e his best.

And so, whatever the outcome, start out with this rule and keep it to
the end. For nothing wastes your powers so much as apprehension. The
hardest work, if done with common sense, is after all a tonic. But
fear lest that work will not yield you as much as you wish is a sort
of irritating cocaine of character, numbing and deadening all of your
powers and at the same time lashing your mind and nerves with the
knotted thongs of unhappiness. Besides, fretting is so trivial, so
little, so commonplace. Fail if you must, but do not be contemptible.

He who worries not only poisons the very fountains of his own strength
but arouses in the world's attitude toward him a sort of sneering
pity. So the very first thing that I have to suggest to you is that
you should _be a man_ in all your doings and throughout your whole
career.

That is it--be a man; a great, strong, willing, kindly man--calm in
the glory of a fearless heart, serene in your trust and belief in God,
the Father of the world, and so sure of the justice of His providence
that you go about your daily business free from those silly cares
which corrode and ruin manhood itself.

Be a man--that is the first and the last rule of the greatest success
in life. For the greatest success in life does not mean dollars heaped
in bank-vaults nor volumes written, nor railroads built, nor laws
devised, nor armies led. No, the greatest success is none of these.
The supreme success is character.

Pay no attention to mere spiteful criticism, but seek, as for gold and
precious stones, the chastening advice of friends. Do not be offended
if your friends say an unpleasant thing of you. And here we are at the
Bible again: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of
an enemy are deceitful."

These recurrences to what those wise old Hebrews said make one feel
that one is committing a superfluity when one attempts to say anything
along the line of practical advice, since anything that any man can
say is nothing more than a very weak dilution of the concentrated
thought of the most acute minds of the greatest business people, the
most successful material people--yes, and the most idealistic
people--who ever lived, the ancient, the mysterious, the persistent
Jews.

This is saying much for the Hebrew blood and genius; but have not
these Jews given us our moral laws, our spiritual ideals, our sacred
faith? Not only the bankers of the world are they, but the formul