Fifty years in Wall Street
will play an important part in this great work of discovering new
sources of wealth and progress. If so, he will find a bigger gold mine
than Wall Street.
Railroad magnates are on the watch for improvements and devices of any
kind that will tend toward saving time, increasing facilities, lessening
liability of accident, or saving in cost of construction or equipment.
Here is a broad field for action and for fertile minds to work in.
Copper metal is in such demand that the price has recently been higher
than in a generation, namely, twenty-six cents a pound, and some cheaper
metal may be found to possess qualities that will allow it to take the
place of copper in a degree.
Surgeons and physicians now perform operations and effect cures that
would have been considered miracles in my younger days, and still we
find each year that they have much to learn. It is possible that I am
now addressing some youthful savant, who will startle the world in the
distant future by still more miraculous skill.
Wherever you go, whatever you do, keep your eye on the star of Hope.
Every man has his place in the world if he can only find it. Opportunity
knocks at every man’s door at some time during his early life. Look
sharp and secure it when it knocks at yours, and grab it before it
flies.
But, to all I would advise that when you have found occupation, whether
it is in the professions, or not, strive to please. Don’t expect to sit
in high places at once. Remember that most of you are in the junior
class and can only graduate to a higher class by merit. Study well your
surroundings and what is ahead of you. Carefully consider what may await
you. If you see no evidence of a position worthy of your hopes, do not
hesitate to make a change. It is better to change several times while
you are young than to waste your time by remaining where you cannot
expect to achieve success.
One of the fundamental principles of business is that civility costs
nothing and always pays good dividends, both in and out of Wall Street.
Very often the temptation will come to you in dealing with a nervous or
cranky customer or client, to give vent to your wrath or impatience. My
advice is don’t. That is also _Punch’s_ advice to those about to marry.
To succeed in holding and pleasing such a customer is a high
accomplishment, and sure to attract attention.
The Almighty has endowed every man with two important allies, namely,
courage and conscience. The latter can be blunted if not heeded and an
elastic conscience is worse than a wooden leg. Be cautious not to enter
into any deal or occupation when your conscience warns you that you are
treading on dangerous ground; but, having made up your mind that you are
in the right, press forward with all the energy that is in you. If you
do not succeed, have the courage to rise and try again and renew the
struggle. Nearly every man who has made a great success in business life
has, in his earlier years, suffered reverses. These failures have been
lessons that have taught him the way to win. You may often be
temporarily discouraged by seeing success come to the dishonest and
unworthy, but remember that such cannot command the respect of their
fellows. There is more in life than “filthy lucre,” although Wall Street
prizes it immensely. A contented mind is more to be desired than great
riches, and, if you are poor, be independently poor. Andrew Carnegie
says that to die rich is to die disgraced, so guard against that.
You are really now on the threshold of a new school—the school of Life.
As the old forest guides were taught their wood wisdom by the rocks, the
streams, the grass, the leaves, and kindred objects, so you will learn
by actual contact with all the customs, rules, and complex situations of
the business world, what to do and what to avoid.
Many young men are disheartened before they start in business by the
fact that so many lines of manufacture are controlled by big
corporations and trusts. As I have already shown, they hear the talk of
the agitator and discontented that a poor man has no chance in life. Let
me repeat that brains will always command a premium and that young men
who have brains, backed by energy, will always be in demand. You must
prove that you have these requisites, by good work, and you will find
capital will seek to combine with such qualities. You may start in
business, or the professions, with your feet on the bottom rung of the
ladder; it rests with you to acquire the strength to climb to the top.
You can do so if you have the will and the force to back you. There is
always plenty of room at the top. The men now at the top have their
minds and hands full, and are eager to delegate to smart assistants some
of their work so as to ease the burden they bear. Success comes to the
man who tries to compel success to yield to him. Cassius spoke well to
Brutus when he said: “The fault is not in our stars, dear Brutus, that
we are underlings, but in our natures.”
Form the habit as soon as you become a money earner, or money maker, of
saving a part of your salary, or profits. Put away one dollar out of
every ten you earn. The time will come in your lives, when, if you have
a little money, you can control circumstances; otherwise circumstances
will control you. You may often have to practice self-denial to save ten
per cent. of your earnings; but compel yourselves to do so and you will
never regret it. Most of the leading men in business life to-day started
out less well equipped with worldly goods or education than any of you.
What they have done at least some of you can do.
See that the money you spend is well spent. By careful judgment in this
respect, you will acquire a habit which will cling to you in after life.
Many a man makes bad investments because he did not learn to be cautious
in the beginning of his business career.
