hands he entrusts responsibilities
+shall follow social habits which will not endanger his interests upon
+the morrow. So far as social life is concerned, young men generally run
+to both extremes. Either they do not go out at all, which is
+stagnating, or they go out too much, which is deadly. Only here and
+there is found one who knows the happy medium. A certain amount of
+social diversion is essential to everybody, boy, man, girl, or woman.
+And particularly so to a young man with a career to make. To come into
+contact with the social side of people is broadening; it is educative.
+"To know people," says a writer, "you must see them at play." Social
+life can be made a study at the same time that it is made a pleasure.
+To know the wants of people, to learn their softer side, you must come
+into contact with their social natures. No young man can afford to deny
+himself certain pleasures, or a reasonable amount of contact with
+people in the outer world. It is to his advantage that people should
+know he exists,--what his aims and aspirations are. His evening
+occupations should be as widely different as possible from those which
+occupy his thoughts in the daytime. The mind needs a change of thought
+as well as the body needs a change of raiment. The familiar maxim, "All
+work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," contains a vast amount of
+truth.
+
+At the same time, nothing is more injurious to the chances of a young
+man in business than an overindulgence in the pleasures of what, for
+the want of a better word, we call "society." It is a rough but a true
+saying that "a man cannot drink whisky and be in business." Perhaps a
+softer interpretation of the idea would be this: that a man cannot be
+in society and be in business. This is impossible, and nothing that a
+young man can bear in mind will stand him to such good account as this
+fact. No mind can be fresh in the morning that has been kept at a
+tension the night before by late hours, or befogged by indulgence in
+late suppers. We need more sleep at twenty-five than we do at fifty,
+and the young man who grants himself less than eight hours' sleep every
+night just robs himself of so much vitality. The loss may not be felt
+or noticed at present, but the process of sleeping is only Nature's
+banking system of principal and interest. A mind capable of the
+fulfilment of its highest duties should be not only receptive to ideas,
+but quick to comprehend a point. With a fresh mind and a clear brain, a
+young man has two of the greatest levers of success. These cannot be
+retained under social indulgences. The dissipation of a night has its
+invariable influence upon the work of the morrow. I do not preach total
+abstinence from any habits to which human nature is prone. Every man
+ought to know what is good for him and what is injurious to his best
+interests. An excess of anything is injurious, and a young man on the
+threshold of a business career cannot afford to go to the extreme in
+any direction. He should husband his resources, for he will need them
+all.
+
+For no success is easily made nowadays. Appearances are tremendously
+deceptive in this respect. We see men making what we choose to regard
+and call quick success, because at a comparatively early age they
+acquire position or means. But one needs only to study the conditions
+of the business life of to-day to see how impossible it is to achieve
+any success except by the very hardest work. No young man need approach
+a business career with the idea that success is easy. The histories of
+successful men tell us all too clearly the lessons of patience and the
+efforts of years. Some men compass a successful career in less time
+than others. And if the methods employed are necessarily different, the
+requirements are precisely the same. It is a story of hard work in
+every case, of close application and of a patient mastery of the
+problem in hand. Advantages of education will come in at times and push
+one man ahead of another. But a practical business knowledge is apt to
+be a greater possession.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I know there are thousands of young men who feel themselves incompetent
+for a business career because of a lack of early education. And here
+might come in--if I chose to discuss the subject, which I do not--the
+oft-mooted question of the exact value of a college education to the
+young man in business. But I will say this: a young man need not feel
+that the lack of a college education will stand in any respect whatever
+in the way of his success in the business world. No college on earth
+ever made a business man. The knowledge acquired in college has fitted
+thousands of men for professional success, but it has also unfitted
+other thousands for a practical business career. A college training is
+never wasted, although I have seen again and again five-thousand-dollar
+educations spent on five-hundred-dollar men. Where a young man can
+bring a college education to the requirements of a practical business
+knowledge, it is an advantage. But before our American colleges become
+an absolute factor in the business capacities of men their methods of
+study and learning will have to be radically changed. I have had
+associated with me both kinds of young men, collegiate and
+non-collegiate, and I must say that those who had a better knowledge of
+the practical part of life have been those who never saw the inside of
+a college and whose feet never stepped upon a campus. College-bred men,
+and men who never had college advantages, have succeeded in about equal
+ratios. The men occupying the most important commercial positions in
+New York to-day are self-made, whose only education has come to them
+from contact with that greatest college of all, the business world. Far
+be it from me to depreciate the value of a college education. I believe
+in its advantages too firmly. But no young man need feel hampered
+because of the lack of it. If business qualities are in him they will
+come to the surface. It is not the college education; it is the young
+man. Without its possession as great and honorable successes have been
+made as with it. Men are not accepted in the business world upon their
+collegiate diplomas, nor on the knowledge these imply.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There are a great many young men in business to-day who grow impatient.
