CARVING OUT A CAREER
In one of the art museums there is a marble carving by an artist who had a big idea that showed his faith in the great truth that we are what we make ourselves. He represented a bright, strong, vigorous young man with a chisel in one hand and a mallet in the other, busily engaged in carving himself out of a rough piece of marble. The thought of the whole thing was that the young man’s future, or his career, was before him, and that the finished product would be exactly what he made it himself. In relation to his courage, his confidence and his persistence would be determined the beauty of his future. The world judges and honors him on the basis of what he produces.
To bring the point a little closer home, suppose Marshall Field, John Wanamaker or any other of the great merchants had stopped chiseling after they had become stock boys or clerks; they never would have advanced a step higher. But they did not stop, and we give them credit for chiseling great monuments for the world.