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Chapter XXII: Do It to a Finish · Pushing to the Front

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Chapter twenty two of Pushing to the Front by Horizon Sweat Marden. This LibriVox
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recording is in the public domain recording by Luke Sartor chapter twenty two due it
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to a finish. Years ago, a relief life boat at New York sprung
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a leak, and while being repaired, a hammer was found in the bottom
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that had been left there by the builders thirteen years before. From the constant
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motion of the boat, the hammer had worn through the planking clear down to
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the plating. Not long since, it was discovered that a girl had served
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twenty years for a twenty months sentence in a Southern prison because of the mistake
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of court clerk who wrote years instead of months in the record of the prisoner's
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sentence. The history of the human race is full of the most horrible tragedies
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caused by carelessness and the inexcusable blunders of those who never formed the habit of
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accuracy, of thoroughness, of doing things to a finish. Multitudes of people
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have lost an eye, a leg, or an arm, or are otherwise
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maimed because dishonest workmen wrought deception into the articles they manufactured, slighted their work,
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covered up defects, and wheat places with paint and varnish. How many
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have lost their lives because of dishonest work, carelessness, criminal blundering in railroad
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construction. Think of the tragedies caused by lies packed in car wheels, locomotives,
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steamboat boilers and engines, Lies in defective rails, ties or switches,
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Lies in dishonest labor put into manufactured material by workmen who said it was good
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enough for the meager wages they got. Because people were not conscientious in their
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work, there were flaws in the steel which caused the rail or pillar to
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snap, the locomotive or other machinery to break, The steel shaft broke in
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mid ocean, and the lives of a thousand passengers were jeopardized because of somebody's
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carelessness. Even before they are completed, buildings often fall and bury the workmen
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under their ruins because somebody was careless, dishonest, either employer or employee,
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and worked lies deceptions into the building. The majority of railroad wrecks, of
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disasters on land and sea, which caused so much misery and cost so many
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lives, are the result of carelessness, thoughtlessness, or half done botched blundering
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work. They are the evil fruit of the low ideals of slovenly, careless,
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indifferent workers. Everywhere over this broad earth we see the tragic results of
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botched work. Wooden legs, armless sleeves, numberless graves, fatherless and motherless
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homes. Everywhere. Speak of somebody's carelessness, somebody's blunders, somebody's habit of
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inaccuracy. The worst crimes are not punishable by law. Carelessness, slipshodness,
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lack of thoroughness are crimes against self, against humanity that often do more harm
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than the crimes that make the perpetrator in outcast from society. When a tiny
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flaw or the slightest defect may cost a precious life, carelessness is as much
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a crime as deliberate criminality. If everybody put his conscience into his work,
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did it to a complete finish, it would not only reduce the loss of
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human life, the mangling and maiming of men and women, to a fraction
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of what it is at present, but it would also give us a higher
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quality of manhood and womanhood. Most young people think too much of quantity and
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too little of quality in their work. They try to do too much and
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do not do it well. They do not realize that the education, the
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comfort, the satisfaction, the general improvement and bracing up of the whole man
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that comes from doing one thing absolutely right, from putting the trademark of one's
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character on it, far outweighs the value that attaches to the doing of a
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thousand botched or slipshod jobs. We are so constituted that the quality which we
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put into our life work affects everything else in our lives and tends to our
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whole conduct to the same level. The entire person takes on the characteristics of
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one's usual way of doing things. The habit of precision and accuracy strengthens the
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mentality improves the whole character. On the contrary, doing things in a loose
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jointed, slipshod, careless manner deteriorates the whole mentality, demoralizes the mental processes,
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and pulls down the whole life. Every half done or slovenly job that
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goes out of your hands leaves its trace of demoralization behind. After slighting your
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work, after doing a poor job, you are not quite the same man
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you were before. You are not so likely to try to keep up the
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standard of your work not so likely to regard your word as sacred as before.
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The mental and moral effect of half doing or carelessly doing things, its
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power to drag down, to demoralize, can hardly be estimated. Because the
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processes are so gradual, so subtle. No one can respect himself who habitually
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botches his work. And when self respect drops, confidence goes with it.
