BUSINESS LIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13480, 3 July 1907, Page 9

BUSINESS LIFE.

Tirr.UK is a microbe called unrest. It breeds in many a busy brain. It blurs many a clear vision. It unbalances many a sound judgment. It sours a. healthy ambition. Tt ferments it into a mad passion for quick riches. It urges us on to undertake things overnight that need years of mature effort to accomplish. It makes us unfit to do our daily work. Acquire patiencea willingness to waif! Seek content-—content that smothers unrest and enables us to do our present task with a true eye, a. clear mind, a keen judgment ! There is but one creation by which all are judged, and its name is Results. Especially is this so in modern mercantile life. If you are an assistant or a commercial traveller, you are judged by the figures under yum name in the book of iwlanceo. It is the true test: it is the only real lest. livery employer wants good results, and he is always on the .look out for tliost; who can produce them. You must justify your salary, otherwise you arc only a drag on the wheels of progress. Good results always command good figures, so they are well worth working for. You may explain away the whys ana wherefores of your failures and talk about your abilities, but the world looks for practical results, for good results, and it is only this kind that comes within the meaning of the word .Success. Payment is made on results only, so see that the figures in the book of balances stand well on the profit, or practical side. . George Stephenson, the inventor of the locomotive, by industry, energy, and perseverance, conferred on humanity a boon and a blessing second tc none in the history of the world. Carlyle called him a hero. And so he was. The son of a colliery* fireman, Stephenson suffered from all the disadvantages of poverty. Almost from his infancy he had to work, and at fifteen years of age he was a full-fledged fireman. And a fireman he always would have been had he been without ambition. But the lad's great desire was to be an engineman. ! So he utilised his leisure hours by studying engines, and at twenty he was appointed an engineman. Up to this time Stephenson was unable to read, so he paid threepence a week to learn, his object being to gain further information about other ■ and improved engines. Whilst studying and experimenting he added to his wages by shot-making and tailoring, and repairing watches and clocks. Despite the demands on his time he managed to -acquire much knowledge of mechanics, chemistry, natural philosophy, and was always employed with head or hand. His was a record of steady labour up the hill of success. When lie "directed! his mind to the problem of haulage by mechanical power many sneered at his efforts, but his first engine was an improve-! ment on its predecessor. Partial success; did not satisfy Stephenson, who devoted] all his energies to perfecting his engine, Most people can work hard when the pros-1 pects of success are fair v.d promising. ' Few, like Stephenson, work for the sake! of knowledge, when there seems no pos-j sible chance of success, and when it means > a constant struggle. lit made his own! opportunities, he was thorough, a keen observer, patient to a degree, and self-! reliant. These are the secrets of Stephen-: .son's .success. 1