Evening star., 1927-10-02
BY ARTHUR II. RUGGLES. NJ. ID.
Professor Of Psychiatry and Mental Hy-
glene Yale University.


v YOJ' need not be discoura ged he,
~ cause YOU have failed in Your
first job Failure may he due
to circumstances for which
YOU are not responsible, to
faults in your character which YOU
can correct. or simply to the fact
that YOU have undertaken something
for which YOU were not fitted.
A certain New York woman who,
when she retired recently. was MAX
ing n salary we'll over S25.o0o a year
was fired from her first position for
incompetence The sum that she
wasn't considered capable o. earning
a that time was ST a week
Another American woman. now he.
ir- paid S9a 900 a year as vice presi-
cent of a hic manufacturing company,
failed at her first undertaking that
Of farming.
Edward II. hartman. one of our
rCuntry'S greatest railroad flnancierS,
did not rise from comparative OBJ
S"urity to national eminence until he
WAS we'll past middle life. In his first
position. that OF Wall Street clerk,
he gave little indication of ability.
Pasteur had to fail at portrait
painting before he became great
scientist. Irwin :. Cobb was lirrd 10y
his first boss. He says he Nas prob
ably the Youngest and undoubtedly
the mos incompetent managing editor
in the United States.
If unfaVorahle circumstances are
the cause of failure in the first job,
the great necessity is To recognize the
circumstances and either change
them or rise above them--not simply
TO use them as an eternal alihi. A
certain young lawyer entering a large
law firm was given by his older asSo-
Ciate all the cases that were destined
Ia he lost and all the di$4greeable and
hard tasks that no one else wanted
to take on. His first few years in
that office We're fun of discourage
mert and defeat, so that he became
posSimlStic. lost confidence in himself
AMI decided that he would never
make good lawyer. As a result he
save Up law and took up teaching
for which he had no training and in
which he has been failure He had
been beaten by circumstance
II this man had stopped TO reason
frc m time to time in his early career.
he would have realized that difficult
tasks when faithfully done are most
truly stepping stones to success If
he had talked over with his elders
he would have learned that the worth
While things Of life and of the practice
of law do not often come easily, and
that frequently the most valuable les
sons of life are defeats. The things
that stick with US longest are those
that have made the deepest impress
sion on our brains. and the correct
answer to a question we once failed
on may I've the knowledge longest re-
tanned.
Had this young man remained in
the practice of Law. successes were
soon bound to come. and then difficult
tasks would have seemed easier and
the earlier schooling in defeat would
have built up a resistance to all hard
ship. for he was trained for law. he
liked the profession and possessed
many qualities fitting him for it.
RCT not all failures may be blamed
on outside factors. The young
man or woman tackling the world at
the end Of a college or high school
course carries the causes of many
defeats hidden within his own char
acer. his training or his mental make
up. If he can face these weaknesses
he can often conquer them.
Is he, for instance. willing and able
~ 'dhC Wv Ell 1OunE.
who has risen with dizzy speed to the
top of the commercial ladder, ascribes
his success to his constant willing
ness to accept responsibility. Certain
persons always shirk difficult situa-
tions and are able to avoid them be-
cause they have been encouraged to
do so by overindulgent parents or un-
thinking teachers, until getting from
under" has become n habit with them
Or perhaps they lack persistence
that mental quality which causes us
to follow through and complete task
rather than try to take short cuts or
drop one task in favor of a more at
tractive one.
\ certain young man ] have in mind
was good example of how men fail,
not only in their first but in later
jobs, because he lacked both these
traits-persistence and willingness to
take responsibility. His parents were
divorced and he had been brought UP
by an overindulgent mother. who her