The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1884-10-18
WHY BUSINESS MEN EAlL.
The Reasons ~ Given by leading
Wen of our Country.

Men Of our Country.
lCor United States Economist
Let me give your readers the benefit
of the replies have received from lead
ing men of our country to the question,
What, in your observation, have been
the chief causes of the numerous failures
in life of business and professional
menu
Governor st. John answers: ''Idlencss,
intemperancc. Alexander II. stephens
answers "Want Of puuctuality, honesty,
and truth Hon. Darwin Il. James
answers "lncorcct views of the great
end and aim of life. Men are
not coutcntcd to lives of integrity
and uprightneSs. They want TO
temptation" President Bartlett, of
Dartmouth college, names as causes of
failure: Lack of principle of fixed
purpose, of perseverance. President
Eliot, of Harvard, replies stupidity,
la2iness, rashness, and dishonesty
DR. II. NJ. Dexter, of The Congregation
alist answers: 81. Want of thorough
ness of preparation. .. Want of fixed
ness of purpose. 3. Want of faith in
the inevitable triumph of right and
truth"
Anthony Comstocks answers are:
'Unholy living and dishonest practices,
lust and intemperance, living beyond
ones Means Mr.. II. +. Simmons, of
the American Tract society, replies:
Fast living, mental, spiritual and bod
lily; lack of attention to the details of
business. Gen. o Howard answers in
substance: Breaking the divine laws
of the body by vice, those of the mind
by oyerwork and idlencss, and those OF
the heart by making an idol of self
Professor Homer b. Spraguc of Boston.
answers: If. Ill health. .. Mistakes
in the choice of employment. 3. Lack
of persistent and protracted effort. a.
A low ideal, making success to consist
in personal ACKNOWLEDGMENT, rather than
in the training and development of a
true and noble character"
Dr. Lyman Abbott answers: "The
combined spirit of lazincss and self-con-
ceit that makes man unwilling to do
anything unless he can choose Just what
he will do Mr.. 4. W. Tenney, of
Brooklyn, replies: Outside of in
temperance, failure to grasp hold, seat
tering too much, want of integrity and
promptnesS, unwillingncss to achieve
success by earning it in the old-faShioncd
way The attorney general of a neigh
boring state replies; Giving beyond in
come, and specializing with borrowed
funds; unwillingEeSs to begin at the
foot of the ladder and work up. Young
men want to be masters at the start,
and assume to know before they have
learned And another reason in the
IN ln+
another has, without being willing to
work as that man does. Giving money
making a first place and right-doing a
second place
Judge Tourgee; author of "a FOOLS
Errand, considers the frequent cause
of business collapse TO be: Trying to
carry too big load AS to others,
he says II don't know about profes-
sional mans failing, if he works, keeps
sober, and sleep at home Lawyers,
ministers, and doctors live ON the sins
of the people, and of course, grow fat
under reasonable eXertion, unless the
competition is too great 1t requires
real genius TO fail in either of these
walks of life Hon. Joseph Medill, ex-
mayor of Chicago, answers: Liquor
drinking, gambling reckless speculation,
dishonesty, tricky conduct, cheating,
idlenrsS, Sinking hard work, frivolous
reading, lack of manhood in the battle
of life, failure to improve opportunities.
Among the causes of failure given by
my correspondents many may be classi,
fed under the general fault Of wavering,
such as ''wavering purpose "non-stick
to-it-ness, failure to grasp and hold"
scattering too much, trying to do too
many things, rather than stick to the
one thing one knows most about" A
young man spends seven years in Il gro
Gerry store, and when he has just learned
the business he concludes to 90 into dry
goods. BY failing to choose that first
he has thrown away seven years expert
ence. Probably, after learning the dry
goods business, he will conclude to be-
come matchmaker, and at last become
jack-at-all -trades, good at none.
prominent merchant saws
Nearly all failures in legitimate bust
ness come from not serving an appren-
ticeship to it," that is, from leaving u
business one knows for another which he
does not understand
Another cause of failure is the dispo-
stion TO escape hard work, and get rich
III haste desiring the success another
man has, without being willing to work
as that man does, and begin as he did,
at the foot Of the ladder" How many
who were in haste to oct rich, to reap
without patient industry in sowing, have
learned the truth of the old proyerb:
The more haste, the worse speed"
HE Art of short StOrIea