Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1875 — The Elements of Suceess---Hints to Young Men. [ARTICLE]

The Elements of Suceess---Hints to Young Men.

There are throughout the country thousands of young men who are just beginning business life. They have got through their school days and have arrived at that period when the dependence of the youth merges into the independence of the man. The next five years will determine what they are likely to be in the mature and ripened days in store for them. Fortunate circumstances may lift some above the plane of their individual exertions, but the ninety and nine out of a hundred will be what they make themselves. If they start out determined to win distinction in any branch of business the chances are in their favor that they will, sooner or later, win it. If they start life with the spirit of indifference they will drift along with the tide, may secure enough to eat and drink and to clothe themselves, but old age will overtake them not far in advance of the spoi where they started. Therefore, it is all important that the young man should start right, and when certain on this point should throw his whole soul into the business he has chosen. Success is the result of energy, an intelligent appreciation of life’s opportunities and business courage. The young man who has these elements to rely upon will seldom fail to achieve what he set out to obtain. If he seek wealth, it will come to him; if fame, he will secure it; if power, it will be given to him. The degree of his reward will be in proportion to his deserts as a man. There may be exceptions to this, but wherever found they will be attributable to no fault of the man, but rather to those misfortunes which come like sudden storms, giving no warning of their approach and destroying in an hour the parent work of a life-time. Respectability and honor come from the man and not the trade he follows. One business is as honorable as another if it is legitimate. This should be borne in mind by all young men who are about to start out into active business life. Personal integrity should be the corner- . stone of character. Without it, the most brilliant attainments will fail to reach success. The world stands in need of upright men, men who can be relied upon, whose word is as good as a bond, who are proof against the corrupting influences which beset the business man everywhere. No matter how strong the temptation, young men often make a mistake in the choice of an occupation. Through false notions of respectability they enter upon professions or trades for which they have no adaptibility. They seek to become lawyers, doctors, preachers, and are voted failures by all who come in contact with them. They might have made good merchants or excellent mechanics, but they started wrong, and keep wrong all their lives. Start right! This is all important. A good blacksmith is a hundred-fold more valuable to a community than a poor doctor, lawyer or preacher. He will make a fortune at his anvil while these professional moths are starving to death. The young beginner should cling to honest principles, as to the reck of safety. To let go this rock is to dnft to certain destruction. The ship which breaks from its moorings on a lee shore isr no more certain of destruction than the young man who breaks away from hdhest principles. Honesty first, industry and intelligence second, are the elements which we commend as the only reliable groundwork for human success.—Republic Magazine.