ART OF MONEY GETTINGby P. T. BarnumContinued from Part 1
DON'T MISTAKE YOUR VOCATION
The safest plan, and the one most sure of success for the young
man starting in life, is to select the vocation which is most
congenial to his tastes. Parents and guardians are often quite
too negligent in regard to this. It is very common for a father
to say, for example: "I have five boys. I will make Billy a
clergyman; John a lawyer; Tom a doctor, and Dick a farmer." He
then goes into town and looks about to see what he will do with
Sammy. He returns home and says "Sammy, I see watch-making is a
nice, genteel business; I think I will make you a goldsmith."
He does this, regardless of Sam's natural inclinations, or
genius.
We are all, no doubt, born for a wise purpose. There is as much
diversity in our brains as in our countenances. Some are born
natural mechanics, while some have great aversion to machinery.
Let a dozen boys of ten years get together, and you will soon
observe two or three are "whittling" out some ingenious device;
working with locks or complicated machinery. When they were but
five years old, their father could find no toy to please them
like a puzzle. They are natural mechanics; but the other eight
or nine boys have different aptitudes. I belong to the latter
class; I never had the slightest love for mechanism; on the
contrary, I have a sort of abhorrence for complicated
machinery. I never had ingenuity enough to whittle a cider tap
so it would not leak. I never could make a pen that I could
write with, or understand the principle of a steam engine. If
a man was to take such a boy as I was, and attempt to make a
watchmaker of him, the boy might, after an apprenticeship of
five or seven years, be able to take apart and put together a
watch; but all through life he would be working up hill and
seizing every excuse for leaving his work and idling away his
time. Watchmaking is repulsive to him.
Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by
nature, and best suited to his peculiar genius, he cannot
succeed. I am glad to believe that the majority of persons do
find their right vocation. Yet we see many who have mistaken
their calling, from the blacksmith up (or down) to the
clergyman. You will see, for instance, that extraordinary
linguist the "learned blacksmith," who ought to have been a
teacher of languages; and you may have seen lawyers, doctors
and clergymen who were better fitted by nature for the anvil or
the lapstone.
SELECT THE RIGHT LOCATION
After securing the right vocation, you must be careful to
select the proper location. You may have been cut out for a
hotel keeper, and they say it requires a genius to "know how to
keep a hotel." You might conduct a hotel like clock-work, and
provide satisfactorily for five hundred guests every day; yet,
if you should locate your house in a small village where there
is no railroad communication or public travel, the location
would be your ruin. It is equally important that you do not
commence business where there are already enough to meet all
demands in the same occupation. I remember a case which
illustrates this subject. When I was in London in 1858, I was
passing down Holborn with an English friend and came to the
"penny shows." They had immense cartoons outside, portraying
the wonderful curiosities to be seen "all for a penny." Being a
little in the "show line" myself, I said "let us go in here."
We soon found ourselves in the presence of the illustrious
showman, and he proved to be the sharpest man in that line I
had ever met. He told us some extraordinary stories in
reference to his bearded ladies, his Albinos, and his
Armadillos, which we could hardly believe, but thought it
"better to believe it than look after the proof." He finally
begged to call our attention to some wax statuary, and showed
us a lot of the dirtiest and filthiest wax figures imaginable.
They looked as if they had not seen water since the Deluge.
"What is there so wonderful about your statuary?" I asked.
"I beg you not to speak so satirically," he replied, "Sir, these
are not Madam Tussaud's wax figures, all covered with gilt and
tinsel and imitation diamonds, and copied from engravings and
photographs. Mine, sir, were taken from life. Whenever you look
upon one of those figures, you may consider that you are
looking upon the living individual."
Glancing casually at them, I saw one labelled "Henry VIII," and
feeling a little curious upon seeing that it looked like Calvin
Edson, the living skeleton, I said:
"Do you call that `Henry the Eighth?'"
He replied, "Certainly, sir; it was taken from life at Hampton
Court, by special order of his majesty, on such a day."
He would have given the hour of the day if I had insisted; I
said, "Everybody knows that `Henry VIII.' was a great stout old
king, and that figure is lean and lank; what do you say to
that?"
"Why," he replied, "you would be lean and lank yourself, if you
sat there as long as he has."
There was no resisting such arguments. I said to my English
friend, "Let us go out; do not tell him who I am; I show the
white feather; he beats me."
He followed us to the door, and seeing the rabble in the
street, he called out, "ladies and gentlemen, I beg to draw
your attention to the respectable character of my visitors,"
pointing to us as we walked away. I called upon him a couple of
days afterwards; told him who I was, and said:
"My friend, you are an excellent showman, but you have selected
a bad location."
He replied, "This is true, sir; I feel that all my talents are
thrown away; but what can I do?"
"You can go to America," I replied. "You can give full play to
your faculties over there; you will find plenty of elbow-room
in America; I will engage you for two years; after that you
will be able to go on your own account."
He accepted my offer and remained two years in my New York
Museum. He then went to New Orleans and carried on a traveling
show business during the summer. To-day he is worth sixty
thousand dollars, simply because he selected the right vocation
and also secured the proper location. The old proverb says,
"Three removes are as bad as a fire," but when a man is in the
fire, it matters but little how soon or how often he removes.
AVOID DEBT
Young men starting in life should avoid running into debt.
There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt.
