The Opelousas courier., 1901-08-03
SCHVAB ADVISES BOYS.
arAp OF GREAT STEEL CORPORATION
TELLS THE SECRET OF SUCCESS.

res Your Start EaElN He Says. and DO
lc.arssssd In Your Work and Do It Bet.
70, Than Other soys-stories About
himself and Frick.
s Charles M. Schwab. president of the
limited States Steel Corporation, deliver
Al an address to the graduating class of
the St, Georges Evening Trade School
At the commencement exercises In the
Memorial Building, ao7 East Sixtieth
street. Mr.. Schwab's address was the
last thing on the programme with the
exception of the awarding of prizes and
diplomas. He was introduced by Chair
man Frank E. Hagemeycr as a man who
had fought battles and won victories in
he struggle of life and therefore was
well qualified to give boys advice that
was founded on practical experience.
Il will speak to you," began Mr..
schwab, lust as though you had come
to nv Office asking for advice, and the
first thing | will say to you is to come
alone. Don't come with somebody's
hacking. Learn to re,,y upon yourself.
That is the first lesson. If you come
;ndorsed by somebody of influence it al
ways will leave room for others to say
that whatever position you may get you
got it by influence and not becatse of
your individual merit. No true success
i built on influence. You must win
YOUR positions for yourself.
"Then here is another thing that is
essential-you must do what you are en-
Moved to do a little better than anybody
else does it. Everybody is expected to
do his duty, but the boy who does his
duty and a little more than his duty is
the boy who is going to succeed in this
world. You must take an interest in
what YOU are doing and it must be a
genuine interest"
Here Mr.. Schwab told a story which
everybody understood referred to him
self. Afterward he told another story
which it was equally we'll understood
referred to H. c. Prick. The stories
follow:
There were ten boys employed by a
concern once and one night the manager
said to his subordinate: Tell the boys
they are to stay a little longer tonight
tell them that they are to stay until E
o'clock. Don't tell them why. Just tell
them that and watch them So this was
done, and when 6 o'clock came around
there was just one boy who was wholly
interested in his work, and was not
watching the clock to see what time it
was. That boy was the one the manager
wanted, and he wa taken into the office,
and as he continued to manifest the same
interest in his work he got a very respon-
sible place.
Then there was another boy. He
began carrying water, and he did it so
much better than any other boy, seeing
to it always, that the men had good
water, cool water and plenty of it, that
he attracted attention to himself. He
was taken into the Office, where he be-
came in time superintendent and then
general manager, and he is now the man
that is at the head of the great Carnegie
Company with thousands of men under
him. As a boy he did more than the
ordinary run of boys did and so attracted
attention, and that was the secret of his
FIRST step upward.
4 was in a bank downtown the other
day when a newsboy came in and sold
the banker a paper. After he had gone
out the banker said to me: For two
years nov that boy has been coming in
here at the time | told him to come
o'clock. He does not come before 2 nor
after 2, but at 2 precisely. He has sold
me a paper every weekday in that way
when | have been here without a break.
He sells it for just one cent-its price.
He neither asks more nor seems to ex-
pect more. 1t is a cold commercial
transaction. Now a boy that will attend
to business in that way has got stuff in
him. He doesn't know it yet, but I'm
going to put him in my bank and you
will see that he will be heard from.
Another thing, boys, and that is get
an early start. The boy in business who
starts with a manual school education at
seventeen or eighteen will get a start
that the boy who goes through college
will never catch up with him, other
things being equal. That does not APP
ply to the professions, of ~course-only
TO business. Out of forty men / know
who are great leaders in the business
world, only two are college graduates"