+They are in a position for a certain time; they are satisfactory to
+their employers, and then, because they are not promoted, they grow
+restless. These young men generally overlook a point or two. In the
+first place, they overlook the very important point that between the
+years of twenty and twenty-five a young man acquires rather than
+achieves. It is the learning period of life, the experience-gaining
+time. Knowledge that is worth anything does not come to us until we are
+past twenty-five. The mind, before that age, is incapable of forming
+wise judgment. The great art of accurate decision in business matters
+is not acquired in a few weeks of commercial life. It is the result of
+years. It is not only the power within him, but also the experience
+behind him, that makes a successful business man. The commercial world
+is only a greater school than the one of slates and slate-pencils. No
+boy, after attending school for five years, would consider himself
+competent to teach. And surely five years of commercial apprenticeship
+will not fit a young man to assume a position of trust, nor give him
+the capacity to decide upon important business matters. In the first
+five years, yes, the first ten years, of a young man's business life,
+he is only in the primary department of the great commercial world. It
+is for him, then, to study methods, to observe other men--in short, to
+learn and not to hope to achieve. That will come later. Business,
+simple as it may look to the young man, is, nevertheless, a very
+intricate affair, and it is only by years of closest study that we
+master an understanding of it.
+
+The electric atmosphere of the American business world is all too apt
+to make our young men impatient. They want to fly before they can even
+walk well. Ambition is a splendid thing in any young man. But he must
+not forget that, like fire and water, it makes a good servant but a
+poor master. Getting along too fast is just as injurious as getting
+along too slow. A young man between twenty and twenty-five must be
+patient. I know patience is a difficult thing to cultivate, but it is
+among the first lessons we must learn in business. A good stock of
+patience, acquired in early life, will stand a man in good stead in
+later years. It is a handy thing to have and draw upon, and makes a
+splendid safety-valve. Because a young man, as he approaches
+twenty-five, begins to see things more plainly than he did five years
+before, he must not get the idea that he is a business man yet, and
+entitled to a man's salary. If business questions, which he did not
+understand five years before, now begin to look clearer to him, it is
+because he is passing through the transitory state that separates the
+immature judgment of the young man from the ripening penetration of the
+man. He is simply beginning. Afterward he will grow, and his salary
+will grow as he grows. But Rome wasn't built in a day, and a business
+man isn't made in a night. As experience comes, the judgment will
+become mature, and by the time the young man reaches thirty he will
+begin to realize that he didn't know as much at twenty-five as he
+thought he did. When he is ready to learn from others he will begin to
+grow wise. And when he reaches that state where he is willing to
+concede that he hasn't a "corner" on knowledge in this world, he will
+be stepping out of the chrysalis of youth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is another point upon which young men are often in doubt, and
+that is, just how far it pays to be honest in business. "Does it really
+pay to be honest in business?" they ask, and they are sincere and in
+earnest in the question.
+
+Now, the simple fact of the matter is that a business success is
+absolutely impossible upon any other basis than one of the strictest
+honesty.
+
+The great trouble with young men, nowadays, is that their ideas are
+altogether too much influenced by a few unfortunate examples of
+apparent success which are prominent--too prominent, alas!--in American
+life to-day. These "successful men"--for the most part identified in
+some way with politics--are talked about incessantly; interviewed by
+reporters; buy lavish diamonds for their wives, and build costly
+houses,--all of which is duly reported in the newspapers. Young men
+read these things and ask themselves, "If he can do it, why not I?"
+Then they begin to look around for some "short cut to success," as one
+young fellow expressed it to me not long ago. It is owing to this
+practice of "cutting across lots" in business that scores of young men
+find themselves, after awhile in tight places. And the man who has once
+had about him an unsavory taint in his business methods rarely, very
+rarely, rids himself of that atmosphere in the eyes of his
+acquaintances. How often we see some young man in business,
+representative of the very qualities that should win success. Every one
+agrees that he is brilliant. "He is clever," is the general verdict.
+His manner impresses one pleasantly, he is thoroughly businesslike, is
+energetic, and yet, somehow, he never seems to stick to one place.
