Dare to aspire to a higher position. Study to get it. Talk with others who have risen and find out how they got there. Don’t copy them, but try to initiate some better way. If you are sawing boards, study how to run the engine, and incidentally learn how to manage the whole business. It can not harm a man doing a small work to know how to do a greater one. He will be ready to slip into the better work when the opportunity comes and it is sure to come.
Do not run behind in your work. This is a fatal deficiency. It means a backward movement and you must keep on pressing forward. If you feel yourself going back, study the reason. Perhaps you are bilious, eating too much, or not enough nourishing food. Keep your body working regularly, for your health is the most important item toward success.
Save your money. But do not become a miser. You must live among others and you can not afford to be considered small or mean. But you do not have to squander money for any reason. If you are considered mean because you refuse to squander money, let it go at that, and some day you will be better understood. Such things are small details not worth noticing.
Keep in touch with the outside world. Read newspapers and magazines and learn to discuss or talk over the various topics of the day, whether you understand them or not. Somebody will give you the keynote and then you will add to your stock of knowledge. You can not learn too much, you may fail by not knowing enough. Please remember this, no man is turned down because he knows too much.
Learn to master yourself. Don’t let anything ruffle your temper, and think seriously before starting a fight. You may win the fight but lose your own self-respect and gain enmity. A man can not afford to throw away a friend. He needs all he can get.
Don’t be afraid to work. Take work as it comes to you. Do not select the easiest jobs, or you will get tired of the hard ones before you reach them. Accustom yourself to work easily, and with your whole heart and skill.
Give your imagination full swing as to the uses of the work you are doing, and imagine how you could better it. This is efficiency and leads to invention.
Don’t brag about what you can do. Do it and there will not be any need to brag. Everybody will see what sort of a man you are and give you credit for common sense and for knowing more than you really do.
Surround yourself with good influences, a club, a church, or some society where you will be in touch with other men. Nobody who dares can afford to be a hermit, and the man who gets disheartened at the obstacles in his way, is a fool and ought not to and will not succeed.
Keep away from small vices and the large ones will not trouble you. This will make your sailing on a smooth sea, where there are no rocks or concealed reefs to wreck you.