THE LIFE POWER AND HOW TO USE IT.
XIII. Well Done.
[Development of Character]
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The man who possesses such “an untold aversion to becoming a paid employee”
that he prefers to sponge a living off his friends rather than to earn it honestly,
will never succeed even at speculation.
Such a man could not generate a desire strong enough to attract fortune even at a gambling table.
It takes character to generate a desire of the sort that moves things. It takes steadiness of purpose, positive determination.
And character, purpose, determination, are never found in the sponger.
If he had character he would choose any sort of honest work that would keep him in independence. His “untold aversion to becoming a paid employee” would be as nothing to his disgust for sponging a living, even temporarily.
Character is the outcome of an unconquerable self-respect and self-reliance. A man’s character is that which distinguishes him from a jellyfish, which takes the shape of any environment that happens along. It is Something which keeps him upright on his own pins, no matter what happens.
Character is mental backbone and muscle, and is subject to the same laws of development and growth as other bone and muscle.
Bone and muscle and character do not grow by bread alone, but by use. Character grows by the use of self-reliance and self-respect, just as physical character grows by the use of muscles. Character becomes weak and flabby when self-reliance and self-respect are kept on the shelf of another man’s pantry.
Character develops by exercise. How is it to exercise except by doing things? How is it to do things when somebody else does them for him?
The first thing a man of character, of self-respect and self-reliance would do under such circumstances as M.T. describes would he to overcome his "untold aversion" to anything which would help him to continue living in self-respect and self-reliance. Indeed the only “untold aversion” held by a man of real character is the “untold aversion” to living off other people.
A person whose aversion to “becoming a paid employee” is greater than his aversion to idleness and sponging is a mere mush of concession to public opinion—he hates paid employment because he thinks his neighbors will “look down” upon him, and because he likes to look aristocratic and give orders rather than to be what he is and take what orders are necessary for the time being.
Such a man cares for appearances above all things. He cares for the outside of things, as a jellyfish does. He seeks first an agreeable resting place, as the Jellyfish does. And he will sacrifice the last vestige of self-respect, self-reliance, character, to that fetish, outside appearance. He thinks it looks better to live off his friends than to soil his hands to take care of himself.
But if he had a real character of his own, if he had mental backbone and muscle worthy the name, he simply could not crouch and cringe as a dependent, a beggar. He would have to get out and express himself in some sort of independent activity, or die.
For character is a deep-down life-urge which will push to expression through any conditions. It simply cannot continue to sit supinely by another man's fireside, or wait by the wayside with cap extended to catch stray pennies from the passers-by.
Character must act, or degenerate.
Character must ex-press, or ex-pire.
Character is to the individual what the channel is to the river. Take away the banks which confine the stream and direct it, and the water gushes out in an endless sloppy marsh.
The inner character of a man confines and directs the life force, the desire force.
The stronger the character the deeper and broader the stream of desire, or life; and the more positively the man will express himself in independent, self-respecting activity.
The stronger the character the greater will be the man’s “untold aversion” to depending upon anybody but himself.
And so deep and strong are his desires as they flow through the clear-cut channels of character, that they force new channels through any circumstances. Such a man's desires flow deep and strong enough to carry things his way.
But the man without a strong character is a mere sloppy marsh of sentimentality. He is incapable of anything more than “overwhelming desires”—his desire stream, having no strong banks, simply overwhelms the whole surface of things, with no depth by which to sweep its way through environment. His desire energy spreads out and wastes itself in mere shallow longings, unworthy the name of desire. So the man welters in his own swamp of sensibility, and gets nowhere.
Herein lies the reason that M.T.’s man will not find success at the gaming table, nor anywhere else, except by “building bit by bit” a character strong enough to find its way to the good things he wants.
The first step toward success is to decide that it is yours, and that all creation is ready to help you manifest it.
The next step is to work with the world, taking hold anywhere that the world will let you, in full confidence that the world will promote you as fast as you prove your fitness for promotion.
