The Prosperity & Wealth Bible. Kahlil Gibran
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them as carefully as you would an opponent in battle whom you are determined to conquer. Learn all you can from friend and foe about the difficulties you are encountering. Remember you are born to conquer, and resolve to be a victor. Let there be no shunning, no whining, no waiting, no sickly, babyish dependence on others. Your own right hand, your own strong heart, your own indomitable will these can give you the victory.
Take your difficulties as the athletes take their hard and rigid training with a welcome; and remember each difficulty conquered means more manly strength.
Read the history of the world’s greatest men and see how they conquered poverty, prejudice, and opposition; how they triumphed over bodily weakness (“out of weakness were made strong” through difficulties) ; how they overcame mental and moral deficiencies, and rose up giants from the contests and victors in the battle, and became men of whom the world was no* worthy, because they overcame difficulties.
Conquer your difficulties and you have conquered the world.
Self-Assertion as a Success Factor
Many a well-educated man of good address and ability fails to win a satisfactory position in life because he lacks self-assertion. He has a shrinking nature and abhors publicity; the thought of pushing himself forward is repugnant to him, and so he is left behind in the race by the hustling, stirring, vigorous people around him, many of whom do not possess one-tenth of his ability or natural advantages.
Many young people have a totally mistaken conception of the meaning of healthy aggressiveness. They frequently confound it with egotistic boastfulness, decry it as a lack of modesty, and consider it the sign of petty, vulgar soul. They think it unbecoming to try to make a good impression in regard to their own ability, and shrink from public gaze, believing that, if they work hard, even in retirement, they will come out all right.
As a matter of fact, however, in this competitive age, it is not only indispensable to have our mental storehouses well stocked with superior goods, but it is also necessary to advertise them, for even an inferior article, if well-advertised, will often sell rapidly, while a superior one without advertisement will sell at a dead loss.
No one sympathizes with the blatant, conceited, over-confident youth who has the list of his accomplishments and virtues at his tongue’s end, and inflicts them on any one he can induce to listen. He is the very opposite of the unassuming young man, who, while conscious of his power, makes no parade of it, but simply carries himself as if he knew his business thoroughly.
When questioned as to what he can do, a modesty self-assertive person does not give weak, hesitating answers, saying, “I think I can do that,” or “Perhaps I could do it,” creating a feeling of doubt not only in his own mind but also in that of his questioner, which undoubtedly acts to his disadvantage. He knows he can do certain things, and he says so with a confidence that carries conviction.
This is the sort of self-assertion or self-confidence that young men and women must cultivate if they would raise themselves to their full value. It is a quality as far removed from vulgar, shallow self-conceit as the calm exercise of conscious power is from charlatanism.
Thousands of young men and young women are occupying inferior positions today because of their over-humility, so to speak, or fear of seeming to put themselves forward. Many of them are conscious that they are much abler than the superintendents or managers over them, and are consequently dissatisfied, feeling that an injustice has been done them, because they have been passed over in favor of more aggressive workers. But they have only themselves to blame. They have been too modest to assert themselves or to assume responsibility when occasion has warranted, thinking that , in time their real ability would be discovered by their employers, and that they would be advanced accordingly. But a young man with vim and self-confidence, who courts responsibility, will attract the attention of those above him, and will be promoted when a retiring, self-effacing, but much abler youth who worked beside him is passed by. It is useless to say that merit ought to win under any circumstances the fact remains that there is very little chance for a young man, no matter what his ability, to forge ahead, if he lacks a just appreciation of himself and is destitute of that consciousness of power and willingness to assume responsibility which impresses his personality on others and opens the door to recognition of his merit. ‘Tis true, ‘tis pity, and pity ‘tis, ‘tis true” that modest worth that retires from the public gaze and works in secret, waiting to be discovered and to have prizes thrust upon it, waits in vain. The world moves too fast in this twentieth century to turn aside to seek out shrinking ability. We must all go to the world. We need not delude ourselves with the idea that it will come to us, no matter how able or meritorious we may be. While actual inability can never hope to hold its own, even though, through self-conceit and aggressive methods, it may succeed in pushing its way ahead for a time, it is equally true that shrinking, self-effacing ability rarely comes to its own. Success.
Introduction
In the United States, where we have more land than people, it is not at all difficult for persons in good health to make money. In this comparatively new field there are so many avenues of success open, so many vocations which are not crowded, that any person of either sex who is willing, at least for the time being, to engage in any respectable occupation that offers, may find lucrative employment.
Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only to set their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done. But however easy it may be found to make money, I have no doubt many of my hearers will agree it is the most difficult thing in the world to keep it. The road to wealth is, as Dr. Franklin truly says, “as plain as the road to the mill.” It consists simply in expending less than we earn; that seems to be a very simple problem. Mr. Micawber, one of those happy creations of the genial Dickens, puts the case in a strong light when he says that to have annual income of twenty pounds per annum, and spend twenty pounds and sixpence, is to be the most miserable of men; whereas, to have an income of only twenty pounds, and spend but nineteen pounds and sixpence is to be the happiest of mortals. Many of my readers may say, “we understand this: this is economy, and we know economy is wealth; we know we can’t eat our cake and keep it also.” Yet I beg to say that perhaps more cases of failure arise from mistakes on this point than almost any other. The fact is, many people think they understand economy when they really do not.
True economy is misapprehended, and people go through life without properly comprehending what that principle is. One says, “I have an income of so much, and here is my neighbor who has the same; yet every year he gets something ahead and I fall short; why is it? I know all about economy.” He thinks he does, but he does not. There are men who think that economy consists in saving cheese-parings and candle-ends, in cutting off two pence from the laundress’ bill and doing all sorts of little, mean, dirty things. Economy is not meanness. The misfortune is, also, that this class of persons let their economy apply in only one direction. They fancy they are so wonderfully economical in saving a half-penny where they ought to spend twopence, that they think they can afford to squander in other directions. A few years ago, before kerosene oil was discovered or thought of, one might stop overnight at almost any farmer’s house in the agricultural districts and get a very good supper, but after supper he might attempt to read in the sitting-room, and would find it impossible with the inefficient light of one candle. The hostess, seeing his dilemma, would say: “It is rather difficult to read here evenings; the proverb says ‘you must have a ship at sea in order to be able to burn two candles at once;’ we never have an extra candle except on extra occasions.” These extra occasions occur, perhaps, twice a year. In this way the good woman saves five, six, or ten dollars in that time: but the information which might be derived from having the extra light would, of course, far outweigh a ton of candles.
But the trouble does not end here. Feeling that she is so economical in tallow candies, she thinks she can afford to go frequently to the village and spend twenty or thirty dollars for ribbons and furbelows, many of which are not necessary. This false connote may frequently be seen in men of business, and in those