The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1883-01-20
SUCCESS IN LIFE.

dained to fail, as there are those who
seem foreordained to succeed. What
ever one man touches turns to a Gin
der; whatever another man touches
turns to gold. One man fishes all day
without getting more than 4 nibble;
another fishes in the same stream, and
catches more than he can carry home.
Our good friend, whom we all respect,
gets into Parliament, and gives pro-
mise of becoming a great orator and
statesman; but in few months we
hear Of him no more. Esquire G. buys
a green bag, and shows himself at the
courts, but gets no cases. The Rev.
Mr.. D. closes his course of study, and
is ordained, but there is no place for
him in the vineyard. Professor L.
tries to get a living by his pen; but
whatever he writes, no one cares to
read. Mr.. f. opens a shop, but he does
not get custom enough to pay his rent.
It is a sad thing to fail, but there is no
recipe which will insure success. There
are, however, certain conditions, upon
which success or failure may be contin-
gent.
A radical mistake in the choice of 4
profession generally proves fatal. A
man ought to find out what he is fit
for, before he starts. If he enters upon
a vocation that is above his capacity, he
is sure to fail. No amount of industry
can supply the natural defect. Some
people will tell you that if you will on
ystick to if, no matter what line of
life you have chosen, you are certain to
succeed in the end. Many poor, DIS
appointed, overworked man will tell
you that this is not true. He has done
his best and failed. In every profess
sion there is a large percentage Of fail
ures, simply because there are so many
who strike higher than they can reach.
1t may be said, that man cannot tell
what he is fit for until he has tested
his powers. There may be some truth
in this, but in many other cases people
can tell beforehand what we are not fit
for. 1t requires no great amount of
foresight to predict that certain per-
sons whom we know can never be ar
fists, or poets, or good public speakers.
On the other hand, if one has a real
genius for any particular profession, it
will manifest itself soon enough. If a
fire is in him, it will soon blaze out of
itself.
But whatever profession we choose,
success is impossible without labor. A
fortune is not made without toll.
Money seems to come very easy to
few favored people, but the world may
not know how hard they had to work
in the beginning. Newton said that
all he had ever accomplished was the
result Of industry, but it was his
genius that made him industrious.
With the impulse that lay behind he
could not help working. The wind
blew, and the mill must turn. A man
of good parts may have his lazy fits,
but he loses just so much because of
this. His success is determined by the
time he gives to his work, and the de-
gree in which he concentrates his facul-
ties upon what is before him.
The habitual loiterer never brings
to pass. The young men
whom you see lounging about waiting
for the weather to change before they
go to work, break down before they
stuck before they start.
and Willingness to labor are
the two great conditions of success. 1t
is useless to work an electrical machine
in a vacuum, but the air may be full
of electricity, and still you can draw no
spark until you turn the machine. The
beautiful statue may exist in the ar
lists brain, and it may also be said in
a certain sense to exist in the marble
block that stands before him, but he
must bring both his brains and his
hands to bear upon the marble, and
work hard and long, in order to pro-
duce any practical result.
Success also depends in a good meas
ure upon the mans promptness and
skill to seize opportunities, and take
of the rise of the tide. A
great deal of what we call "lucl1" is
nothing more nor less than this. 1t is
the man who keeps his eyes open, and
his hands out of his pockets, that Sue
ceeds. 81 missed my chance!' ex-
claims the disappointed man. when he
sees another catch the ball and ego in"
If he had been as alert as the other, he
might not have missed. But some
thing more than alertness is needed !;
we must know how to avail ourselves
of the emergency.
An elastic temperament, which
never seems to recognize the fact of de-
feat, or forgets it at once and begins
the work over again, is very likely to
insure success. Many great orator
has made a terrible breakdown in his
maiden speech. Many merchant loses
one fortune only to build up another
and larger one. Many an inventor
fails in his first efforts, and is at last
rewarded with splendid triumph.
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