To most men, by the way, great riches are not worth the price. Too many fine things have to be sacrificed. If a man has not the ability to make a great success in business unless he neglects his duties as a father, husband, citizen and neighbor, foregoing what President Eliot calls "the enduring satisfactions of life," he will, as a man, be happier and more "suc cessful" if he is content with 'moderate success in business.
But a man must not expect to find opportunity of any kind if he has not the will for doing and for sacrifice. Back of his will must be an intense de sire, not just a milk-and-water wish or longing. The desire must be so consuming that it impels him to act and to do anything and everything that can possi bly help him to conquer.
The man who waits for an opportunity or a job to turn up, who leans heavily on his friends, expect ing them to find an opportunity, who does not use every moment of his time and every ounce of his energy and ability seeking what he wants, lacks the will for doing. Even if his friends get him a position or point out to him an opportunity for which he is fitted, he does not throw himself heartily into his work. The waiting or Micawber quality gives great comfort to a lazy soul, but opportunity never shows it her face.
A. young man in quest of his first job, or of a better one than be now bolds, must realize that he himself must go after it and go after it hard. Per haps be was once a substitute on his high-school base ball nine. He was ambitious to be pitcher. Did he get that responsible position by wishing or \vire-pull ing among his friends, or did he get it by making himself fit -Him long and hard practice? As was said in the first chapter of this volume, business is a game and men must not expect to fill positions for which they have not proved their fitness.
9. Bvsiness roan who knows noth ing of the lumber business cannot be expected to discover opportunities for making money in lumber. In the United States there have been many such op portunities during recent years, but they were con cealed from men who had not had experience in buying and selling lumber. This statement would be true in regard to any kind of business.
Strongly as I believe in the value of the lessons " which 3,,ou can learn from the experience of others, or from books and schools, nevertheless it must never be forgotten that there are certain most important lessons which a man can learn only by doing. A young lawyer can learn how he may best influence a, jury only by experience with a jury. He may have
been taught the methods of appeal generally held to be the best, but which ones are best fitted to his own powers he must discover for himSelf thru prac tice. So a young man preparing for business can learn much from books about the laws governing busi ness phenomena and about the methods and policies which have proved most successful in the past, but Ile cannot be a master in any field until he has had actual experience with business problems and diffi culties.
The more a man has learned about business thru study and thru experience, the keener his insight is into opportunity, and the more likely he is to avail himself of an opportunity successfully.
10. Luck.—Opportunity a,nd luck are not rela tives, or even good friends. The reader doubtless al ready knows that, but I must emphasize the fact be cause of the popular gospel which converts luck into the goddess of Fortune. In our current magazines, there is a vast amount of loose talk about the part that luck plays in business success.
The essential element of luck is chance, and it is a mathematical certainty that chance is no respecter of persons. Chance is absolutely impartial. To say that a man has succeeded in business because of his luck, or because he was bom under a lucky star, is as absurd as to say that some right angles are bigger than others. Chance helps the wicked and the good, the efficient and the inefficient, the lazy and the ener (retie and it distributes its favors with the coldest h kind of impartiality. Chance might be called a math ematical goddess who smiles and frowns alternately. If you catch ,her smile you are lucky, but if her frown, unlucky. If you become her worshiper, you will get an equal share of each, your bad luck off setting your good.
Undoubtedly men often make money in business as a result of luck. The outbreak of the European War in 1914 was "lucky" for the makers of ammuni tion and other war supplies. A failure of the wheat crop is lucky for the miller who happens to have on hand a large stock-. A rise in the price of copper is lucky for the owners of copper mines. As was pointed out in Chapter II, a man who seeks to make money in business must battle with the elements of chance, with the uncertainties of the seasons, with the changes of fads and fashions, and with the un accountable and unforeseeable shifting of demand, but in the long run chance helps one business man quite as much as it does another.