[00:02.73]033. The Road to Success [00:12.31]It is well that young men should begin at the beginning and occupy the most subordinate positions. [00:19.59]Many of the leading businessmen of Pittsburgh had a serious responsibility [00:25.14]thrust upon them at the very threshold of their career. They were introduced to the broom, [00:32.37]and spent the first hours of their business lives sweeping out the office. [00:37.67]I notice we have janitors and janitresses now in offices, [00:42.01]and our young men unfortunately miss that salutary branch of a business education. [00:48.38]But if by chance the professional sweeper is absent any morning the boy [00:52.62]who has the genius of the future partner in him will not hesitate to try his hand at the broom. [00:59.85]The other day a fond fashionable mother in Michigan asked a young man [01:04.47]whether he had ever seen a young lady sweep in a room so grandly as her Priscilla. He said no, [01:11.69]he never had, and the mother was gratified beyond measure, but then he said, after a pause, [01:19.19]“What I should like to see her do is sweep out a room.” [01:23.15]It does not hurt the newest comer to sweep out the office if necessary. I was one of those sweepers myself. [01:29.86]Assuming that you have all obtained employment and are fairly started, my advice to you is “aim high.” [01:38.71]I would not give a fig for the young man who does not already see himself the partner or the head of an important firm. [01:47.63]Do not rest content for a moment in your thoughts as head clerk, or foreman, [01:53.46]or general manager in any concern, no matter how extensive. Say to yourself, [02:00.11]“My place is at the top.” Be king in your dreams. [02:05.49]And here is the prime condition of success, the great secret: concentrate your energy, [02:13.41]thought, and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. [02:20.37]Having begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, [02:29.46]have the best machinery, and know the most about it. [02:35.12]The concerns which fail are those which have scattered their capital, [02:40.28]which means that they have scattered their brains also. [02:44.52]They have investments in this, or that, or the other, here, there, and everywhere. [02:51.15]“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” is all wrong. I tell you “put all your eggs in one basket, [02:59.64]and then watch that basket.” Look round you and take notice, men who do that not often fail. [03:08.47]It is easy to watch and carry the one basket. It is trying to carry too many baskets that breaks most eggs in this country. [03:17.78]He who carries three baskets must put one on his head, which is apt to tumble and trip him up. [03:25.67]One fault of the American businessman is lack of concentration. [03:30.58]To summarize what I have said: Aim for the highest, never enter a bar room; do not touch liquor, [03:38.87]or if at all only at meals; never speculate; never indorse beyond your surplus cash fund; [03:47.57]make the firm’s interest yours; break orders always to save owners; concentrate; [03:54.70]put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket; expenditure always within revenue; lastly be not impatient, [04:05.23]for as Emerson says, “no one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourselves.”

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