You will now see that a perfectly-balanced and well-cared-for body is necessary to produce a clear-thinking brain; that it is impossible to bring out the best in you unless you have the best of tools with which to work. No machinist would think of trying to do good work with dull, rusty or weak tools, and the most valuable tools of all are those which we are endowed with—hands and brains.

The boys in the past—many of the UNsuccessful men of to-day, though not by any means through their own fault—were brought up under a false idea of democracy. Matters were not as well understood as they are now, and the progress made all goes to benefit the boys of to-day. There is a fairly good reason why we have had so many dissatisfied youths in the past who are the failures to-day. It is because these men as youths were never fitted for the work in the world they could best do.

The error was in the false idea of the teachers that all boys’ brains were made of the[125] same workable stuff, and all that was necessary was to give to each and every boy the same teaching and then turn him loose to try to make a happy career.

Of course in many, too many cases, there was nothing the boy could find to do that meant anything to him. He could hang around corners, smoke cigarettes and hear stories and words of injury to any healthy youth. He could find some job in a store or perhaps office work, but fitted for real work and happiness in that work, he never was. Such a boy had really wasted valuable time in school, and it was not strange that when he left school he had no sense of the value of time. And such a boy often left school with an idea that he was not as bright as some other boys; this was the commencement of a state of discouragement all through his life—the reason he felt himself a failure.

Yet all these unfortunate lads were the equal of those who had graduated with high honors in Latin or history, only the things they could do best had never been given them to do.

If a boy disliked Latin or history and could not come up to the teacher’s idea of the interest he should have in these studies, he was too often considered lazy or stupid. If that boy was interested in mechanical drawing and[126] happy in such work, no matter, he MUST do his Latin, and disliking it, he, of course, neglected it.

This line of treatment went on throughout the boy’s school-life if he attended a public school, and generally he left disgusted and untrained for anything. Then he found there was really no place for him in the world, nothing but some small clerkships or other uncongenial work, and being continually dissatisfied, of course, never made a success in anything—just a living. As he grew older such a youth soon dropped into habits of drinking, or worse habits, worked like a machine day in and day out, not much caring how things went, so long as he received his weekly pay envelope.

The thousands of men of this kind with whom I have talked, were discouraged from the start. As boys they were always blamed for being useless, when, in fact no efforts had ever been made to make them useful.

With you boys of the present day all this is to be different. Every one of you can now find education and training in what you are fitted to do. Ideas are rapidly changing, as are methods. You are aware by this time that vocational schools are being rapidly established, and I hope to soon see the day when all academic high schools are retained only for those who are going to college and from there to the[127] professional schools. Of course you should all go to a high school, but to a high school where the foundation for some practical vocation, trade or business career is thoroughly taught.

I am frequently asked by young men, “Do you advise me to go to college?” The answer is easily understood when I say: “Never be SENT to college.” Here is where much of the harm has been done—the boy has been sent to college when in reality he WANTED, or needed, to go to some institution where his particular talents could be trained. For we each and every one are born with SOME particular talent, something in us which makes us able to do a certain thing better than the other man. If we were all equal in the matters of thinking and doing,—that is, if we all did the same thing,—how far would the world progress?

So this brings us down to the question, what is the basis for success? What is it the boy needs to progress every day in the trade or vocation he has chosen?

I have already told you, but purposely repeat it, NO BOY OR MAN CAN BE A SUCCESS UNLESS HIS HEART AND COMPLETE INTEREST ARE IN HIS WORK. The most difficult part of the problem is at the beginning. Your father or mother[128] wants you to be a lawyer or minister, your teacher says you have great talent for a medical career, but you do not care for any one of these professions. You find it hard to really know just what to do, and I sympathize with you all. I think that those who see you from the outside, who look upon you just as a real boy and have no such relations to you as parents or teachers, are in fact the best judge of what you are capable of being fitted for in a life’s career. Go and advise with some successful man who knows you in your play and daily life, but do not take his advice if it is something HE likes and you detest. You will soon have to be your own master, and now is a good time to commence. But fit yourself for something, you MUST. Notice how everything around you is fitted by nature and then trained by man, to do its work. The bulldog is not taken out in the field to nose for game; the draft horse is not taken to the trotting track; the canary bird is not trained to catch eagles. No, each and every kind has its special work to do in making the world go around, and each of us has to be trained according to our talents. Just because we all have two legs and arms does not indicate that we are all the same—just human beings all turned out from the same mold. Arms are made for one man to use them in a certain line of work that another[129] man cannot, with success, use his. And so on.

Every man who has trained his particular talents to their highest point and then strives to widen them, is an aristocrat—a prince, whether he is a brick-layer or lawyer. He only sinks to the level of a commoner who has neglected that working stuff which is in him. And he does not neglect this if he is happy in his work, or rather, if it is pleasure instead of work.

This does not mean that all the preparatory work will be congenial or without real labor. No, much of the work that you have to do preliminary to that which is to bring you success, will be HARD work—plugging work, full of disagreeable details, but all necessary to build the foundations.

The dirty, muddy work involved in digging for the foundation of some building that will be a pride to its architect, is disagreeable, but the architect must see that this work is properly done; must get right into the mud and dirt himself to know that every detail he has worked out is being rigidly followed. If the designer of the useful and beautiful building did not have constantly in his mind the results of all this digging, he would be a failure, he would never be a designer and builder of magnificent works for the future generations to admire.

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It is just so with everything you start out to do. Start out with a high purpose and the common-sense idea that you HAVE to learn all the details first—to do the digging before that purpose can be fully carried out.

Concentration, constant concentration upon your goal is the only rule to follow. Like football, you move toward the goal by punting, touchdowns, and penalties which put you back, but you have ever one end in view—to reach the goal. A willingness to take all the hard knocks and throw-downs with the mind’s eye fixed on the goal, is the kind of stuff which wins out.

Never be a quitter.

Concentration is absolutely necessary to get the power out of you and force it to do its work. As someone has said, if you will concentrate the rays of the sun by the means of a magnifying glass you can burn a hole in almost anything. If you focus all your forces on one thing you can do wonders.

Don’t be a scatterer.

You do not all want to be mere office clerks, bundle wrappers, or what is far worse for your future, mere political petitioners hanging on to your job by petty and ofttimes crooked work. No, be something, do something that means a future for you.

“But,” you say, “how do I really know what[131] I want to do, how can I find out for myself what my future SHOULD be? You say not to always follow the advice of successful men if such advice does not agree with my ideas of what I should like to do.”
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