Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-04-08
What Has Luck Done For You?

The result OF the game does not rest
with fate or destiny but with you. You
will take the trick If you have the
superior energy, ability, and deter
mination requisite to take 1t. You
have the power within yourself TO
change the value OF the cards which,
you say, fate has dealt you. The game
depends upon your training, upon the
way you are disciplined To sieze and
use your opportunities. and upon your
ability to put grit in the place OF sup
erior advantages.
Just because circumstances do
sometimes give clients to lawyers and
patients to physicians, put common
place clergymen in uncommon pull
pits, and place the sons of the rich at
the head OF great corporations even
when they have only average ability
and scarcely any experience, while
poor youths with greater ability, and
more experience, often have to fight
their way for years 10 obtain ordinary
situations, are you justified in start
ing out without a chart or in leaving
place for luck in your programme?
What would you think of a captain of
a great liner who would start out to
sea without any port in view, and trust
to luck to land his precious cargo
safely?
Did you ever know OF strong young
man making out his life programme
and depending upon chance to carry
out any part of it? Men who depend
upon luck" do not think il worth
while to make a thorough preparation
for success. They are not willing to
pay the regular price for it. They
are looking for bargains. They are
hunting for short cuts TO success.
one OF the most unfortunate delu-
sions that ever found it's way into
youths brain is that there is some
force or power outside Of himself that
will, in some mysterious way, and with
very little effort on his part, lift him
into a position of comfort and luxury.
/ never knew any one who followed
the ignis fatuus,-"luck" who did
not follow il to his ruin. Good luck
follows good sense, good judgment,
good health, a gritty determination, a
lofty ambition, and downright hard
work
When you see horses in "A race, you
know perfectly well that the one in
the lead is there becaus he has run
faster than the others, and you would
not have much sympathy for the horse
behind if he should bemoan his fate
and declare that the horse ahead had
q snap!
When YOU see anyone doing better
than you are doing under similar cir
just say to yourself,
There must be some reason for it, |
There is a secret back of it, and /
must find il out" Do not try 10 ease
your conscience or lull your ambition |
by pleading hard luck" for yourself !
or good fortune for another.
Napoleon said that God is always |
on the side of the strongest battal- |
ions" He is always on the side of the !
best prepared, the best trained, the |
most vigilant. the pluckiest, and the /
most determined.
If we should examine the careers of |
most men who are called lucky" we |
should find that their success has its
roots far back in the past, and has
drawn its nourishmept from many a
battle in the struggle for supremacy
over poverty and opposition. We
should probably find that the luck"
man is a closer thinker than the "un
lucky" man, that he has a finer judg-
ment, that he has more system and or
1er;-that his brain acts more defin
tely and concisely, that he thinks
more logically, more vigorously, and !
that he is more practical. Life is not
a game of chance. The Creator did I
not put us where we would be the /
sport OF circumstances, to be tossed /
about by cruel fate, regardless OF
on. own efforts