The Green Forest tribune., 1908-10-16
The Difference in Men.

During the depression ill the life in' suranee business following the legis. lative exposures concerning it, when great many insurance agents be- came discouraged and went out of business, and while others were hang ing on the ragged edge, barely exist ing, a branch manager of one of the large insurance companies shut his teeth, clenched his fists and resolved that he was going to beat his biggest record
 The result was that during the most discouraging year in the history of modern life insurance, this young man quadrupled the best record he had ever made This is what grit did.
 He thought he had worked hard be- fore, but his unprecedented record when he put forth all of his efforts shows what a man can do when dom- mated by mighty purpose-one un- wavering aim.
 If Mir. Wake had said to himself, as many others did during this his toric slump Now, the situation looks pretty bad, but I'm going to buckle down to it and do my best," he would have done fairly well, no doubt. But his grim resolve to do better than he had ever done before, regardless of the hard times and the dark outlook, quadrupled his power of achievement
 Nothing else stimulates us like the spur of a great resolution to do some definite some particular thing.
 To have merely an understanding with ourselves that we are going to do our level best is not enough. To do the best thing possible to us we must have a great aim, a mighty pur- pose, an invincible faith in ourselves. This will call out all our reserves.
 If Napoleon had said to himself, be- fore some of his great battles, Now, I am going to do some great fighting; we are going to do our level best to beat the enemy" he would have been beaten hmself, But he resolved that when he went into the battle he would beat the enemy at all hazards. He had fought the battle over in his mind before a gun was fired. He did not start out with loose determina- tion to do his level best. but with a grim resolution to win the battle if it took his last man. This is the kind of resolution that calls out a mans last reserves.
 It is astonishing how difficulties get out of the way of man who carries resolution and determination to his task in the right way. The Way we approach our problems, the atti- tude of mind in which we face obsta- cles, the grit in our aim has every thing to do with our success in life.
 We must face difficulties as an ami nal trainer faces the wild beast. He knows that the slightest indication of fear is fatal. His eyes must carry power, his manner must indicate that he is a conqueror.
 The above aptly applies to us in this Order today If we will resolve that we are going into the battle to perpetuate our order with a firm de- termination to win, we will win. Many of us think that the difficulties of the Order are too great to surmount, that is because we do not face the obstacle that confronts us with true grit, let us say with Napoleon, I am going to do my level best to upbuild the Or der I am going to do my level best to help brush aside the only stumbling block in it's road to prosperity, and we will succeed. Let us face our last and only difficulty as true men, and we will wonder why we ever doubted the result