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And when confidence and self respect have gone, excellence is impossible. It is
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astonishing how completely a slovenly habit will gradually insidiously fasten itself upon the individual and
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so change his whole mental attitude as to thwart absolutely his life purpose, even
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when he may think he is doing his best to carry it out. I
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know a man who was extremely ambitious to do something very distinctive, and who
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had the ability to do it. When he started on his career, he
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was very exact and painstaking. He demanded the best of himself, would not
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accept his second best in anything. The thought of slighting his work was painful
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to him. But his mental processes have so deteriorated, and he has become
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so demoralized by the habit, which after a while grew upon him of accepting
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his second best, that he now slights his work without a protest, seemingly
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without being conscious of it. He is to day doing quite ordinary things without
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apparent mortification or sense of humiliation. And the tragedy of it all is he
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does not know why he has failed. One's ambition and ideals need constant watching
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and cultivation in order to keep up to the standards. Many people are so
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constituted that their ambition wanes in their ideals drop when they are alone or with
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careless, indifferent people. They require the constant assistance, suggestion, prodding,
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or example of others to keep them up to standard. How quickly, a
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youth of high ideals who has been well trained in thoroughness often deteriorates when he
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leaves home and goes to work for an employer with inferior ideals in slipshod methods.
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The introduction of inferiority into our work is like introducing subtle poison into the
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system. It paralyzes the normal functions. Inferiority is an infection which, like
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leaven, affects the entire system. It dulls ideals, pulses the aspiring faculty,
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stupefies the ambition, and causes deterioration all along the line. The human
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mechanism is so constituted that whatever goes wrong in one part affects the whole structure.
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There is a very intimate relation between the quality of the war work and
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the quality of the character. Did you ever notice the rapid decline in a
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young man's character when he began to slight his work, to shirk, to
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slip in rotten hours, rotten service. If you should ask the inmates of
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our penitentiaries what had caused their ruin, many of them could trace the first
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signs of deterioration to shirking, clipping their hours, deceiving their employers, to
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indifferent, dishonest work. We were made to be honest. Honesty is our
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normal expression, and any departure from it demoralize and taints the whole character.
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Honesty means integrity in everything. It not only means reliability in your word,
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but also carefulness, accuracy, honesty in your work. It does not mean
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that if you will not lie with your lips, you may lie and defraud
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in the quality of your work. Honesty means wholeness, completeness. It means
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truth in everything, indeed and in word, merely not to steal another's money
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or goods is not all there is to honesty. You must not steal another's
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time. You must not steal his goods or ruin his property by half finishing
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or botching your work, by blundering, through carelessness or indifference. Your contract
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with your employer means that you will give him your best and not your second
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best. What a fool you are, said one workman to another, to
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take so much pains with that job when you don't get much pay for it.
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Get the most money for the least work, is my rule, and
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I get twice as much money as you do. That may be replied the
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other. But I shall lie myself better. I shall think more of myself,
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and that is more important to me than money. You will like yourself
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better when you have the approval of your conscience. That will be worth more
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to you than any amount of money you can pocket through fraudulent, skimped or
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botched work. Nothing else can give you the glow of satisfaction, the electric
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thrill and uplift which come from a superbly done job. Perfect work harmonizes with
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the very principles of our being. Because we were made for perfection. It
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fits our very natures. Someone has said it is a race between negligence and
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ignorance as to which can make the more trouble Many a young man is being
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kept down by what probably seems a small thing to him, negligence, lack
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of accuracy. He never quite finishes anything he undertakes. He cannot be depended
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upon to do anything quite right. His work always needs looking over by someone
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else. Hundreds of clerks and bookkeepers are getting small salaries in poor positions to
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day because they have never learned to do things absolutely right. A prominent businessman
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says that the carelessness, inaccuracy, and blundering of employees cost Chicago one million
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dollars a day. The manager of a large house in that city says that
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he has to station pickets here and there throughout the establishment in order to neutralize
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the evils of inaccuracy and the blundering habit. One of John Wanamaker's partners says
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that unnecessary blunders and mistakes cost that firm twenty five thousand dollars a year.
