Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1924. CALL FOR ORIGINALITY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 10169, 26 July 1924, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1924. CALL FOR ORIGINALITY.

In the great world of affairs to-day there is one force or quality which attracts instant attention. It is originality. It is very truly said that no human being ever yet made a success trying to be someone else, even if that person was a success. Success is an original force —an individual creation, and every man will be a failure just in proportion as he gets away from himself and tries to be someone else and to express somebody else instead of himself. The man of strong individuality, who dares to think his own thought and originate his own method, who is not a copy of someone else, quickly gets recog- -: nition. Never before was originality so much at a premium as it is to-day. The world makes way for the man with an idea, and it is the thinker, the man with original ideas and new and up-to-date methods, who is needed. He is a real productive force in the community. He is wanted everywhere. The world is full of followers in old trails, people who like to have their thinking done for them. Just how far originality appeals may be seen by the observer in the world about him. It is the physician or the surgeon who departs from the precedent of those who have gone before him, the lawyer who conducts his case in an original way, the teacher who brings new ideas and methods into the schoolroom, the minister of the Gospel who proclaims a message with original force—these and the publicity they attract illustrate the world's interest in originality. There is a great advertising quality in originality, or uniqueness. The man who does his business like the great majority of men, although lie may have superior ability, does .not attract much attention. But if he makes his own path, adopts original and progressive methods, he is sought out. It is the same in other departments of life. There is nothing more monotonous than a dead-level insipid character, that has no strongly marked features which individualise it. Great characters always have strong individuality and originality, characteristics which mark them off from the crowd. The more one differs from somebody else by nature, the more , ridiculous one would become by , imitating him. Real strength in ] life to-day is personality. ;