The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1889-05-18
HOW A YOUNG MAN GAN SUCCEED.

You are about to start in life, and it
is we'll that young men should begin at
the beginning, and occupy the most
subordinate position. Many of the bus
mess men of Pittsburg had serious re-
sponsibility thrust upon them at the
very threshold of their career. They
were introduced to the broom, and
spent the first hours of their business
lives sweeping out the office.
was sweeper myself, and who do
you suppose were my fellow-sweepers7
David McCargo, now superintendent of
the Allegheny Valley Railroad Robert
Pitcairn, superintendent of the Penn
sylvania Railroad and Moreland, city
attorney of Pittsburg.
Begin at the beginning, aim high. I
would not give fig for the young man
who does not already see himself the
partner or the head of some important
firm.
There are three dangers in your path
the first is drinking of liquor, the Sec
ond is speculation, and the third is en-
dorsing.
When 1 was telegraph operator in
Pittsburg, l knew all the men who spec
ulated. They were not our citizens of
first repute they were regarded with
suspicion. l have lived to see all of
them ruined, bankrupt in money and
bankrupt in character. There is scarcely
an instance of man who has made a
fortune IN speculation and kept it. The
man who grasps the morning papers to
see how his speculative ventures will re-
suit, units himself for the calm consid-
Grafton and proper solution of business
problems, with which he has to deal
later in the day, and saps the sources of
that persistent success and often the
very safety of his main business. The
thorough man of business knows that
only by years of patient unremitting at
tention to affairs can he earn his re.
ward, which is the result not Of chance
but of well-devised means for the at.
tainment of ends.
Nothing is more essential to young
business men than untarnished credit,
and nothing kills credit sooner than the
knowledge in any bank board that
man engages in speculation. How can
man be credited whose resources may.
be swept away in an hour by panic
among gamesters2 Resolved to be
business men, but spectators never.
The third danger is the perilous habit
OF endorsing notes. 1t appeals to your
generous instincts, and you say, GLOW
can refuse to lend my name only, to
assist a frlend?" 1t is because there is
so much that it is true and commend
able in that view that the practice is so
dangerous. If you owe anything, all
your capital and all your effects are
solemn trust in your hands to be held
lnviolate for the security of those who
have trusted you. When man in debt
endorses 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 endorse. never do it
unless you have cash means not required
for your own debts, and never endorse
beyond those means.
Assuming that you are safe in regard
to these your gravest dangers-drink-
ing, specializing and endorsing-the
questionis, GLOW to rise ?" The rising
man must do something exceptional,
and beyond the range of his special de-
partment. He must attract attention.
A shipping clerk may do so by discov-
ering in an invoice an error with which
he has nothing to do, and which has
escaped attention of the proper person.
If a weighing clerk, he may save for the
firm by doubling the adjustment of the
scales, and having them corrected.
Your employer must find out that he
has not got mere hireling in his SER
vice, but a man not one who is con-
tent to give so many hours Of work for
so many dollars in return, but one who
devotes his spare hours and constant
thoughts to the business.
Our young partners in Carnegie
Brothers have won their spurs by show
ing that we did not know halt as well
what was wanted as they did.
There is one sure mark of the COM
ing millionaire ; his revenues always ex-
ceed his expenditures. He begins to
save as soon as he begins to earn. Cap
itaIists trust the saving young man. For
every hundred dollars you can produce
as the result of hard-won saving, Midas,
in search of a partner, will lend on
credit thousand for every thousand,
fifty thousad.
1t is not capital your seniors require,
it Is the man who has proved he has
the business habits which make capital.
Begin at once to lay up something. 1t
is the first hundred dollars saved which
tells.
And here is the prime condition of
success. tine great secret; concentrate
your energy, thought and capital ex-
clusively upon the business in which
you are engaged. Having begun in
one line. resolve to fight it out on that
line to lead it; adopt every improve
ment, have the best machinery and
know the most about it.
Finally, do not be impatient, for, as
Emerson says, "No one can cheat you
out of ultimate success, but ourselves"
-Nuth'S Companion.