Laugh and Live

by Douglas Fairbanks

"To thine own self be true; and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

When we can analyze ourselves and find that we are living up to the quoted lines above we may safely lift the limit from our aspirations. Right here it is well to say that success is not to be computed in dollars and cents, nor that the will to achieve a successful life is to be predicated upon the mere accumulation of wealth. First of all, good health and good minds—then we may laugh loud and long—we're safe on "first."

So, with these two weapons we may dig down into our aspirations, and, keeping in view that our policy is that of honesty to ourselves and toward our fellow man, all we need to do is to go about the program of life cheerfully and stout of heart—for now we are in a state of preparedness.

We are at the point where vision starts. Along with this vision must come the courage of convictions in order that we may feel that our ideas are important, and because we have such thoughts, we shall surely succeed. It has often been noticed that when we have had a large conception and have with force, character, and strength of will carried it into effect, immediately thereafter a host of people have been able to say: "I thought of that myself!" Most of us have had the same experience after reading of a great discovery that we had thrown overboard because it must not have been "worth while" or someone else would already have thought of it.

The man who puts life into an idea is acclaimed a genius, because he does the right thing at the right time. Therein lies the difference between the genius and a commonplace man.

We all have ambitions, but only the few achieve. A man thinks of a good thing and says: "Now if I only had the money I'd put that through." The word "if" was a dent in his courage. With character fully established, his plan well thought out, he had only to go to those in command of capital and it would have been forthcoming. He had something that capital would cheerfully get behind if he had the courage to back up his claims. To fail was nothing less than moral cowardice. The will to do had not been efficient. There was a flaw in the character, after all.

Going back, therefore, to the prescription, we find that a sound body, a good mind, an honest purpose, and a lack of fear are the essential elements of success. So, when we have conceived something for the good of the world and have allowed it to go by default we have dropped the monkey-wrench into the machinery of our preparedness. We must look about us for a reason. Have we fallen by the wayside of carelessness? Have we allowed ourselves to be discouraged by cowardly "ifs"? Did we lack the sand? Exactly so; we didn't have the courage of our convictions.

Life is the one great experience, and those who fail to win, if sound of body, can safely lay the blame to their lack of mental equipment. What does it matter if disappointments follow one after the other if we can laugh and try again? Failures must come to all of us in some degree, but we may rise from our failures and win back our losses if we are only shrewd enough to realize that good health, sound mind, and a cheerful spirit are necessary adjuncts. As Tennyson says:

"I held it truth, with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things."

All truly great men have been healthy—otherwise they would have fallen short of the mark. Prisons are filled with nervous, diseased creatures. There is no doubt but that most of these who, through ignorance, sifted through to the bottomless pits could have saved themselves had they realized the truth and "taken stock" of themselves, in time—of course, allowing for those, who are victims of circumstantial evidence.