The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-02-09
ANDREW CARNEGIE'S ADVICE.
To Young Men Starting Out in Life
His Beginning as an Office Sweeper
The Three Great Dangers to
be Avoided-Secret Of Success.

gin at the beginning, and occupy the
most subordinate positions. Many
of the leading business men of Pitts
burgh had serious responsibility
thrust upon them at the very TIRES
hold of their career. They were in
uoduced to the broom, and spent the
first hours of their business lives
sweeping out the Office.
/ was a sweeper myself, and
who do you suppose were my fellow
sweepers? David McCargo, now
Superintendent of the Allegheny
Valley Railroad; Robert Pitcairn,
Superintendent of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, and Mr.. Morelsnd, City
Attorney of Pittburg.
Begin at the beginning, but aim
high. / would not give fig for the
young man who does not already see
himself the partner or the head of an
important firm.
There are three dangers in your
path; the first is drinking of liquor,
the second is speculation, and the
third is endorsing"
When l was a telegraph operator
in Pittsburg, l knew all the men who
speculated. They were not our citi-
zens of first repute; they were re-
garded with suspicion. / have lived
to see them all ruined, bankrupt in
money and bankrupt in character.
There is scarcely an instance of man
who has made fortune by specula-
ton and kept it, The man who
grasps the morning paper to see how
his speculative ventures are likely to
result units himself for the calm
consideration and proper considera-
ton and proper solutions Of business
problems, with whichshe has to deal
later in the day, and saps the sources
of that persistent and concentrated
energy upon which depends the per-
manent success, and often the very
safety of his main business The
thorough man of business knows that
only by years of patient unremitting
attention to affairs can he earn his
reward, which is the result not of
chance, but of well devised means
for the attainment of ends.
Nothing is more essential to young
business men than untarnished cred
it sooner than the knowledge in any
bank board that a man engages in
speculation. How can man be
credited whose resources may be
swept away in one hour by panic
among gamesters? Resolve to be
business men, but spectators never.
The third danger is the perilous
habit Of indorsing notes. 1t appeals
70 your generous instincts, and you
Say "How can / refuse to lend my
name only, to assist friendY' 1t
is because there is so much that is
true and commendable in that view
that the practice is so dangerous.
If you owe anything, all your CAPT
tai and all your effects are in solemn
trust in your hands to be held in
violate for the security of those who
have trusted you. When man in
debt indorses for another, it is not
his own credit or his own capital
that he risks, it is the money of his
own creditors. Therefore, say that
if you are ever called upon to indorse,
never do it unless you have cash
means not required for your own
debts, and never indorse beyond
those means.
Assuming that you are safe in re-
gard to these your gravest dangers
= drinking, specializing and indors-
ing-the question is, how to rise?
The rising man must do something
exceptional, and beyond the range of
his special department. He must
attract attention. A shipping clerk
may do so by discovering in an in
voice an error with which he has
nothing to do, and which has escap-
ed the attention of the proper per-
son. If weighing clerk, he may
save for the firm by doubling the ad-
iustment of the scales, and having
them corrected. Your employer mist
find out that he has not got mere
hireling in his service, but man;
not one who is content to give SO
m nv hours Of work for SO many
dollars in return, but one who de-
votes his spare hours and constant
thoughts to the business.
Our young partners In Carnegie
Brothers have won their spurs by
showing that we did not know half
as well what was wanted as they
did.
There is one sure mark Of the com
ing millionaire: his revenues always
exceed his expenditures. He begins
to save as soon as he begins to earn.
Capitalists trust the saving young
man. For every hundred dollars
you can produce as the result of
hard won savings, Midas, in search
of a partner, will lend on credit a
thousand; for every thousand, fifty
thousand.
1t is not capital your seniors re-
quire, it is the man who has proved
he has the business habits which
make capital. Begin at once to save
something. 1t is the first hundred
dollars saved which tells.
And here is the prime condition of
success. the great secret; concentrate
your energy, thought and capital
extensively upon the business in
which you are engaged. Having be-
gun iu one line, resolve to fight it
out ON that line; to lead in it; adopt
every improvement, have the best
machinery and know the most about
it.
Finally, do not be impatient, for
as Emerson says: mo one can
cheat you out of ultimate success
but yourselves"