Now, some people differ with Mr. Maxim on this last point. They believe the world does owe each one of us a living. If they are right, it is pleasant to think that the world is very ready to pay this debt, when we come around to collect it in the right way. If we can do any one thing superbly, no matter how humble it may be, we shall find ourselves in demand. The world will most willingly pay its indebtedness to us.
Men and women who have won distinction in every business and profession are unanimous in their agreement as to two cardinal points in the achievement of success—Work and Grit.
The Honorable Thomas Pryor Gore, the blind Senator of Oklahoma, who raised himself from a poor, blind boy to be an influential member of the United States Senate, has this to say on the secret of pushing to the front: “A fixed and unalterable purpose, pursued under all circumstances, in season and out of season, with no shadow of turning, is the best motive power a man can have. I have sat in physical darkness for twenty-seven years, and if I have learned anything it is that the dynamics of the human will can overcome any difficulty.”
Here, indeed, is encouragement for every youth in this land of opportunity. Think of a poor, blind boy, unaided, achieving such distinction as Mr. Gore has won! Think of a blind Milton writing the greatest epic in the world’s literature! Think of a Beethoven, stone deaf, overcoming the greatest handicap a composer could have, and raising himself to the distinction of being one of the greatest composers the world has known! One of this wonderful man’s sayings is well worth keeping in mind by every young man struggling with difficulties: “I will grapple with fate; it shall never drag me down.”
It is well also to remember this truth: “Usually the work that is required to develop talent is ten times that necessary for ordinary commonplace success.” Men naturally brainy, or with some great gift, have to work most assiduously to achieve big results. Without untiring perseverance, industry, grit, the courage to get up and press on after repeated failures, the historic achievers of the world would never have won out in their undertakings.
Columbus said that it was holding on three days more that discovered the New World; that is, it was holding on three days after even the stoutest hearts would have turned back that brought him in sight of land.
Tenacity of purpose is characteristic of all men who have accomplished great things. They may lack other desirable traits, may have all sorts of peculiarities, weaknesses, but the quality of persistence, clear grit, is never absent from the man who does things. Drudgery cannot disgust him, labor cannot weary him, hardships cannot discourage him. He will persist no matter what comes or goes, because persistence is part of his nature.
More young men have achieved success in life with grit as capital, than with money capital to start with. The whole history of achievement shows that grit has overcome the direst poverty; it has been more than a match for lifelong invalidism.
After all, what do all the other accomplishments and personal decorations amount to if a man lacks the driving wheel, grit, which moves the human machine. A man has got to have this projectile force or he will never get very far in the world. Grit is a quality which stays by a man when every other quality retreats and gives up.