The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1904-10-29
Do / AND Do / NOW
THOSE WHO HALT, WAIVER, BAL
ANCE, ALWAYS SURPASSED
BY PRoMPTER RIVALS.
Decision Brings success-Men Who
Lead Decide Quickly and Don't
Reconsider-Mortgaging
Morrow.
By Or. orison SWEET Marden.

AV-&0pAAoHH
BY Or. orison SWEET Marden.
Founder and editor of Success Magazine,
author Of Elements of Business Success"
rushing to the Front" etc.l
When a fool ha made up his mind, the
market has gone up.-spanish Proyerb.
A CHARACTER In THE Little Min
~ lister" announced his intention Of
cutting down a certain hindering tree.
He never got at it, the tree widened
and grew tall. the mar aged, and still
the tree stood. Il grew CID" he said,
looking for an AK" An artist had
a magnificent conception of a Madon-
ma, and he talked enthusiastically
about it to friends, but his moods, or
his studies, or the light, or his exact
Idea Of the pose never quite suited, and
he never painted It. Still the thought
of it possessed him till he could do
nothing else, When death came 1t
found him lamenting that the glorious
vision he had constantly seen in imag-
ination was never put on canvas to
delight others and make his own fame.
Decision of character would have cut
down the tree promptly, giving i'm
mediately whatever gain its removal
would cause. Decision of character
would have enabled the artist to exc
cute the conception and make his life
fruitful, happy and contented, while
the world would have been richer by
at least one more beautiful painting.
The vast number of such wavering
procrastinating people sadly cuts down
the average Of human efficiency and
the sum total Of the worlds achieve
ment.
Human Driftwood.
Everywhere we see human wrecks,
stranded in life because victims of the
temptation to consider, wayer and bal.
ance until the power to begin and exc
cute the thing contemplated was dis
sipated. These people go through life
hating, uncertain, robbed of their
strength, failing to reach the large pO'
sitions they are fitted for by natural
ability. because of this fatal inability
to decide. They have no confidence ir
themselves; they must ask everybody's
opinion. They distrust their own judg'
ment so long that they lose all con
fidence in 1t, and they go through life
mere floating hulks, thrown up on thu
shore by waves of circumstance which
they were too weak to resist. The,
allow themselves to drift into this poo
or that, to be turned out of the cours'
of the stream by overhangint
branches. stopped in their career, a
leaves and chips are stopped an;
turned in their course by every swir
and eddy.
After the current of life passes on
bearing those who struggle free from
impeachment to wider waters and ia
distant ports, we see these weak vic
tins hung up in trees, balancing o,
rocks, stuck on shoals, Bowerless tt
reach the great ocean for which the,
started, because they allowed them
selves to be overcome by ADVERSE cur
rents, to be tossed this way and tina
way, and to become victims of the frs
distractions they met. Shiftless, pur
poseless, nerveless, aimless and char
acterless, they are unable to direc
their own lives or accomplish thei
own good intentions. They renal
stuck forever, unless By chance
stronger flood carries them a little fur
Their along, only to leave them upol
other distractions when the waite
subsidies.
The world is full Of unfortunate
languishing in prisons, suffering tor
lures in houses Of vice, dying in poor
houses, in cellars, in attics, vegetatin
In cramped situations, because Of wea
minds, which have been imposed upor
abused and used by stronger ones
Half the misery and suffering of tn
world comes from weakness of tn
mind and the lack Of the power to de
eide. No matter what a person
capabilities may be, no matter wha
he promised to become, If he lacks dc
cision, if he is ever at The mercy {
circumstances, he will be the puppt
of stronger minds.
Ability Without Decision.
The world is full of failures who can
not say mo" with emphasis. One de
cided no" spoken at the right tim
with energy, would have saved man
q life from frightful wreck.
/. Many strong, even mighty men, sui
fer the humiliation Of seeing one
talent men who have great power
decision, plunge far ahead in the rae
OF life, while they with colossal abb
ity founder about, creating great ea
pectations, only to disappoint and b
disappointed, simply because they lac
the power of vigorous resolution
Thousands who were naturally abb
men sleep in obscure graves becaus
they lacked the power to decide. The
became mere victims Of circumstance
We all know such people. They al