excels all others in his own line, if his habits are good and his
integrity undoubted, cannot fail to secure abundant patronage, and the
wealth that naturally follows. Let your motto then always be
"Excelsior," for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.
LEARN SOMETHING USEFUL
Every man should make his son or daughter learn some useful trade or
profession, so that in these days of changing fortunes of being rich
to-day and poor tomorrow they may have something tangible to fall back
upon. This provision might save many persons from misery, who by some
unexpected turn of fortune have lost all their means.
LET HOPE PREDOMINATE, BUT BE NOT TOO VISIONARY
Many persons are always kept poor, because they are too visionary. Every
project looks to them like certain success, and therefore they keep
changing from one business to another, always in hot water, always
"under the harrow." The plan of "counting the chickens before they are
hatched" is an error of ancient date, but it does not seem to improve by
age.
DO NOT SCATTER YOUR POWERS
Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until
you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it.
A constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home at last,
so that it can be clinched. When a man's undivided attention is centered
on one object, his mind will constantly be suggesting improvements of
value, which would escape him if his brain was occupied by a dozen
different subjects at once. Many a fortune has slipped through a man's
fingers became he was engaged in too many occupations at a time. There
is good sense in the old caution against having too many irons in the
fire at once.
BE SYSTEMATIC
Men should be systematic in their business. A person who does business
by rule, having a time and place for everything, doing his work
promptly, will accomplish twice as much and with half the trouble of him
who does it carelessly and slipshod. By introducing system into all your
transactions, doing one thing at a time, always meeting appointments
with punctuality, you find leisure for pastime and recreation; whereas
the man who only half does one thing, and then turns to something else,
and half does that, will have his business at loose ends, and will never
know when his day's work is done, for it never will be done. Of course,
there is a limit to all these rules. We must try to preserve the happy
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