Pushing to the Front Part 87

Mrs. Kingsley's, "Charles Kingsley."

Lounsbury's, "Cooper."

Greenslet's, "Lowell," and "Aldrich."

Mims', "Sidney Lanier."

Wister's, "Seven Ages of Washington."

Grant's Autobiography.

Morley's, "Chatham."

Harrison's, "Cromwell."

W. Clark Russell's, "Nelson."

Morse's, "Benjamin Franklin."

_Twenty-four American Biographies_

"Abraham Lincoln," Schurz.

"Life of George Washington," Irving.

"Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect," Eliot.

"Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife," Hawthorne.

"Henry Wadsworth Longfellow," Higginson.

"James Russell Lowell," Greenslet.

"Life of Francis Parkman," Farnham.

"Edgar Alien Poe," Woodberry.

Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson.

"Walt Whitman," Perry.

"Life and Letters of Whittier," Pickard.

"James Russell Lowell and His Friends," Hale.

"George Washington," Wilson.

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

"Story of My Life," Helen Keller.

"Autobiography of a Journalist," Stillman.

"Autobiography of Seventy Years," h.o.a.r.

"Life of Thomas Bailey Aldrich," Greenslet.

"Life of Alice Freeman Palmer," Palmer.

"Personal Memoirs," Grant.

"Memoirs," Sherman.

"Memoirs of Ralph Waldo Emerson," Cabot.

"Sidney Lanier," Mims.

"Life of J. Fenimore Cooper," Lounsbury.

The books enumerated have been selected as examples of the best in their respective cla.s.ses. Even those books of fiction chosen, primarily, for entertainment, are instructive and educational. Whether the reader's taste runs to history, biography, travel, nature study, or fiction, he may select any one of the books named in these respective cla.s.sifications and be a.s.sured of possessing a volume worthy of reading and ownership.

It is the author's hope and desire that the list of books he has given, limited as it is, may prove of value to those seeking self-education, and that the books may encourage the disheartened, stimulate ambition, and serve as stepping stones to higher ideals and n.o.bler purposes in life.

CHAPTER LXV

WHY SOME SUCCEED AND OTHERS FAIL

Life's highway is strewn with failures, just as the sea bed is strewn with wrecks.

A large percentage of those who embark in commercial undertakings fail, according to the records of commercial agencies.

Why do men fail? Why do adventures into business, happily launched, terminate in disastrous wreck?

Why do the few succeed and the many fail? Some failures are relative and not absolute; a partial success is achieved; a success that goes limping along through life; but the goal of ambition is unreached, the heart's desire unattained.

There are so many elements that enter into business that it is impossible to more than indicate them. Health, natural apt.i.tude, temperament, disposition, a right start and in the right place, hereditary traits, good judgment, common sense, level-headedness, etc., are all factors which enter into one's chance of success in life. The best we can do in one chapter is to hang out the red flag over the dangerous places; to chart the rocks and shoals, whereon mult.i.tudes of vessels, which left the port of youth with flying colors, favoring breezes and every promise of a successful voyage, have been wrecked and lost.

The lack of self-confidence and lack of faith in one's ideas in one's mission in life have caused innumerable failures.

People who don't get on and who don't know why, do not realize the power of trifles to mar a career, what little things are killing their business or injuring their profession; do not realize how little things injure their credit; such as the lack of promptness in paying bills, or meeting a note at the bank.

Many men fail because they thought they had the field and were in no danger from compet.i.tion, so that the heads of the firm took it easy, or because some enterprising up-to-date, progressive young man came to town, and, before they realized it, took their trade away from them, because they got into a rut, and didn't keep up-to-date stock and an attractive store.

They don't realize what splendid salesmen, an attractive place of business, up-to-date methods, and courteous treatment of customers mean.