The Detroit times., 1915-03-24
THE SUCCESS FETCH.
BY Or. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1915. by Frank crane)

Millions of school children are being
daily inocuated with the false success
idea.
False success means achievement py
beating somebody else.
Real success means achievement by do-'
ing the best you can. Ii implies the !
most perfect discipline OF yourself, the
highest standards for yourself, and do
ing the best work of which you are
capable.
II has nothing to do with excelling
anyone else.
The minute the idea of surprising,
outdoing, conquering, or worstlng an
other enters into your motive, 1t is Vi
tiated; you have received the seeds OIL
discomfort; you have laid the foundation |,
for strife, envy, jealousy, and unhap-
piness. Your real success becomes i'm
possible.
All games are affected with the COM
petition germ. In baseball, football,
prisoners base, checkers. and cards thes
aim is TO win over an opponent.
The little ones are doped on such men
tai impure food as prizes. rewards OF ex-
cellence, being head of the class, and get
ting on the honor. roll. They recite tx
celsior" Their forces are directed
against each other.
While the children are practising this
gospel in school their elders are Illus
trating its perfect work on the battle
fields of Europe, straining every nerve
10 kill. MAIN, and ruin each other IN
order to succeed TO make their own ma
ton outshine the other fellows nation.
The arena of business is fierce weller
of the same sort Of gladiatorial theory.
Business firms overshriek and undercut
one another. Thousands of honest men
go down every year in the war OF capi-
tai The triumph of big business is over
the mangled hopes OF small competitorsy
In office, shop, and store the clerks plot
and plan TO get promoted over another
man.
The old beast-law Of struggle, evolu-
ton by fighting, the survival OF the
strongest, and vac victis obtains. =
As a matter Of fact, no progress has
ever been made by competition. All per-
manent advance OF the race has been by
cooperation. The triumph of mankind
has been the triumph Of organization.
Children. ought to be taught that the
only work that counts issgood work Tor
its own sake, and that effort put forth
To beat another worker is really destruc-
tive.
Thank God, I never beat anybody
that ! know Of. ! never won prize, and
am ashamed that tried TO win on sew
eral occasions, and | never consciously
contested against any human being in
anything except in sports.
If you will purge your mind OF the
poison of so-called success and concen-
trate upon getting for yourself your
freest self-expression, the best work pos
sible and the JOY OF satisfying your own
requirements, you will do much toward.
insuring for yourself happy days and
sleepful nights.
Work never hurt anybody. II is III
valry that kills. 1t is competition that
strains, tires, initiates, and embitters.
The heart OF the honest worker whose .
pride is his work, and who neither fears
nor envies another, is full of poise Of
divine peace.
We call ourselves sympathetic when
we sympathize with another's sorrow
and failure. The only true sympathy is
sympathy with another's success.
Let US cease the eternal fight. Let
us join hands to bring on the success OF
all, without which the success Of any
one is bit spoiled.