Start Where You Are

Today there are altogether too many people who expect success and happiness for a small price or nothing at all. So many seem to think that the "good life" is every American's birthright. So few seem to understand that God meant the good things of life to be earned by the "sweat of your brow."   Most people today lack a deep-down desire to achieve a worthwhile life by their own efforts, through the full development and use of their own abilities. And so, glibly and thoughtlessly, they alibi their own mediocrity by blaming others, or circumstances, for lack of opportunity to reveal and utilize their talents. George Bernard Shaw, the immortal Irish playwright, put it this way: "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."

Others whine: "If only I liked my work, then I would be successful!" Well, that is self-deceit at its very worst. Only the self-indulgent fool can believe that work must be "play" to bring success. The lives of countless men and women bear witness to the truth that man can be master of his circumstances.

On February 8, 1957, for example, Judge Simon Ross left the First District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati after almost twenty-eight years of distinguished service on the bench, confiding that he would rather have been an electrical engineer than a judge. "I never really enjoyed law practice," he said. "As a judge, you're not actually a participant in anything; you're just a referee. I've always envied those men who are constructive, building and ere-ating things. I always tried to be conscientious and do my best though."

Success is achieved by doing the best you can with "what you've got," and how well the 73-year-old jurist - dean of Ohio's thirty Appellate Court judges - succeeded was shown by a stack of letters from colleagues all over Ohio. They congratulated him on his long career and wished him well in retirement. One associate, Judge Arthur A. Doyle of Akron, wrote: "You're the most respected judge in the state."

Work is work! And there isn't a vocation in the world that is entirely free of at least a few distasteful tasks. The judge must "referee." The dairy farmer must clean his barn. The salesman must keep his records, and so on ad infinitum. The disagreeable must be taken along with the pleasant - that is part of living a realistic and rewarding life. And when you take the bad with the good, lo and behold, the work that seemed so tedious and uninspiring becomes endurable, often stimulating and satisfying.

To make a go-of-it where you are - even if today you think your job is the most boring occupation in the world and unworthy of your talents - is the first and foremost challenge in the pursuit of a successful and a happy life.

And then - if perchance you are in truth outrageously miscast - there will follow, as day follows night, un-dreamed-of opportunities to graduate into other and more enticing fields of enterprise.

In further pursuance of this vital problem of job satisfaction, careful investigation revealed this inspiring fact, that the attainment of success in one's work - assuming, of course, that it is honorable work - almost without exception means satisfaction with the job itself. Acknowledgement was well-nigh unanimous that success, even if only in a modest measure, dissipates most if not all serious gripes, which are usually nothing more or less than face-saving alibis for lack of commendable achievement.

It is failure to achieve a reasonable measure of success that creates, in most instances, dislike for the work one is doing, and consequently so often ends in mediocrity, sometimes in utter failure.

It is true, however, that work is easier and more satisfying if it is work for which one has a natural inclination. But the fact remains that you can succeed, at least for a while, in your present work, no matter how boring and distasteful it may be, if you will resolutely make up your mind to do it, pull yourself together mightily, buckle down to hard work, and utilize every one of your God-given talents to the fullest. Resolute action works miracles!

During the terrible depression of the early thirties I saw many courageous men and women accept whateverjobs were available - no matter how little natural talent they seemed to have for the work, and often despite utter aversion and personal humiliation - in order to provide for the simplest needs of their loved ones, and to get a new start in life. I knew men who had been top executives - several of whom had lost fortunes in the stock market crash of 1929 -who came into the life insurance business in order to make a livelihood for their families. And though these men had never before sold anything and frankly admitted dislike of selling as a vocation, they studied and trained earnestly, worked day and night, and achieved commendable success in the life insurance business.

I saw artists dig ditches, and cultured women clean offices, during those difficult times, and they did their work gallantly and well.

Better days with better opportunities came eventually to these people, as they always do come to those who are willing to do their very best and persevere under the most trying circumstances.

What Do You Want?
You Have The Talents
You Are The Master
Change If You Must
Dormant Power
You At Your Best