How to Get on in the World A Ladder to Practical Success   By: Alfred R. Calhoun (1844-)

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by MAJOR A. R. CALHOUN.

PUBLISHED BY THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, Louis KLOPSCH, Proprietor, BIBLE HOUSE, NEW YORK.

Copyright 1895, BY LOUIS KLOPSCH.

PRESS AND BINDERY OF HISTORICAL PUBLISHING CO., PHILADELPHIA.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I. What is Success?

II. The Importance of Character

III. Home Influences

IV. Association

V. Courage and Determined Effort

VI. The Importance of Correct Habits

VII. As to Marriage

VIII. Education as Distinguished from Learning

IX The Value of Experience

X. Selecting a Calling

XI. We Must Help Ourselves

XII. Successful Farming

XIII. As to Public Life

XIV. The Need of Constant Effort

XV. Some of Labor's Compensations

XVI. Patience and Perseverance

XVII. Success but Seldom Accidental

XVIII. Cultivate Observation and Judgment

XIX. Singleness of Purpose

XX. Business and Brains

XXI. Put Money in Thy Purse Honestly

XXII. A Sound Mind in a Sound Body

XXIII. Labor Creates the Only True Nobility

XXIV. The Successful Man is Self Made

XXV. Unselfishness and Helpfulness

HOW TO GET ON IN THE WORLD

CHAPTER I

WHAT IS SUCCESS?

It has been said that "Nothing Succeeds Like Success." What is Success? If we consult the dictionaries, they will give us the etymology of this much used word, and in general terms the meaning will be "the accomplishment of a purpose." But as the objects in nearly every life differ, so success cannot mean the same thing to all men.

The artist's idea of success is very different from that of the business man, and the scientist differs from both, as does the statesman from all three. We read of successful gamblers, burglars or freebooters, but no true success was ever won or ever can be won that sets at defiance the laws of God and man.

To win, so that we ourselves and the world shall be the better for our having lived, we must begin the struggle, with a high purpose, keeping ever before our minds the characters and methods of the noble men who have succeeded along the same lines.

The young man beginning the battle of life should never lose sight of the fact that the age of fierce competition is upon us, and that this competition must, in the nature of things, become more and more intense. Success grows less and less dependent on luck and chance. Preparation for the chosen field of effort, an industry that increasing, a hope that never flags, a patience that never grows weary, a courage that never wavers, all these, and a trust in God, are the prime requisites of the man who would win in this age of specialists and untiring activity.

The purpose of this work is not to stimulate genius, for genius is law unto itself, and finds its compensation in its own original productions. Genius has benefited the world, without doubt, but too often its life compensation has been a crust and a garret. After death, in not a few cases, the burial was through charity of friends, and this can hardly be called an adequate compensation, for the memorial tablet or monument that commemorates a life of privation, if not of absolute wretchedness.

It is, perhaps, as well for the world that genius is phenomenal; it is certainly well for the world that success is not dependent on it, and that every young man, and young woman too, blessed with good health and a mind capable of education, and principles that are true and abiding, can win the highest positions in public and private life, and dying leave behind a heritage for their children, and an example for all who would prosper along the same lines. And all this with the blessed assurance of hearing at last the Master's words: "Well done, good and faithful servant!"