Employes should remember that prosperity goes in cycles, that it is but three generations from shirt sleeve to shirt sleeve.
Over ninety per cent. of the bosses today started in and worked their way up from the ground. The young man who inherits a partnership in his father's business really has a handicap on him, and is not as likely to succeed as an employe who starts in at the bottom of the ladder.
Employes should remember that responsibilities only come to those whose shoulders are broad enough to bear them, and when additional responsibility comes to an employe that employe should look upon the responsibility as a distinct advantage to him, for it gives him an opportunity to show the stuff he is made of.
Laxity
When young men start in business their thoughts are all prospective. They look forward to the time when they will attain success. They work hard. They put enthusiasm and long hours into their business. As years pass they attain success and cash in this world's goods. They buy beautiful homes and surround themselves with luxury. They indulge in high living. They have country places. They take things easy. They sit back in their chairs and imagine their business will go on forever because they are so well established.
The hard worker is entitled to slacken up a little as success comes to him, but the moment his energies commence to wane, he should see to it that he gets the right sort of young material in the institution to keep up the enthusiasm and hard work which he himself has had.
In the very nature of things it is impossible for a man to keep up his youthful pace in his mature age, for, as we have frequently observed, you can't go fast far.
One of the principal elements in Marshall Field's success was that he got enthusiastic, hard workers around him. The moment he saw signs of laxity in any of these individuals, he let them out and got new material.
Laxity means loss of power, and with loss of power the machine does not do as good work.