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The Dead letter department of the Post Office in Washington received in one year seven
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million pieces of undelivered mail of these, more than eighty thousand bore no address
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whatever. A great many of them were from business houses. Are the clerks
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who are responsible for this carelessness likely to win promotion many An employee who would
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be shocked at the thought of telling his employer a lie with his lips is
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lying every day in the quality of his work, in his dishonest service,
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in the rotten hours. He is slipping into it, in shirking, in
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his indifference to his employer's interests. It is just as dishonest to express deception
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in poor work in shirking as to express it with the lips. Yet I
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have known office boys who could not be induced to tell their employer a direct
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lie, to steal his time when on an errand to hide away during working
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hours to smoke a cigarette or take a nap, not realizing perhaps that lies
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can be acted as well as told, and that acting a lie may be
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even worse than telling one. The man who botches his work, who lies
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or cheats in the goods he sells or manufactures, is dishonest with himself as
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well as with his fellow men, and must pay the price in loss of
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self respect, loss of character, of standing in his community. Yet on
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every side we see all sorts of things selling for a song because the maker
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put no character, no thought into them. Articles of clothing that look stylish
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and attractive when first worn, very quick to get out of shape and hang
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and look like old much worn garments. Buttons fly off, seems give way
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at the slightest strain. Trot stitches are everywhere in evidence, and often the
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entire article goes to pieces before it is worn half a day, thousand times.
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Everywhere we see furniture which looks all right, but which in reality is
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full of blemishes and weaknesses, covered up with paint and varnish glue. Starts
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at joints, chairs and bedsteads break down at the slightest provocation. Casters come
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off, handles pull out. Many things go to pieces altogether. Even while
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practically new, made to sell not for service, would be a good label
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for the great mass of manufactured articles in our markets today, it is difficult
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to find anything that is well and honestly made, that has character, individuality,
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and thoroughness wrought into it. Most things are just thrown together. This
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slipshod, dishonest manufacturing is so general that concerns which turn out products based upon
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honesty and truth, often win for themselves a worldwide reputation and command the highest
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prices. There is no other advertisement like a good reputation. Some of the
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world's greatest manufacturers have regarded their reputation as their most precious possession, and under
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no circumstances would they allow their names to be put on an imperfect article.
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Vast sums of money are often paid for the use of a name because of
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its great reputation for integrity and square dealing. There was a time when the
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names of Graham and Tampion on timepieces were guarantees of the most exquisite workmanship and
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of unquestioned integrity. Strangers from any part of the world could send their purchase
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money and order goods from those manufacturers without a doubt that they would be squarely
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dealt with. Temp and Graham lie in Westminster Abbey because of the accuracy of
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their work, because they refused to manufacture and sell lies. When you finish
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a thing, you want to be able to say to yourself, there,
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I am willing to stand for that piece of work. It is not pretty
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well done. It is done as well as I can do it, done
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to a complete finish. I will stand for that. I am willing to
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be judged by it. Never be satisfied with fairly good, pretty good,
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good enough, accept nothing short of your best. Put such a quality into
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your work that anyone who comes across anything you have ever done will seek character
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in it, individuality in it, your trademark of superiority upon it. Your
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reputation is at stake in everything you do, and your reputation patition is your
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capital. You cannot afford to do a poor job, to let botched work,
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or anything that is inferior go out of your hands. Every bit of
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your work, no matter how unimportant or trivial it may seem, should bear
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your trademark of excellence. You should regard every task that goes through your hands,
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every piece of work you touch, as tampion regarded every watch that went
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out of his shop. It must be the very best you can do,
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the best that human skill can produce. It is just the little difference between
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the good and the best that makes the difference between the artist and the artisan.
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It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that make
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the master's fame. Regard your work as strativarious regarded his violins which he made
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for eternity, not one of which was ever known to come to pieces or
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break. Strativarius did not need any patent on his violins, for no other
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violin maker would pay such a price for excellence as he paid, would take
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such pains to put his stamp of superiority upon his instrument. Every Strativarius now
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in existence is worth from three to ten thousand dollars, or several times its
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weight in gold. Think of the value such a reputation for thoroughness as that
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of Strativarius or Tampion, such a passion to give quality to your work would
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give you. There is nothing like being animed of accuracy, being grounded in
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thoroughness as a life principle of always striving for excellence. No other characteristic makes
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such a strong impression upon an employer as the habit of painstaking carefulness accuracy.
