The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1905-12-08
AN ESSAY ON NERVE.
(By Lloyd Kenyon Jones.)

Herbert Spencer wrote a famous
"essay on STYLE" and he made a hit.
This is not an essay on style. IN
fact, it has no style at all, but it is
a friendly talk on "~nerve,' something
that has made Celery Compound fam
GUS and politics possible.
In the world of business, "bluf
enters into about one-third of what is
done. In insurance, it is about 80 49,
100 per cent.
When you cant be reasoned into
making an investment, some n will
come out and dare you to do it. Then
You invest, and if you lose, you don't
like to acknowledge that you lost, be-
cause you, too, were bluffing.
Nerve is necessary. Some very
worthy gentlemen remain in country
districts and bury their talents with
the roses, because they are afraid that,
if they go to the city, a trolley car
might get them, or they might blow out
the gas. This is the same spirit that
is shown in making an investment.
Some modest soul, schooled in mort
cages, hangs onto family traditions and
would no more think of investing N
mines than he would think of missing
a mid-week prayer meeting. The
trouble with too many people is that
they draw a line of impossibility be-
tween themselves and opportunities.
They think it is not for them; they
were not "born for it, That predes-
tination myth was the finest thing ever
in keeping up the feudal system, and
it IS the only thing that keeps kings on
thrones today. The very moment a
man begins to think and sees that he
is really a free being and that the
string that jerked him around was only
imaginary that moment he becomes
human. Don't be contented to a de-
gree of meek submission. Get busy
mentally. You are just as apt to have
a comfortable fortune as any one else.
1t is not necessary to think of being a
millionaire. Heavens, what punish
ment! If / ever get a few THOUSAND
"louies' to the good, the autocrats
and plutocrats and democrats and re-
publicans can go plum to the devil.
That is, they will have both my invita-
ton and consent! But as to being q
-.u,ono;ro nivf
When an inventor becomes an ex-
tremist, he is open for a s~laughtering.
If you invest 800, don't roar if you
make only $500 by the transaction.
There are innumerable moderate oppor-
tunities and very few big ones. If a
big one comes, call them "velvet,"
but plug for those that are good
enough to take you ahead a little way.
When a man comes to you and tells
you that he can make you a millionaire
if you invest 800, the man is either a
liar or a l~unatic, but if he shows va
that you can gain, and that you run
small chances of losing, and PROVES
it, he is worth keeping in touch with.
People either are willing to be held
right down to the grindstone or they
want to be Barney Barnatos or King
S~olomons-in riches, if not in wisdom.
To be brutally frank, they usually i'm
agine they have that much wisdom
and that all they need is the materil II
glory to round 'em out.
There is one thing abo-t money AMI
its uses that is positively magnificent.
An investor may be a maverick n
features, he may have a religio is
oug'' or an incurable disease, but his
money is just as good as the other fell
lows. Money and the corporation are
both impartial.
All you need as a starter IS
.~nerve," properly in hand and Of
'quality-which "a be cultivated.