Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1920-12-08
Self Starters and Others.

Self Starters and Others.
There are some people who ar,
self starters. There are others wht
have to be cranked up in order t.
make them go.
The most interesting and mysteri
Gus thing in the world is that littl,
quirk in the human brain that give
to an individual the ability to SCI
even tiny crack open in the door o:
opportunity, and the initiative to get
his toe into it and the strength anc
energy to push his way through. Il
is what makes generals out of sol
diers in the ranks, and merchant
princes out of Office boys, and great
writer's and actors out of boys and
girls who grow up on lonely farms in
remote places, where they have none
of the so-called advantages of edu.
cation.
Run over the list of people who
are doing the big things in the world
to-day and you will find that they are
the people that one would least have
expected to be doing them. A Welch
miner and school teacher are at the
head of the most wonderful govern
ments in the world. Two poor co,ln-
try lads who started life between the
corn burrows of the middle west
contended for the presidency of the
United States. A trained butcher has
become the greatest inventor that
ever lived. Our richest man earned
his first money by sweeping out a
store and sleeping behind the coun-
ter.
II read of man who was worth
millions. He landed in this country
with only 10 cents in his pocket. He
could not speak English. He was
barely able to read and write in his
own language. He apparently differ
ed in no way from the hundreds Of
other immigrants with whom he came
over, yet he lives in a palace, and
rides by them in his limousine as they
sweat and toll at the manual labor
which they are still doing.
The man was a self starter. So are
all the others who succeed. They
have vision. They can see the thing
that is to be done and they have the
pep to go to it, and put punch in
their work. They're not afraid to take
risks, or to trust their judgments.
Nobody ever has to tell the man
and woman who are self starters how
to do things. They know it for them
selves. And if one way fails, they
can always think of another because
they are simply bound to go.~That's
what they were made for.
But, when all is said, if nature
doesn't turn out self starters, we are
not be blamed for it. Those who
never had their chances until they
have gone by are no more response
BILE for their lack of foresight than is
"a blind man for not being able to see
his way along the street. Those who
have rickety judgments and who de-
eide every problem wrong, are as
much to be pitied as the cripple who
stumbles and falls over every obsta-
Gle. Even the lazy and listless who do
their work half-heartedly are prob
ably as little to be censured as are
those who are born with physical
weakness.
1t is pity though, that parents
do not study their children, and real
ize this difference between them,
that some of them are self starters
and others must be cranked up. This
would save lot of people from be-
coming failures, for, after all, the
cranked up car goes very satisfactor-
lily when once somebody has put 1t IN
motion.
The boy and girl who can think
of new ways to play, who are always
inventing games and who can al
ways offer a different explanation
for their raids upon the cookie jar,
need no help. They are self starters
and will get away under their own
power.
But the boy and girl who always
follow and never lead in their play
who always say. "What can l do
now" "Where shall I go now?" who
have not ingenuity enough even to
invent plausible lie, need to be
definitely trained for life. They are
the ones who must be cranked up and
set in motion by some hand from
the outside. They have no power
within themselves to achieve things
Left to his own devices, that kinc
of a boy drifts around from ill-palc
Job to ill-paid job because he is nev'
er worth much of an employers
money. He has not the initiative to &c
to night school or a technical schoo
or to learn how to do his job iron
those among whom he works, as the
self starter boy has.
Or if he inherits a little money
he starts little business with it anc
goes broke within year or two, be
cause it is impossible for him tt
compete with the self starters.
These boys, however, might have
achieved success if their parents hat
recognized their limitations and hat
them trained to do some particular
line of work we'll, for their very lacl
eof enterprise makes them invaluable
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