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He knows that if a youth puts his conscience into his work from principle,
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not from the standpoint of salary or what he can get for it, but
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because there is something in him which refuses to accept anything from himself but the
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best. That he is honest and made of good material. I have known
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many instances where advancement hinged upon the little overplus of interest of painstaking an employee
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put into his work, on his doing a little better than was expected of
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him. Employers do not say all they think, but they detect very quickly
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the ear marks of superiority. They keep their eye on the employee who has
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the stamp of excellence upon him, who takes pains with his work, who
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does it to a finish. They know he has a future. John D.
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Rockefeller Junior says that the secret of success is to do the common duty
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uncommonly well. The majority of young people do not see that the steps which
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lead to the position above them are constructed little by little by the faithful performance
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of the common, humble, everyday duties of the position they are now filling.
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The thing which you are now doing will unlock or bar the door to
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promotion. Many employees are looking for some great thing to happen that will give
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them an opportunity to show their metal. What can there be, they say
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to themselves, in this dry routine, in doing these common, ordinary things
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to help me along. But it is the youth who sees a great opportunity
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hidden in just these simple services who sees are very uncommon and chance in a
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common situation, a humble position. Who gets on in the world It is
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doing things a little better than those about you do them, being a little
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neater, a little quicker, a little more accurate, a little more observant.
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It is ingenuity in finding new and more progressive ways of doing old things.
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It is being a little more polite, a little more obliging, a
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little more tactful, a little more cheerful, optimistic, a little more energetic,
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helpful than those about you that attract the attention of your employer and other
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employers. Also, many a boy is marked for a higher position by his
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employer long before he is aware of it himself. It may be months,
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or it may be a year before the opening comes. But when it does
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come, the one who has appreciated the infinite difference between good and better,
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between fairly good and excellent, between what others call good and the best that
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can be done, will be likely to get the place. If there is
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that in your nature which demands the best and will take nothing less. If
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you insist on keeping up your standards in everything you do, you will achieve
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distinction in some line. Provided you have the persistence and determination to follow your
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ideal. But if you are satisfied with the cheap and shoddy, the botched
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and slovenly, if you are not particular about quality in your work, or
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in your environment, or in your personal habits, then you must expect to
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take second place, to fall back to the rear of the procession. People
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who have accomplished work worth while have had a very high sense of the way
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to do things. They have not been content with mediocrity. They have not
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confined themselves to the beaten tracks. They have never been satisfied to do things
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just as others do them, but always a little better. They always pushed
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things that came to their hands a little higher up, a little farther on.
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It is this little higher up, this little farther on, that counts
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in the quality of life's work. It is the constant effort to be first
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class in everything one attempts that conquers the heights of excellence. It is said
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that Daniel Webster made the best chowder in his state on the principle that he
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would not be second class in anything. This is a good resolution with which
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to start out in your career. Never to be second class in anything.
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No matter what you do, try to do it as well as it can
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be done. Have nothing to do with the inferior. Do your best in
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everything, Deal with the best, Choose the best, Live up to your
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best. Everywhere we see mediocre or second class men, perpetual clerks who will
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never get away from the yardstick, mechanics who will never be anything but bunglers,
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all sorts of people who will never rise above mediocrity, who will always
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fill very ordinary positions because they do not take pains, do not put conscience
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into their work, do not try to be first class. Aside from the
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lack of desire or effort to be first class, there are other things that
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help to make second class men. Dissipation, bad habits, neglect of health,
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failure to get an education all make second class men. A man weakened
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by dissipation, whose understanding has been dulled, whose growth has been stunted by
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self indulgences, is a second class man, if indeed he is not third
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class. A man who, through his amusements in his hours of leisure,
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exhausts his strength and vitality, vitiates his blood, wears his nerves till his
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limbs tremble like leaves in the wind, is only half a man, and
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could in no sense be called first class. Everybody knows the things that make
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for second class characteristics. Boys imitate older boys and smoke cigarettes in order to
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be smart. Then they keep on smoking because they have created an appetite as
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unnatural as it is harmful. Men get drunk for all sorts of reasons,
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but whatever the reason, they cannot remain first class men and drink. Dissipation
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in other forms is pursued because of pleasure to be derived, but the surest
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consequence is that of becoming second class, below the standard of the best men.
