Success
Then, still lower down in the scale than this we have the fellow who
will not do the right thing even when someone goes along to show
him how and stays to see that he does it; he is always out of a job, a
receives the contempt he deserves, unless he has a rich pa, in which
case destiny patiently waits around the corner with a stuffed club.
To which class do you belong?"
In as much as you will be expected to take inventory of yourself and determine which of the fifteen factors of this course you need most, after you have completed the sixteenth lesson, it may be well if you begin to get ready for this analysis by answering the question that Elbert Hubbard has asked. To which class do you belong?
One of the peculiarities of Leadership is the fact that it is never found in those who have not acquired the habit of taking the initiative. Leadership is something that you must invite yourself into; it will never thrust itself upon you. If you will carefully analyze all leaders whom you know you will see that they not only exercised Initiative, but they went about their work with a definite purpose in mind. You will also see that they possessed that quality described in the third lesson of this course, Self-confidence.
These facts are mentioned in this lesson for the reason that it will profit you to observe that successful people make use of all the factors covered by the sixteen lessons of the course; and, for the more important reason that it will profit you to understand thoroughly the principle of organized effort which this Reading Course is intended to establish in your mind. This seems an appropriate place to state that this course is not intended as a short-cut to success, nor is it intended as a mechanical formula that you may use in noteworthy achievement without effort on your part.
The real value of the course lies in the use that you
will make of it, and not in the course itself. The chief purpose of the
course is to help you develop in yourself the fifteen qualities covered by
the sixteen lessons of the course, and one of the most important of these
qualities is Initiative, the subject of this lesson. We will now proceed to
apply the principle upon which this lesson is founded by describing, in
detail, just how it served successfully to complete a business transaction
which most people would call difficult.
In 1916 I needed $25,000.00 with which to create an educational institution, but I had neither this sum nor sufficient collateral with which to borrow it through the usual banking sources. Did I bemoan my fate or think of what I might accomplish if some rich relative or Good Samaritan would come to my rescue by loaning me the necessary capital?