Chapter
5
WHATEVER
YOU DO, DO IT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT
Work
at it, if necessary, early and late, in season and out
of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never
deferring for a single hour that which can be done just
as well now. The old proverb is full of truth and
meaning, "Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing
well." Many a man acquires a fortune by doing his
business thoroughly, while his neighbor remains poor for
life, because he only half does it. Ambition, energy,
industry, perseverance, are indispensable requisites for
success in business.
Fortune
always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does
not help himself. It won't do to spend your time like
Mr. Micawber, in waiting for something to "turn up." To
such men one of two things usually "turns up:" the
poor-house or the jail; for idleness breeds bad habits,
and clothes a man in rags. The poor spendthrift vagabond
says to a rich man:
"I
have discovered there is enough money in the world for
all of us, if it was equally divided; this must be done,
and we shall all be happy together."
"But,"
was the response, "if everybody was like you, it would
be spent in two months, and what would you do then?"
"Oh!
divide again; keep dividing, of course!"
I
was recently reading in a London paper an account of a
like philosophic pauper who was kicked out of a cheap
boarding-house because he could not pay his bill, but he
had a roll of papers sticking out of his coat pocket,
which, upon examination, proved to be his plan for
paying off the national debt of England without the aid
of a penny. People have got to do as Cromwell said: "not
only trust in Providence, but keep the powder dry." Do
your part of the work, or you cannot succeed. Mahomet,
one night, while encamping in the desert, overheard one
of his fatigued followers remark: "I will loose my
camel, and trust it to God!" "No, no, not so," said the
prophet, "tie thy camel, and trust it to God!" Do all
you can for yourselves, and then trust to Providence, or
luck, or whatever you please to call it, for the rest.