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For any purpose. Every fault you allow to become a habit to get
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control over you helps to make your second class and puts you at a disadvantage
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in the race for honor, position, wealth, and happiness. Carelessness as
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to health, fills the ranks of the inferior. The submerged classes that the
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economists talk about are those that are below the high water mark of the best
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manhood and womanhood. Sometimes they are second rate or third rate people, because
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those who are responsible for their being and their care during their minor years were
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so before them. But more and more, is it becoming one's own fault.
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If all through life here remains second class, education of some sort,
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and even a pretty good sort is possible to practically everyone in our land.
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Failure to get the best education available, whether it be in books or in
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business training, is sure to relegate one to the ranks of the second class.
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There is no excuse for incompetence in this age of opportunity, no excuse
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for being second class when it is possible to be first class, and when
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first class is in demand everywhere. Second class things are wanted only when first
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class can't be had. You wear first class clothes if you can pay for
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them, you eat first class butter, first class meat, and first class
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bread, or if you don't, you wish you could. Second Class men
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are no more wanted than any other second class commodity. They are taken and
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used when the better article is scarce or is too high priced for the occasion,
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for work that really amounts to anything. First class men are wanted if
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you make yourself first class in anything, no matter what your condition or circumstances,
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no matter what your race or color, you will be in demand.
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If you are a king in your calling, no matter how humble it may
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be, nothing can keep you from success. The world does not demand that
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you be a physician, a lawyer, a farment, or a merchant.
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But it does demand that whatever you do undertake, you will do it right,
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will do it with all your might and with all the ability you possess.
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It demands that you be a master in your line. When Daniel Webster,
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who had the best brain of his time, was asked to make a
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speech on some question at the close of a congressional session, he replied,
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I never allow myself to speak on any subject until I have made it my
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own. I haven't I'm to do that in this case, Hence I must
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refuse to speak on the subject. Dickens would never consent to read before an
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audience until he had thoroughly prepared his selection. Balzac, the great French novelist,
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sometimes worked a week on a single page. McReady, when playing before
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scant audiences in country theaters in England, Ireland and Scotland, always played as
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if he were before the most brilliant audiences in the great metropolises of the world.
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Thoroughness characterizes all successful men. Genius is the art of taking infinite pains
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The trouble with many Americans is that they seem to think they can put any
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sort of poor, slipshod, half done work into their careers and get first
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class products. They do not realize that all great achievement has been characterized by
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extreme care, infinite painstaking, even to the minutest detail. No youth can
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ever hope to accomplish much who does not have thoroughness and accuracy indelibly fixed in
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his life. Habit slipshodness inaccuracy, the habit of half doing things would ruin
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the career of a youth with the Napoleon's mind. If we were to examine
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a list of the men who have left their mark on the world, we
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should find that, as a rule, it is not composed of those who
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were brilliant in youth, or who gave great promise at the outset of their
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careers, but rather of the plotting young men, who, if they have
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not dazzled by their brilliancy, have had the power of a day's work in
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them, who could stay by a task until it was done and well done,
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who have had grit, persistence, common sense, and honesty. The
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thorough boys are the boys that I heard from and usually from posts far higher
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up than those filled by the boys who were too smart to be thorough.
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One such boys Eli Hugh Root, now United States Senator. When he was
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a boy in the grammar school at Clinton, New York, he made up
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his mind that anything he had to study he would keep out until he mastered
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it. Although not considered one of the bright boys of the school, his
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teacher soon found that when Ellie Hugh professed to know anything, he knew it
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through and through. He was fond of hard problems requiring applications and patience.
