BUSINESS LIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15201, 15 January 1913, Page 10

BUSINESS LIFE.

NEGATIVES.

Does any failure prove that a thing can't be done? The history of every human achievement is a history of what had not been done being done now. All progress is but extending the realm of the actual into the realm of the possible. What is impossible ? Who dare say that any dream is ? Dealing with negatives is dealing with what is not. Think* of a merchant advertising " I have not," " I don't keep." Could business be done on that plan ? No more can life live upon negatives; nor can civilisation so flourish. 0 ye who deal in negatives, yo are back numbers. Do not tell us what we can't do, but stimulate us by telling us what we can do.— H.* Brown.

THE NATURAL WAY OF LIVING. The ideal we should always hold before ourselves is to make the doing of right deeds, the Jiving of a virtuous life, the easiest and most agreeable thing to do. In the beginning we have pains and trouble in making our habits better, until they are right and good in certain respects; then habit slowly becomes a second nature, taking the place of the former untrained and undisciplined nature, until at last, it is—. ';.,

As easy now for the heart to be true As for grass to lie green or slues to be blue— 'Tis the natural way of living

A hasty-tempered man might find it hard at first to wait and count a hundred, according to the old rule, before he speaks, when he feels himself getting angry. But in time he should be strong enough, from long resistance .to his native impulse, to trust himself to speak at once.—N. P. Oilman. •

DO YOU REALISE YOUR PURPOSE? Do you, realise that you are an individual? There's no one else exactly like You in all this big world. There are no two blades of grass exactly alike—no two grains of sand exactly the same size and shapeno two individuals exactly the same. Nature is filled with the desire' for variety—and theroforo makes individuals, and delights in their manifestation of individuality. i . Realise that You are what you are for a purpose— a meaning- in the Cosi mos—you have a part to play, a work to do, a " reason" to express. Therefore, do not try to ape after others '—do not try to shape your life after the pattern of another—but endeavour to manifest the inner meaning and reason within you, and develop the latent powers and dormant energies which aro distinctively yoiirs. If you are a violet, very well. If you are a lily, very well. If you arc a rose, very well. If you are but a tiny " forget-me-not," likewise very well. Do not fret because you are not some other variety, but endeavour to be the best of your kind, and to manifest to the fullest the special capacities within you. The purpose of your life is not to be Somebody Else, but to be Yourself in the fullest degree and highest expression. And remember always that the most unat- ! tractive plant often brings forth the most beautiful blossoms. And the blossom is the " reason" of the plant's being. So ' be Yourself—your Best Self— True (Se^f — demonstrate the reason and meaning of your existence.Wm. .Walker Atkinson.

HAVE AN AIM. The longer I live the more I am certain (Writes Sir Thomas Burton), that the great differences between men—between the feeble, and the powerful, the great and the insignificant—is energy, invincible determination — purpose once fixed, and then— or victory. • We are not responsible for our ideas, but we are responsible for our acts. •The greatest test of character is to be found in what is common rather than in what is extraordinary. Find your purpose and fling your life out to it; and the loftier your purpose is the more sure you will be* to make the world richer with every enrichment of' yourself. I believe in everyone minding his own business, and allowing > everyone else the same privilege. I believe that there is good in every man; let us help him to manifest it.—W. W. Atkinson.."