It is a slavish position to get in, yet we find many a young
man, hardly out of his "teens," running in debt. He meets a
chum and says, "Look at this: I have got trusted for a new suit
of clothes." He seems to look upon the clothes as so much given
to him; well, it frequently is so, but, if he succeeds in
paying and then gets trusted again, he is adopting a habit
which will keep him in poverty through life. Debt robs a man of
his self-respect, and makes him almost despise himself.
Grunting and groaning and working for what he has eaten up or
worn out, and now when he is called upon to pay up, he has
nothing to show for his money; this is properly termed "working
for a dead horse." I do not speak of merchants buying and
selling on credit, or of those who buy on credit in order to
turn the purchase to a profit. The old Quaker said to his
farmer son, "John, never get trusted; but if thee gets trusted
for anything, let it be for `manure,' because that will help
thee pay it back again."
Mr. Beecher advised young men to get in debt if they could to a
small amount in the purchase of land, in the country
districts. "If a young man," he says, "will only get in debt
for some land and then get married, these two things will keep
him straight, or nothing will." This may be safe to a limited
extent, but getting in debt for what you eat and drink and wear
is to be avoided. Some families have a foolish habit of getting
credit at "the stores," and thus frequently purchase many
things which might have been dispensed with.
It is all very well to say, "I have got trusted for sixty days,
and if I don't have the money the creditor will think nothing
about it." There is no class of people in the world, who have
such good memories as creditors. When the sixty days run out,
you will have to pay. If you do not pay, you will break your
promise, and probably resort to a falsehood. You may make some
excuse or get in debt elsewhere to pay it, but that only
involves you the deeper.
A good-looking, lazy young fellow, was the apprentice boy,
Horatio. His employer said, "Horatio, did you ever see a
snail?" "I--think--I--have," he drawled out. "You must have
met him then, for I am sure you never overtook one," said the
"boss." Your creditor will meet you or overtake you and say,
"Now, my young friend, you agreed to pay me; you have not done
it, you must give me your note." You give the note on interest
and it commences working against you; "it is a dead horse." The
creditor goes to bed at night and wakes up in the morning
better off than when he retired to bed, because his interest
has increased during the night, but you grow poorer while you
are sleeping, for the interest is accumulating against you.
Money is in some respects like fire; it is a very excellent
servant but a terrible master. When you have it mastering you;
when interest is constantly piling up against you, it will keep
you down in the worst kind of slavery. But let money work for
you, and you have the most devoted servant in the world. It is
no "eye-servant." There is nothing animate or inanimate that
will work so faithfully as money when placed at interest, well
secured. It works night and day, and in wet or dry weather.
I was born in the blue-law State of Connecticut, where the old
Puritans had laws so rigid that it was said, "they fined a man
for kissing his wife on Sunday." Yet these rich old Puritans
would have thousands of dollars at interest, and on Saturday
night would be worth a certain amount; on Sunday they would go
to church and perform all the duties of a Christian. On waking
up on Monday morning, they would find themselves considerably
richer than the Saturday night previous, simply because their
money placed at interest had worked faithfully for them all day
Sunday, according to law!
Do not let it work against you; if you do there is no chance
for success in life so far as money is concerned. John Randolph,
the eccentric Virginian, once exclaimed in Congress, "Mr.
Speaker, I have discovered the philosopher's stone: pay as you
go." This is, indeed, nearer to the philosopher's stone than
any alchemist has ever yet arrived.
PERSEVERE
When a man is in the right path, he must persevere. I speak of
this because there are some persons who are "born tired;"
naturally lazy and possessing no self-reliance and no
perseverance. But they can cultivate these qualities, as Davy
Crockett said:
"This thing remember, when I am dead,
Be sure you are right, then go ahead."
It is this go-aheaditiveness, this determination not to let the
"horrors" or the "blues" take possession of you, so as to make
you relax your energies in the struggle for independence, which
you must cultivate.
How many have almost reached the goal of their ambition, but,
losing faith in themselves, have relaxed their energies, and
the golden prize has been lost forever.
It is, no doubt, often true, as Shakespeare says:
"There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."
If you hesitate, some bolder hand will stretch out before you
and get the prize. Remember the proverb of Solomon: "He
becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hand of
the diligent maketh rich."
Perseverance is sometimes but another word for self-reliance.
Many persons naturally look on the dark side of life, and
borrow trouble. They are born so. Then they ask for advice, and
they will be governed by one wind and blown by another, and
cannot rely upon themselves. Until you can get so that you can
rely upon yourself, you need not expect to succeed. I have
known men, personally, who have met with pecuniary reverses,
and absolutely committed suicide, because they thought they
could never overcome their misfortune. But I have known others
who have met more serious financial difficulties, and have
bridged them over by simple perseverance, aided by a firm
belief that they were doing justly, and that Providence would
"overcome evil with good." You will see this illustrated in any
sphere of life.
Take two generals; both understand military tactics, both
educated at West Point, if you please, both equally gifted; yet
one, having this principle of perseverance, and the other
lacking it, the former will succeed in his profession, while
the latter will fail. One may hear the cry, "the enemy are
coming, and they have got cannon."
"Got cannon?" says the hesitating general.
"Yes."
"Then halt every man."
He wants time to reflect; his hesitation is his ruin; the enemy
passes unmolested, or overwhelms him; while on the other hand,
the general of pluck, perseverance and self-reliance, goes into
battle with a will, and, amid the clash of arms, the booming of
cannon, the shrieks of the wounded, and the moans of the dying,
you will see this man persevering, going on, cutting and
slashing his way through with unwavering determination,
inspiring his soldiers to deeds of fortitude, valor, and
triumph.
|