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Sometimes the other boys called him a plotter, but Elli Hugh would only smile
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pleasantly, for he knew what he was about. On winter evenings, while
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the other boys were out skating, Ellie Hugh equally remained in his room with
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his arithmetic or algebra. Mister Root recently said that if his close application to
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problems in his boyhood did nothing else for him, it made him careful about
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jumping at conclusions. To every problem, there was only one answer, and
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patience was the price to be paid for it. Carrying the principle of doing
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everything to a finish into the law, he became one of the most noted
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members of the New York bar entrusted with vast interests, and then a member
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of the President's Cabinet. William ellery Channing, the great New England divine,
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who in his youth was hardly able to buy the clothes he needed, had
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a passion for self improvement. I wanted to make the most of myself,
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he says. I was not satisfied with knowing things superficially and by heart,
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but tried to get comprehensive views of what I studied. The quality which more
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than any other, has helped to raise the German people to their present commanding
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position in the world is their thoroughness. It is giving young Germans a great
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advantage over both English and American youths. Every employer is looking for thoroughness,
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and German employees, owing to their pre eminence in this respect, the superiority
34:30
of their training and the completeness of their preparation for business, are in great
34:35
demand to day in England, especially in banks and large mercantile houses. As
34:42
a rule, a German who expects to engage in business takes a four years
34:46
course in some commercial school, and after graduation serves three years apprenticeship without pay
34:54
to his chosen business. Thoroughness and reliability Germans characteristics are increasing the power of
35:02
Germany throughout the civilized world. Our great lack is want of thoroughness. How
35:12
seldom you find a young man or woman who is willing to prepare for his
35:16
life work. A little education is all They want a little smattering of books
35:22
and then they are ready for business. Can't wait, haven't time to be
35:28
thorough is characteristic of our country and is written on everything, on commerce,
35:34
on schools, on society, on churches. We can't wait for a high
35:38
school, seminary or college education. The boys can't wait to become a youth,
35:45
nor the youth to become a man. Young men rush into business with
35:50
no great reserve of education or drill. Of course, they do poor,
35:53
feverish work and break down in middle life, while many die of old age
36:00
in the forties. Perhaps there is no other country in the world where so
36:05
much poor work is done as in America. Half trained medical students perform bungling
36:10
operations and butcher their patients because they are not willing to take time for thorough
36:16
preparation. Half trained lawyers stumble through their cases and make their clients pay for
36:23
experience which the law school should have given. Half trained clergymen bungle away in
36:30
the pulpit and disgust their intelligent and cultured parishioners. Many in American youth is
36:37
willing to stumble through life half prepared for his work, and then blame society
36:42
because he is a failure. A young man, armed with letters of introduction
36:46
from prominent men, one day presented himself before Chief Engineer Parsons of the Rapid
36:53
Transit Commission of New York as a candidate for a position. What can you
37:00
do? Have you any specialty, asked mister Parsons. I can do almost
37:07
anything, answered the young man. Well, remarked the Chief Engineer, rising
37:12
to end the interview. I have no use for any one who can almost
37:16
do anything. I prefer someone who can actually do one thing thoroughly. There
37:23
is a great crowd of human beings just outside the door of proficiency. They
37:29
can half do a great many things, but can't do any one thing well
37:35
to a finish. They have acquisitions which remain permanently unavailable, but because they
37:40
were not carried quite to the point of skill, they stopped just short of
37:45
efficiency. How many people almost know a language or two which they can neither
37:52
write nor speak, a science or two whose elements they have not fully mastered,
37:59
and art or two which they cannot practice with satisfaction or profit. The
38:05
Patent Office at Washington contains hundreds, yes, thousands, of inventions which are
38:12
useless simply because they are not quite practical, because the men who started them
38:17
lacked the staying quality, the education, or the ability necessary to carry them
38:23
to the point of practicability. The world is full of half finished work,
38:29
failures which require only a little more persistence, a little finer mechanical training,
38:36
a little better education, to make them useful to civilization. Think what a
38:42
loss it would be if such men as Edison and Bell had not come to
38:45
the front and carried to a successful termination the half finished work of others.
38:52
Make it a life rule to give your best to whatever passes through your hands.
38:58
Stamp it with your mean in hood. Let superiority be your trademark.
39:02
Let it characterize everything you touch. This is what every employer is looking for.
39:09
It indicates the best kind of brain. It is the best substitute for
39:14
genius. It is better capital than cash. It is a better promoter than
39:19
friends or pulls with the influential. A successful manufacturer says, if you make
39:29
a good pin, you will earn more money than if you make a bad
39:31
steam engine. If a man can write a better book, preach a better
39:37
sermon, or make a better mouse trap than his neighbor, says Emerson,
39:42
though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a path
39:46
to his door. Never allow yourself to dwell too much upon what you are
39:52
getting for your work. You have something of infinitely greater importance, greater value
39:59
at stake, your honor, your whole career, your future success will be
40:05
affected by the way you do your work, by the conscience or lack of
40:08
it, which you put into your job. Character, manhood, and womanhood
40:15
are at stake, compared with which salary is nothing. Everything you do is
40:22
a part of your career. If any work that goes out of your hands
40:27
is skimped, shirked, bungled, or botched, your character will suffer.
