|
Contents |
LAUGH AND LIVE
CHAPTER XV
INITIATIVE AND SELF-RELIANCE
The late Elbert Hubbard defined the man with
initiative as the one who did the right thing at
the right time without being told. At this point
it may be definitely stated that such a man would
naturally be self-reliant. Such a man would not
lean on his friends. He would stand up with
them. . . . He would be found fighting his own
battles without crying for help.
Once a cub reporter was ordered by his city
editor to go and interview a certain man. After
an awkward pause the youngster inquired:
"Where can I find him?" Smiling scornfully into
his eyes the city editor replied: "Wherever he is."
This would seem to have been the start and
finish of this youngster's newspaper career, but
quite the reverse was true. He took the lesson
well to heart, thus starting himself on the road
to self-reliance. If he had repeated the offense [126]
it is likely he would have lost his job and also
his nerve—thereby spoiling his chances for a
successful career. The fact that he did not, but
went on and made of himself a famous news-
paper man, proves that he lost no time in devel-
oping initiative and self-reliance.
There is no questioning the vast importance
these two words mean to all of us. Many a man
who did not grasp the significance of initiative
became a "leaner" for the rest of his life. Many
a man also missed his chances by doing just as
he was told and nothing more. His work ended
there. In due course it is inevitable that such a
man should become part of the great army of dis-
contented ne'er-do-wells who help to block the
pavements in front of the loafing places.
Hesitation, vacillation and growing diffidence
take the place of self-reliance. He falls to the
bottom like a stone. And there he rests—a drag
anchor in the mire. His job gets the best of him
because he lacks initiative. Once stranded he
becomes an arrant coward—afraid of his own [127]
shadow.
We must make our own opportunities other-
wise we are children of circumstance. What be-
comes of us is a matter of guesswork. We have
no hand in compelling our own future. Diffi-
dence is a species of cowardice. It causes a man's
courage to ooze out at his toes faster than it comes
into his heart. Such men often have big ideas,
but having no confidence in themselves they lack
the power to compel confidence in others. When
they go into the presence of a man of person-
ality they lose their self-confidence and all of
the pent-up courage which drove them forward
flies out at the window. Their weakness multi-
plies with each failure until finally "the jig is up"
—their impotency is complete.
Very largely those who have big ideas to pre-
sent expect to be taken in on them and to be
given an opportunity to succeed along with their
scheme. When a man becomes so unfortunate
as to be unable through diffidence to explain him-
self, his big idea goes into the waste basket and
with it all of the hopes he has built upon it. An- [128]
other nail has been driven into his casket of
failures.
To such a man, all pity, but we will not allow
him to escape until we have given him a pat on
the back and pointed out the right road to travel.
We mustn't preach to him or undertake to force
him to do anything, but we will at least give him
a helping hand and show him that there is a royal
road to his goal.
This man needs first of all to build upon his
physique. Perhaps he has a bad stomach, and
likewise bad teeth. Exercise—regular exercise,
should be the first thing on his program. Fresh
air, long walks, deep breathing, dumb bells, box-
ing, rowing, skating in season—and wholesome
companionship day by day. In the long run
boxing will become his most efficient exercise.
When a man can take a blow between the eyes
and come back for more he has begun to fortify
his own combativeness. That is what he needs
in life's battles—the nerve to come back for more
after a slam on the jaw that would lay another
man low. And when it's all said and done and [129]
the exercise game has become a feature of his
day's work, he must settle down to good plain
food and plenty of sleep. There is nothing in
all the world like these things combined for the
upbuilding and upholding of health and courage.
Our success is a matter of our courage. A man
who can steel himself to be knocked down and
get up immediately afterwards and hand the
other fellow a ripping punch has added to his
own "pep." All courage is of the same cloth,
whether physical, moral or spiritual. To build
upon one is to build up the others—the human
system being constructed on such a basis that if
one part is affected all the rest follow suit.
A man who isn't afraid of a physical combat
will readily match his wits with his fellow man.
Physical training is therefore all important to
initiative and self-reliance.
