Looking to the Future

Flak, Volume 1, Issue 5, 14 May 1943, Page 2

Looking to the Future

Everyone has at least a couple of hours spare time a day. The whole of it is not needed for play and relaxation. Half of it is enough. And the other half should be spent on preparation for the future. ’ ' ' •’ ~ . . ' ■ - Older men judge a young man by what he does in his spare time. This shows his character and his quality. By what he does in his spare time, hej puts a price on himself. Spare time is worth two guineas an hour to any young man of fair abili-f ties, and perhaps much more than this. It may develop his job into , a career.

The fact is that an ordinary education, at a school or . even at a university, does not prepare a lad for business responsibilities. His real education begins, when he gets a job. Self Education We often speak of a “self-made” man. This is one way of saying that he had very little schooling. But every competent man who rises to a high position is “self-made.” The only complete education is self-edu-cation. ' We know that in order to be a professional man, a young man MUST study. If he wants to be a doctor or a lawyer, he must study for at least six years. If he wants to be a business man, he is not COMPELLED to study; but he will not rise very: high unless he does. Every big job in the business world requires professional skill. . A competent business man is as highly skilled as a doctor or a lawyer. He acquired his skill by study, observation, and experience. Learn For The Future In connection with every trade and industry there is specialised knowledge. There are facts, ideas and methods that have been originated by

practical efficient men. When a youngman acquires some of'this knowledge, it speeds him on his way. ; There is no future worth talking about for a young man who will not make himself LEARN. He must have the inner power to " drive himself. If he works only when he is driven, as a horse does, then he will be stuck in small jobs for the whole of his life. There is a Correspondence Course on nearly every ' business or technical subject. ~ There are books, plenty o$ them, low-priced and high-priced books. And almost every one of them is- worth much more than its. price. Persistence Needed If a young man reads only thrillers and picture magazines, he will sacrifice ambition to amusement. And he will have a future of regrets. It is a black day for any young man when he says— want to have a good time”when he allows himself to be a play-boy. He should say—“l want to have a good LIFE” If he has the persistence to spend an hour a day in study, then he will not find himself a member of the “l-Wish-l-Had Club” when he is fifty. Fifty big business men were ones asked what they had done to prepare themselves - to handle large affairs; and 45 of them said they had studied in classes or at home. As a poet once said: “The heights that great men gained and kept Were not attained by sudden flight; For they, while their companions

slept,

Were toiling upwards in the night;’’

TROUBLE WITH THE DENTIST

Four trembling Waacs from the 66th knocked timidly on the door of the Narrow Neck dental hospital one sunny day last-week. Their hour of reckoning was at hand.

First on the list - was our lady of many sorrows, Gunner d’Auvergne. Her visit to purgatory was short. However, she knows now that, a dentist always has the last word.

When the next victim emerged from the chamber of horrors, all her teeth had been removed—we’d have never guessed, Gunner, but oh; you looked so cute for a day or two. (N.B, The Gypsy Queen 1 has ordered that all teeth must be worn to regimental dances). ,

Then Gunner Morganjust two holes . stoppedboth doing well, thanks to Dentist Gruesome and Nurse Giles. How could you remain so calm, Kathleen, when all around you were bitter, bitter tears.. Last on the list for the captain was Gunner Maguiness (my brother in the Life Guards). Six fillings done, and a promise of many more in the near future, found her minus her coat, jersey and tie, her shirt unbuttoned, shoes unlaced —-well, that’s enough. (I wonder why she bit the dentist’s finger'.) APRIL FOOLERY April the First saw the break of the drought in Auckland, so the feelings of a certain officer who had enough sense to get in out of the rain and recline on his bunk, can be better imagined than described when he was suddenly called to the phone to hear that the padre would like to take Holy Communion on Sunday.. The officer, in a dazed but most polite voice explained that the camp was on .fur-* lough. The silence for a brief moment could be felt—when the voice at the other end of the wire suggested that he might be an April Fool. Then the officer’s voice became staccato; and the polite tone vanished, but it would be most interesting to know what made the officer, in a camp abounding in N.C.O.’s, think it was a Gunner who perpetrated the outrage.. —H.2:

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