40:31
If your work is badly done, if it goes to pieces, if there
40:36
is shoddy or sham in it, if there is dishonesty in it, there
40:40
is shoddy, sham, dishonesty in your character. We are all of a
40:45
piece. We cannot have an honest character, a complete, untarnished career when
40:52
we are constantly slipping rotten hours, defective material, and slipshod service into our
41:00
work. The man who has dealt in shams and inferiority, who has botched
41:06
his work all his life, must be conscious that he has not been a
41:10
real man. He cannot help feeling that his career has been a botched one.
41:16
To spend a life buying and selling lies, dealing in cheap, shoddy
41:22
shams, or botching one's work is demoralizing to every element of nobility. Beecher
41:30
said he was never again quite the same man after reading Ruskin. You are
41:36
never again quite the same man after doing a poor job, after botching your
41:40
work. You cannot be just to yourself and unjust to the man you are
41:47
working for in the quality of your work. For if you slight your work,
41:53
you not only strike a fatal blow at your efficiency, but also smirch
41:59
your character. If you would be a full man, a complete man,
42:02
a just man, you must be honest to the core in the quality of
42:07
your work. No one can be really happy who does not believe in his
42:13
own honesty. We are so constituted that every departure from the right from principle
42:21
causes loss of self respect and makes us unhappy. Every time we obey the
42:27
inward law of doing right, we hear in inward approval the amen of the
42:32
soul, and every time we disobey it a protest or condemnation. There is
42:39
everything in holding a high ideal of your work. For whatever model the mind
42:45
holds, the life copies whatever your vocation. Let quality be your life slogan.
42:53
A famous artist said he would never allow himself to look at an inferior
43:00
drawing or painting, to do anything that was low or demoralizing, lest familiarity
43:06
with it should taint his own ideal and thus be communicated to his brush.
43:12
Many excuse poor slipshod work on the plea of lack of time, but in
43:17
the ordinary situations of life, there is plenty of time to do everything as
43:22
it ought to be done. There is an indescribable superiority added to the character
43:29
and fiber of the man who always, in everywhere puts quality into his work.
43:34
There is a sense of wholeness, of satisfaction, of happiness in his
43:38
life, which is never felt by the man who does not do his level
43:43
best every time. He is not haunted by the ghosts or tale ends of
43:49
half finished tasks, of skipped problems, is not kept awake by a troubled
43:53
conscience. When we are trying with all our might to do our level best,
44:00
our whole nature improves. Everything looks down when we are going downhill.
44:05
Aspiration lifts the life. Groveling lowers it. Don't think you will never hear
44:12
from a half finished job, a neglected or botched piece of work. It
44:17
will never die. It will bob up farther along in your career at the
44:22
most unexpected moments, in the most embarrassing situations. It will be sure to
44:28
mortify you when you least expect it. Like Banquover's ghosts, it will arise
44:35
the most unexpected moments to mar your happiness. A single broken thread in a
44:40
web of cloth is traced back to the girl who neglected her work in the
44:45
factory, and the amount of damage is deducted from her wages. Thousands of
44:52
people are held back all their lives and obliged to accept inferior positions because they
44:59
can not entirely overcome the handicap of slipshod habits formed early in life. Habits
45:07
of inaccuracy, of slovenliness, of skipping difficult problems in school, of slowing
45:14
their work, shirking or half doing it. Oh, that's good enough.
45:19
What's the use of being so awfully particular? Has been the beginning of a
45:23
lifelong handicap in many a career. I was much impressed by this motto,
45:29
which I saw recently in a great establishment, where only the best is good
45:36
enough. What a life motto this would be, How it would revolutionize civilization
45:45
if everyone were to adopt it and use it to resolve that whatever they did,
45:52
only the best they could do would be good enough. Would satisfy them?
46:00
Adopt this motto as yours. Hang it up in your bedroom, in
46:05
your office or place of business, put it into your pocket book. Weave
46:10
it into the texture of everything you do, and your life work will be
46:16
what everyone's should be a masterpiece and of chapter twenty two Do it to a
46:28
finish recording by Luke Sartour, Brisbane, Queensland,