+People wonder at it, and excuse it on the ground that he hasn't found
+the right place. But some day the secret is explained. "Yes, he is
+clever," says some old business man, "but do you know he isn't--well,
+he isn't quite safe!" "Quite safe!" How much that expresses; how
+clearly that defines hundreds and hundreds of the smartest young men in
+business to-day. He is everything else--but he isn't "quite safe!" He
+is not dishonest in any way, but he is, what is equally as bad, not
+quite reliable. To attain success he has, in other words, tried to "cut
+across lots." And rainbow-chasing is really a very commendable business
+in comparison to a young man's search for the "royal road to success."
+No success worth attaining is easy; the greater the obstacles to
+overcome, the surer is the success when attained. "Royal roads" are
+poor highways to travel in any pursuit, and especially in a business
+calling.
+
+It is strange how reluctant young men are to accept, as the most vital
+truth in life, that the most absolute honesty is the only kind of
+honesty that succeeds in business. It isn't a question of religion or
+religious beliefs. Honesty does not depend upon any religious creed or
+dogma that was ever conceived. It is a question of a young man's own
+conscience. He knows what is right and what is wrong. And yet, simple
+as the matter is, it is astonishing how difficult it is of
+understanding. An honest course in business seems too slow to the
+average young man. "I can't afford to plod along. I must strike and
+strike quickly," is the sentiment. Ah, yes, my friend, but not
+dishonestly. No young man can afford even to think of dishonesty.
+Success on honorable lines may sometimes seem slower in coming, but
+when it does come it outrivals in permanency all the so-called
+successes gained by other methods. To look at the methods of others is
+always a mistake. The successes of to-day are not given to the
+imitator, but to the originator. It makes no difference how other men
+may succeed--their success is theirs and not yours. You cannot partake
+of it. Every man is a law unto himself. The most absolute integrity is
+the one and the only sure foundation of success. Such a success is
+lasting. Other kinds of success may seem so, but it is all in the
+seeming, and not in the reality. Let a young man swerve from the path
+of honesty, and it will surprise him how quickly every avenue of
+permanent success is closed against him. It is the young man of
+unquestioned integrity who is selected for the important position. No
+business man ever places his affairs in the hands of a young man whom
+he feels he cannot unhesitatingly trust. And to be trusted means to be
+honest. Honesty, and that alone, commands confidence. An honest life,
+well directed, is the only life for a young man to lead. It is the one
+life that is compatible with the largest and surest business success.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And so it is easy enough for any young man to succeed, provided he is
+willing to bear in mind a few very essential truths. And they are:
+
+Above all things he should convince himself that he is in a congenial
+business. Whether it be a trade or a profession,--both are honorable
+and profitable,--let him satisfy himself, above everything else, that
+it enlists his personal interest. If a man shows that he has his work
+at heart his success can be relied on. Personal interest in any work
+will bring other things; but all the other essentials combined cannot
+create personal interest. That must exist first; then two-thirds of the
+battle is won. Fully satisfied that he is in the particular line of
+business in which he feels a stronger, warmer interest than in any
+other, then he should remember:
+
+First--That, whatever else he may strive to be, he must be absolutely
+honest. From honorable principles he never should swerve. There can be
+no half-way compromise.
+
+Second--He must be alert, alive to every opportunity. He cannot afford
+to lose a single point, for that single point may prove to be the very
+link that would make complete the whole chain of a business success.
+
+Third--He must ever be willing to learn, never overlooking the fact
+that others have long ago forgotten what he has still to learn.
+Firmness of decision is an admirable trait in business. The young man
+whose opinions can be tossed from one side to the other is poor
+material. But youth is full of errors, and caution is a strong trait.
+
+Fourth--If he be wise he will entirely avoid the use of liquors. If the
+question of harm done by intoxicating liquor is an open one, the
+question of the actual good derived from it is not.
+
+Fifth--Let him remember that a young man's strongest recommendation is
+his respectability. Some young men, apparently successful, may be
+flashy in dress, loud in manner, disrespectful to women and irreverent
+toward sacred things. But the young man who is respectable always wears
+best. The way a young man carries himself in his private life ofttimes
+means much to him in his business career. No matter where he is, or in
+whose company, respectability, and all that it implies, will always
+command respect.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+If any young man wishes a set of rules even more concise, here it is:
+
+Get into a business you like.
+
+Devote yourself to it.
+
+Be honest in everything.
+
+Be cautious. Think carefully about a thing before you act.
+
+Sleep eight hours every night.
+
+Do everything that means keeping in good health.
+
+Don't worry. Worry kills more men than work does.
+
+Avoid liquors of all kinds.
+
+If you must smoke, smoke moderately.
+
+Shun discussion on two points,--religion and politics.
+
+Marry a good woman, and have your own home.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Young Man in Business, by Edward W. Bok
+
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