To prove your fitness for promotion necessitates doing your best with any job the world gives you, and at the same time using your spare time and thought in fitting yourself for a better one.
To do one of these things is not enough. The man who does his work exceptionally well will be kept at that same kind of work until crack o’ doom unless he shows aptitude for doing more valuable work. The world is always looking eagerly for men who can fill the more difficult positions. It is always trying to tempt people into higher, better paying positions; and the man who is faithful and efficient in one place, and evinces the slightest capacity for higher work, is always the first man to get a chance of promotion.
The man who thinks he is “kept down” is right; but he is kept down by himself alone. Either he is slack, inefficient, uninterested, gumptionless in his present work; or he is not fitting himself for something better.
Abe Lincoln split rails all day. He split them with vim and intelligence. But at night he studied books by the light of a pine knot. All the way along from rail splitting to the presidency, Abe found some time out of business hours to inform himself on lines beyond his work.
The main difference between Abe Lincoln and Abe Johnson lies in the way they spend their after-business hours. Abe Johnson, too, works with vim and intelligence. And he never had to split rails for a living. He is an A-l bookkeeper. Been in the same store, with almost the same salary, for twenty-five years. And almost every noon and every evening for twenty-five years he has sat on a sugar keg in the store and discussed politics and economics. And very often he has grumbled to his cronies about his lack of a chance to rise in the world.
Down here in a Massachusetts town, they have been having labor troubles for a long time. The cotton mill owners say the bottom has dropped out of the plain cotton cloth trade and they simply must reduce wages or close down. There is small demand for the sort of plain cotton goods manufactured in these mills. The mill hands say they can’t live on any smaller wages and they won’t, so there. So one strike follows another, or a lockout. For months at a time the mills lie idle while owners and workers deadlock.
Some one suggested that the mills begin to make the sort of new fancy weaves of cotton cloth for which there is increasing demand. But the weavers refused to learn the new weaves. They said they knew how to do the plain weaving and it “wouldn’t pay them” to learn the new kind of weaving on the old wages, which are paid according to the amount of work done. And many of them said anyway they were too old to make such changes now.
So these faithful and efficient weavers go on fighting and striking and reviling “fate” rather than fit themselves for new work which would in the end pay better than the old.
Poor shortsighted weavers.
Poor shortsighted cousins to the weavers.
Poor shortsighted and disappointed Abe Johnson.
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What do you suppose life makes us begin at the bottom for, and “build bit by bit”? For the sole purpose of building character; building good, strong channels for desire to run in; channels so deep and full that the desire-stream will be strong enough to accomplish for the individual the thing he wants.
And how are we to know we are building the right kind of character? By the sense of inner satisfaction which witnesses every well-done deed.
That is where self-respect and self-reliance come in. Even a baby feels the “Well done” of its soul when it succeeds in doing something for itself. A child prizes this inner self-satisfaction, self-respect, above all things else. Watch the happy look on a child's face when it has succeeded in doing something for itself.
Only foolish grown-ups value anything on earth above this inner satisfaction. Only grown-ups will let other folks do for them what they can do for themselves. Only grown-ups will quench themselves for the sake of appearances. Some “grown-ups.”
To know thyself is to know that the best thing in heaven or earth, the best guide in heaven or earth, is the inner sense of “Well done,” the sense of self-respect which comes from doing things instead of letting them be done for you.
As long as the innermost self approves your doings you are building character. And what shall it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose the “Well done” of your soul?
Nothing! Less than nothing!
For in all creation or uncreation there is but one real satisfaction, one real happiness, and that is self-satisfaction, self-respect.
Self-respect springs only from well-doing. It is “Well done,” thy soul says to thee, that gives thee joy.
What matter what Tom, Dick, and Harry and Madame Grundy say? Be still and hear thyself.
Eye hath not seen nor ear heard the glory and satisfaction which await him who listens to himself.
“Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”—which is thy innermost self.
