Page images
PDF
EPUB

by virtue of their very successes. They have thought that the getting of something was sufficient, and have never once asked the world what would come of it when it was won.

Somehow or other, we seem to think, in a vague way, that it is faith alone that asks the question of fruits, and then gives us a remote and doubtful answer to it. Experience, observation, also ask this question, and give it a very immediate and final answer. We must study the world in motion if we would understand what is of real worth in it, what will abide in it, whither it and we are going.

We may well fellowship each other, and strengthen each other, for we are all in one school, and what we learn singly will be as nothing compared with the success of our common effort to render the world as a school of human life in terms of reason. A wide, penetrative, far-reaching outlook over the world is the labor, joy, and crown of our lives.

"Fie upon it, that experience should be so long in coming!"

[graphic]

Requisites for a Business Education.

I

HOMER MERRIAM, Springfield, Mass.

Pres. G. & C. Merriam Co., Publishers Webster's International Dictionary.

WOULD recommend at least a good common school education backed by good deportment and strict integrity. Then select a business with reference to natural fitness and preferences, not taking into account present wages so much as the probabilities of the future, whether it is a business that means only day wages all one's life or whether there will be opportunity for growth and expansion.

To bring out all there is in a man, he needs the planning, the thought, the mental training, involved in conducting a business for one's self. There are advantages in a college education if properly utilized; too often, however, the college graduate has not learned that close application of ten hours a day or more is needful to success, and he is not as a rule quite flexible enough to fall readily into full sympathy with beginning at the bottom and thoroughly learning the details from the foundation. After over fifty years of business experience and close observation, I think that as a rule, for education for business, the four years spent in college could be more profitably applied in mastering the details of some business.

Before selecting a business or securing a position, take a careful inventory of the moral surroundings, business integrity, and general character of employers and those in authority. These factors are essential to mental and moral growth, and also essential to true success in business.

If a desirable opening does not present itself, endeavor to secure a situation more or less akin to your choice, constantly watching for an opportunity for improvement. Thus employed,

[graphic]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

habits of application are formed and all that is learned will be more or less useful all through life.

A business selected and a place secured, then strictly begins the business education. It is generally best to take one of the lowest places in the establishment, giving mind and hand earnestly to the learning and doing the duties involved; doing all that is required and more if opportunity affords. While doing this, watch the places that are above you in the business, and learn all you can of the duties of such positions without neglecting your own, so that you may be ready to step up higher when opportunity offers. Then, when one above you is laid aside by sickness or otherwise, the employer will be much pleased if he finds that you are qualified to step into the place, and well perform the duties of the higher position. If you will follow this line, keeping to one kind of business, keeping your breath free from strong drink and tobacco, keeping your mind and body pure, you will be well educated for business, and will be likely to become a prosperous and successful business man.

Many years ago a publisher in New York having established a profitable business, not having firm health, wanted a partner as a worker. Among his customers was a young man in a comparatively small business in western New York, a diligent worker, with moral, religious, and business character all correct. For these, he was invited to become a partner with the New York publisher. The business grew until another partner was needed. A young man in a comparatively small business, selected for same reasons as the first, became a partner. The senior member of the firm died, and another partner was wanted. Some years before this, a firm in a small western city had failed and gone out of sight. Some of the creditors of that firm were now surprised at receiving from its junior partner an inquiry whether they would release him from the old obligations, on his paying ten per cent. of the same, saying that he had no means for paying, but had friends who would advance the ten per cent. if he could be released. The proposition was accepted and he at once became a member of the New York

« PreviousContinue »