Our natural aim is to make for ourselves a true
personality that does not know defeat. When
we come to an obstacle we must be able to hurdle
it. It is all very well to say that the longest way
around is the shortest way across, but it doesn't [130]
sound like initiative and self-reliance. There is
one thing about men who rely upon themselves—
they make no excuses, nor do they puff up over
victory.
Posing for applause is as distasteful to them as
standing for abuse. All they ask is a square deal
and the confidence of their associates. If they
fall down on a proposition they get up and go
at it again until success crowns their efforts. Such
men have a way of turning defeat into victory.
How immeasurably inferior to such a spirit is
the fellow who whines and moans at every evil
twist of fortune. He has no confidence in him-
self and nothing else to do except confide his
woes to all who will listen to his cowardly story
of defeat. Such men are least useful in the im-
portant work of this world. They are the hum-
drum hirelings—the dumb followers. The piti-
ful part of it all is that they could have succeeded
had they but taken stock of themselves when the
taking was good. But while there is life there is
hope—likewise a chance. It is up to us.
One of the startling things about men of initia- [131]
tive is the way they come forward in times of
trouble. We don't have to point to Andrew
Jackson in the War of 1812. We can look
around us. Take, for example, a great fire.
Haven't we often read of the brave fireman who
sprang forward and by doing the right thing in-
stantly, saved a multitude of lives? Well, such
a man is possessed of self-reliance. He is trained
for the hazardous life he leads. When the emerg-
ency arose he was ready in a jiffy to do the work
expected of him.
It is safe to say that without training such
men would have botched the job and instead of
being praised to the skies would have sunk into
oblivion under the heap of public scorn. Some-
times it happens that a man accidentally becomes
a hero, but it was no accident that he was able
to become one. He must have had initiative—he
must have had self-reliance. Archibald C. Butt
was such a man. He went down on the Ti-
tanic. The last act of his life was to help women
and children into the boats and calm their minds
as they were lowered away. Astor was of the [132]
same metal—both sublimely oblivious to the ter-
rible fate which hung over them. Here was
initiative and self-reliance in its highest form.
And this sort of man is everywhere. The car
in which we ride to work every morning contains
one or more of them. Let something happen and
we will see them spring forward with a line of
action already formed. At their word of com-
mand we automatically obey—and then when the
worst is over a kindly voice reassures us and we
go on our way rejoicing.
What would the world do without these men?
History is filled with the tales of heroes and hero-
ines. And for every Joan of Arc there are thou-
sands upon thousands who have done heroic
things without a word of praise. Moreover, the
really brave soul declines all ovation. No real
hero claims reward. To have done the right
thing at the right time is reward in itself.
This quality of self-strength and self-depend-
ence is not confined to any race of people, but
in nations where personal liberty survives initia-
tive is at its best. Somehow, whenever the emerg- [133]
ency, the man comes forth to do and dare. The
great world war, still raging as these lines are
penned, has furnished untold thousands of ex-
amples of courageous action—enough to last un-
til the end of human affairs, but they will go on
and on in multiplied form, each day's score super-
seding those of the day before. It would be bully
to know that we are doing our share in safe-
guarding the supply of Initiative and Self-reli-
ance needed in this world.
We must keep moving. The fellow who gets
in a rut through lack of initiative finds that with
advancing years it becomes harder and harder to
get out of it, so that the best plan is to make the
move now while there is time to succeed. When
we come to think of it, there are plenty of posi-
tions in the world for the right man, and if we
have something to say for ourselves that lends
credit to our ability we stand a chance for the
job.
CHAPTER XVI
FAILURE TO SEIZE OPPORTUNITIES
There is an old saying to the effect that "op-
portunity knocks but once at our door"—and
that is all fol de rol. Opportunity knocks at some
people's doors nearly every day of their lives and
is given a royal welcome. That's what Oppor-
tunity likes—appreciation. It goes often to the
home where the latchstring hangs on the out-
side. It's like a sign reading "Hot coffee at all
hours, day or night"—very inviting. Very much
different, however, from the abode whose win-
dows shed no light and whose door is barred from
within.
"Nobody Home!" that's the sign for this door.
