Work
at it, if necessary, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a
stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done
just as well now. The old proverb is full of truth and meaning, "Whatever
is worth doing at all, is worth doing well." Many a man acquires a fortune
by doing his business thoroughly, while his neighbor remains poor for life,
because he only half does it. Ambitions, energy, industry, perseverance, are
indispensable requisites for success in business.
Fortune
always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself. It
won't do to spend your time like Mr. Micawber, in waiting for something to
"turn up." To such men one of two things usually "turns up:"
the poor-house or the jail;
for idleness breeds bad habits, and clothes a man
in rags. The poor spendthrift vagabond says to a rich man
"I
have discovered there is enough money in the world for all of us, if it was
equally divided; this must be done, and we shall all be happy together."
"But,"
was the response, "if everybody was like you, it would be spent in two
months, and what would you do then?"
"Oh!
Divide again; keep dividing, of course!"
I
was recently reading a London paper, an account of a philosophic pauper who was
kicked out of a cheap boarding-house because he could not pay his bill, but he
had a roll of papers sticking out of his coat pocket, which, upon examination,
proved to be his plan for paying off the national debt of England without the
aid of a penny. People have got to do as Cromwell said: "not only trust in
Providence, but keep the powder dry." Do your part of the work, or you
cannot succeed. Mahomet, one night, while encamping in the desert, overheard
one of his fatigued followers remark: "I will lose my camel, and trust it
to God!" "No, no, not so," said the prophet, "tie thy
camel, and trust it to God!" Do all you can for yourselves, and then trust
to Providence, or luck, or whatever you please to call it, for the rest.
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