Go with the tide.
Consider everybody sharper than yourself in order to be yourself on your guard. Take the meaning of people, not their words, as a guide in business. Seek an interview rather than communication by letter, and observe the person’s expression by his eyes.
Keep your books posted up systematically.
Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink the ship.
Make the best of a bad bargain.
A policy of life assurance is the cheapest and safest mode of making provision for a man’s family.
Finally, as Matthew Henry wrote—“Hope the best, get ready for the worst, and then take what God sends.”
A spendthrift, who had nearly wasted all his patrimony, seeing an acquaintance in a coat not of the newest cut, told him he thought it had been his great-grandfather’s coat. “So it was,” said the gentleman; “and I have also my great-grandfather’s land, which is more than you can say.”
A gentleman, whose place of business was not a thousand miles from the Exchange, was annoyed, as many business men are, by impecunious individuals desiring small loans. He adopted the following method of dealing with them. He would listen amicably to the long preface to the request to “Just lend me a sovereign for a few days,” and answer, “Certainly;” and then, turning to a clerk, say: “James, we have a sovereign to lend, have we not?” “Yes, sir,” says the well-trained James. “Well, lend it to Mr. Beat.” “It is not in, sir; you loaned it to Mr. Bummer the day before yesterday.” “Ah, yes; so I did. Well, when it comes in lend it to Mr. Beat;” and bowing to the borrower, the merchant resumes his business, and the needy one walks dejectedly out to try a more profitable place.
A man who would thrive should get married. A good wife is a true helpmeet in fighting the battle of life. This is the hidden gem “of purest ray serene.” Dr. Crosby says—“The true girl is to be sought for. She does not parade herself as show goods. She is not fashionable generally; she is not rich. But, oh! what a heart she has when you have found her! So large, and pure, and womanly! When you see her you wonder if those showy things outside were really women. If you gain her love, your two thousand are a million. She’ll wear simple dresses, and turn them when necessary. She’ll keep everything neat and tidy in your sky parlour, and give you such a welcome when you come home, that you’ll think your parlour higher than ever. She’ll entertain true friends on a dollar, and astonish you with the thought how very little happiness depends on money. She’ll make you love home (if you are not a brute), and teach you how to pity while you scorn a poor fashionable society that thinks itself rich, and vainly tries to think itself happy. Now do not, I pray you, say any more, ‘I can’t afford to marry.’ Go, find the true woman, and you can! Throw away that cigar; and avoid intoxicating drinks, the GRAVE of home comforts; be sensible yourself, and seek your wife in a sensible way.”