Mister Numbskull lives here and most of the
time he sleeps. When anyone knocks on his door
he pulls the covers up over his head to shut out
the noise. He's down on his luck anyhow, there-
fore it would be a waste of good shoe leather for [135]
him to be up and puttering around. If Oppor-
tunity ever knocked at his door he could say in
all truth that he never heard it. He had often
heard of Opportunity being in the neighbor-
hood, but one thing is certain—someone else had
invariably seen him first. He felt sure he would
know Opportunity if ever he met him face to
face, and if ever he did he would have it out
with him then and there.
Meanwhile—dadgast the luck!—always the
fates pursued him with some sort of hoodoo. And
his neighbors—well, some of them had sense
enough to keep their distance and let him alone.
Others, however, had not been considerate of the
fact that a "Jinx" was on his trail, and were giv-
en to making sarcastic remarks concerning him.
And thus it was that Mister Numbskull spent his
days, dodging his neighbors, sidestepping the
highways and obscuring himself from the very
individual he wanted so much to behold—Oppor-
tunity. At last there came a time when, in de-
spair, and in disrepute, he took to the woods and
is yet to be heard from. Opportunity still visits [136]
the neighborhood, but the path leading to Mister
Numbskull's home is grown up in weeds.
The fact is that our real opportunity knocks
from within. Through experience, built upon
consecutively by continuous effort, our vision ex-
pands and pounds its way out through the por-
tals of our brain. We see the thing that we ought
to do and we go to it! To the man who didn't see
it the opportunity did not exist.
"What we don't know doesn't hurt us any"—
so runs the old saw. And here's a case where we
who didn't see, were hurt, but we didn't know it.
For those of us who have vision there are all
sorts of opportunities, but many of them are not
good for us. The ones we make for ourselves are
the healthy ones, and generally they are the best
for us. "Our own baby" is the one we will take
the greatest pride in and enjoy the most. Then
we become masters of our own destiny in a sense
and can be more independent through having no
senior partners in the enterprise. Often our
dreams bring forth a need for many kinds of
special knowledge and for these we go into the [137]
open market offering opportunity to many
others in return for their assistance. Thus we
find that everything we do is in relation to other
things and dependent in part on other people.
This should make us careful and a wee bit
wary. Opportunities are widely divergent in
nature—through a stroke of hard luck one might
have difficulty in finding employment. The first
opportunity might lead to a job in a bar-room,
but having fortified ourselves by developing our
highest attributes such as honesty, integrity,
cleanliness of body and mind—we are able to
somehow or other pinch along until something
better shows itself. First-class principles are
not to be thrown away upon the first provoca-
tion, therefore, in order to take away the tempta-
tion, we might as well figure out that a great
many employments in the world do not represent
real opportunities and therefore should not be
considered.
Failure to seize such so-called opportunities be-
comes a virtue in the same sense that the failure
to seize a decent opportunity becomes a shame. [138]
Often opportunity comes through meeting
men of affairs who have power and wealth at
their command. These are usually in connection
with enterprises of the greater magnitude.
Those of us who have the power to control our
destinies to a reasonable degree should not stand
back in our support of these. If we have care-
fully built up our initiative, self-reliance, pre-
paredness in the way of efficiency, good health
and the will to do, there is no reason why we
should not aspire to take a hand in anything
in which we are confident we can succeed.
Among the men who control the big affairs of
the business world we find a true democracy—
they want the man. The fact that he appears be-
fore them neatly attired, bright of eye and ready
of wit will surely count in his favor.
In other words, we should live up to the op-
portunity in whatever form it presents itself
after we have accepted its responsibilities. To
make this perfectly plain we must live up to the
job! If we are to be superintendent of a coal
mine "underneath the ground" we will put on our [139]
overalls and jumpers, but if we are to be man-
ager of a grand opera house we will appear in our
dress suits. The thought is obvious, but as we
journey along we find many of our fellow mor-
tals neglecting to live in line with what they are
doing.
We mention this fact hopeful that we will not
fail to seize our opportunities by setting up ob-
stacles whereby we may become persona non
grata through lack of discernment.
Opportunity is within ourselves and when we
have seized our rightful share, then we may look
with pride upon our endeavor and proceed to
laugh and live!
|