The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-10-06
Dorothy Dix TALKS
Self starters and others-1

Self Starters and Others-f.
There are some people who are self
starters. There are others who have
to be cranked up in order to make
them go.
The MOST interesting and mysterious
thing in THE world is that little Quirk
in the human brain that gives to an
individual the ability to see even a
| tiny crack open in the door of oppor-
tunity, and initiative to get his toe
into it, and the strength and energy
to push his way thru. 1t is what
makes generals out of soldiers in the
ranks. and merchant princes out of
office boys. and great writers 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 education.
Run over the list of the people who
are doing the big things in the world
today, and you will find that they are
the people that one would least have
expected to be doing them. A Welsh
miner and a school teacher are at the
mead of the most powerful govern
ments in the world. Two poor coun-
try lads who started life between the
corn burrows of the middle West are
contending for the presidency of the
United States. "A trained butcher has
become the greatest inventor that ever
lived. Our richest han earned his
first money by sweeping out a store.
and sleeping behind the counter
know a man who is worth millions.
He landed in this country with only
| ten cents in his pocket. He could
not speak English. He was barely
able to read and write in his own
language. He apparently differed in
no way from the hundreds of other
immigrants with whom he came over.
yet he lives in palace, and rides by
them in his limousine as thew sweat
and toll at the manual labor which
they are still doing
This 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 a punch in
their work. They are not afraid to
take risks, or to trust to their judg-
ments.
Nobody ever has to tell the man and
woman who are self starters how to do
things. They know it for themselves.
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 us out self starters, we
are not to be blamed for it. Those
who neverfsee their chances until they
have gong by are no more responsible
tOI tHeif ldCh VI foresight imam Is q
blind man for not being able to see
his way along the street. Those who
have rickcty Judgments, and who de-
eide every problem wrong are as much
10 be pitied as the cripple who STUN
bles and falls over every obstab1e.
Even the lazy and listless, who do
their work halfheartedly, are proba-
bly, as littlOto be censured as are
those who are born with a physical
weakness.
1t is pity. tho. that parents do not
study their children, and realize thfS
difference between them. that some sof
them are self starters and others must
be cranked up. This would save a lot
of people from becoming failures, for,
after all, the cranked-np car goes very
satisfactorily when once somebody has
put it in motion ?