The improvements in the past quarter of a century have been marvelous
and the end is not yet. There are many new ideas being formulated, and
some of you may bear an important part in solving problems which will
revolutionize the world. Electricity and chemistry are perhaps still in
their infancy, and latent forces are floating around unknown to men. The
next fifty years may indeed witness changes just as great and startling
as we have seen during the last fifty.
I once advised young men to go as soon as possible into business. I have
changed my opinion somewhat and think that it is well to get a technical
training in a business at college where special courses are taught. I
still consider, however, that if a young man is to enter Wall Street he
will learn just as much by going into the Street as soon as he
graduates, and I consider a large office just as good as any business
college, where a pupil can learn by actual experience as well as he
could by a theoretical course in a business college. Almost every man in
a leading position in a banking house has started as a junior clerk and
gradually worked his way up.
The term “Get the habit” has become quite a metropolitan by-word and
brings me to speak on this subject, for the habits we acquire have much
to do with our progress, and as Lamartine has truly said:
“Habit with its iron sinews
Clasps and holds us day by day.”
In the various matters of detail that make up the sum and substance of
business—considered as trifles by the foolish, but by the wise as
important and vital—such as our methods of occupation, our time, and our
manners, great care should be taken to acquire the sterling habits of
industry, punctuality, and sobriety. The most watchful and jealous care
should ever be exercised by you all in this regard. A single deviation
from the straight path may mean much, for habit is not of sudden
acquirement, but is formed (and also lost) act by act, thread by thread,
as we progress in the journey of life.
If you hold a fiduciary position in a Wall Street banking house, or
bank, remember that the information you acquire regarding the secrets
and inside facts of the business of your employers belongs to them alone
and must not be divulged or spoken of to anyone. Very often you will
hear of “tips” being circulated there as inside information. Never put
faith in such tips, as an employee who would give away the secrets of
the firm he works for would be unscrupulous enough to lie to you, and I
warn you not to make a close friend of such a person. Do not think that
I look upon you as boys in tendering this piece of advice, but rather as
a veteran addressing new recruits.
The trait of tenacity of purpose is very often a natural gift; but if
you have not this persistence by nature you must cultivate it. For, with
it, you can succeed, you can make difficulties bend, you can make
opposition give way, and doubt and hesitancy yield to confidence and
success. Without it, the more shining qualities of our nature will not
insure your success, nor avert failure and disaster.
At the time the Suspension Bridge over the Niagara River was to be
erected the great question was how to get the cable over. A kite was
elevated, which, with a favoring wind, alighted on the opposite shore.
To its insignificant little string a cord was attached which was drawn
over, then a rope, then a larger one, and then a cable; until the great
bridge between the United States and Canada was completed.
First across the gulf we cast
Kite-borne threads till lines are passed,
And habit builds the bridge at last.
In like manner, my friends, our whole character is made up of little
things, of threads and strands and ropes of habit. Let us be sure that
they are always good and sound.
Next to the unwisdom of selecting and following bad or incompetent
advisers in matters of business, there are also certain persons whom, if
you wish to do well and make a fortune honestly, you should be careful
to avoid. You will not always know them by their appearance; in fact,
that is often the worst rule to go by, for they are generally well
disguised. It is in their manner and conversation that you will find
them out, and, that this be the easier, I have made a collection of
their characteristics, as follows:
Avoid a man
Who vilifies his benefactor;
Who unjustly accuses others of bad deeds;
Who never has a good word for anybody;
Who, when he drinks, habitually drinks alone;
Who boasts of the superiority of his family;
Who talks religion downtown in connection with his daily business
affairs;
Who talks recklessly against the virtue of respectable women;
Who runs in debt with no apparent intention of paying;
Who borrows small sums on his note or check dated ahead;
Who will not work for an honest living;
Who looks down upon those who do;
Who is always prating about his own virtues;
Who imputes bad motives to those trying to do good;
Who betrays confidence;
Who lies;
Who is honest only for policy’s sake;
Who deceives his wife and boasts of it to others;
Who chews tobacco in a public conveyance;
Who gets intoxicated in public places;
Who partakes of hospitality and talks behind his entertainer’s back;
Who borrows money from a friend and then blackguards the lender.
With a population of 85,000,000 people, which this country now has, it
is easy to find associates in life without selecting men possessed of
any of these characteristics, and life is the better worth living
without them.
You will both save and make money by strict observance of this short
catalogue of men to avoid. You are not called upon to do anything or to
risk any money in the exercise of this discretion. It simply consists in