THE UNITED AMERICAN
AUGUST, 1924
7
Measuring Success by the Standard of Human Worth and Value
TF YOU measure success solely by the wealth a man
4 has accumulated or the political prominence he has
i attained, the chances are that you have never found
■ the really successful man, because you have been
looking in the wrong direction.
I The man who has striven to gain wealth in order to
be rated wealthy, has invariably violated a number of
the Don’ts that mark the trail of clean, honest and
upright living and thereby sacrificed the essentials
without which true success can never be attained. His
“deals” have in many instances required the most
! careful scrutiny of able lawyers, trained in the techni
cal construction of the law, before he “put them over.”
He invariably has played the game against the unsus
pecting individual or in the vernacular of business
slang, beat him to it. His shrewdness has invariably
caused some poorer man to give up the struggle for
something he was working for with a worthier aim.
While some, not affected by his operations, are ap
plauding him, others against whom he has been play
ing a game of deception, hold-up or a “freeze-out” are
hating, cursing, thinking and planning vengeance or
retaliation in some form or other. Hence the wealthy
man is in most cases a bit, apprehensive, a wee bit
nervous, on the alert and uneasy when he struggles
to appear at ease and happy. He is catered to be
cause of his wealth. His friends flatter him in order
to ingratiate themselves for such favors as money
can buy. He sees sickly envy on every hand. His
trust is tainted with distrust. He is constrained not
to give anyone his confidence, for fear that he may be
betrayed.
As a patron he is sought for the money he spends
and the tips he gives. In short, he becomes conscious
of the fact that his money and not he is the center of
attraction and that if he should lose his wealth not
one of those who acclaim him, perhaps, would give
him a passing glance of recognition, not even those
to whom he had granted favors. In spite of his wealth
he is not a success, for that which has a greater value
in life than wealth—contentment, the foundation to
true happiness, is beyond his reach.
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The man who seeks political prominence in order to
gratify a personal ambition, who prates about service
to his fellowman, but in his life has given no evidence
of unselfish service, may gain his goal, yet his promi
nence is generally acclaimed chiefly by those who are
his political beneficiaries, who have personal reasons
for offering their “hail!” Having gained his place by
granting secret concessions to groups and individuals
whose interests require political pull and protection,
he is merely a tool whose acts cannot be in the interest
of all, whose hold on the office is possible only through
the strenuous efforts on the part of those who have a
direct interest in the office he occupies, for the politi
cal and economic benefits they derive. The joy and
happiness that come as return from honest efforts
of one who has filled an office for the common good,
who has sacrificed personal interests to vindicate the
principle of unselfish public service, will never come
into the life of the self-seeker who may gain affluence
and wealth through manipulations of his office, and
prominence through highly-colored publicity traded
for special favors, but he will never know the mean
ing of these virtues in their truer sense.
Success is the attainment of a full measure of hap
piness derived from -the knowledge that one is filling
his place in life to the best of his ability, rendering
unstintedly the services of hand and mind, for which
one is paid, if employed by others, or expects to return
fair value, if working independently in a little niche
carved out by individual pluck, skill or ingenuity.
Success is stamped upon the home, no matter how
humble, where harmony and cheer abound, where
contentment is reflected in good will and kindly
thoughts, where the members of the household pos
sess the naturalness that puts the visitor at ease,
where the faults of neighbors are not magnified,
where there is no grouchiness and bitter complaining,
a give-and-take atmosphere that manifests gentle
ness and poise in the little circle of balanced minds.
Success is possible with or without the possession
of wealth or great influence, it is NOT dependent on
the possession of either. Success is service first,
financial returns and all other considerations second.
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Success is the true description of the life of the
obscure shoe-mender who for thirty-seven years had
plied his trade in a corner basement in President
Coolidge’s New England hometown, and to whom the
president recently wrote a letter in which the follow
ing sentence appears:
“Not often do I see you or write you, but I
want you to know that if it were not for you,
I should not be here, and I want to tell you
how much I love you.”
The publication of this letter made a nation turn to
this humble citizen, to see and to know him, who. in
some way had been the maker of a president. The
answer from his neighbors was that he inspired suc
cess and that many men had risen to prominence as
a result of their little journeys to the shoe-mender in
the ‘basement shop. And yet this towering giant in
the world of success had his work in a little basement
shop above which he had his home and family. A
man of contentment getting more out of life than mil
lions who possess a greater measure of wealth and
influence. To the inquirers the shoe-mender did not
speak of the things he was giving to life : encourage
ment and suggestions to upright thinking and living.
These were his gifts to those who went forth to prac
tice his teachings.
The foreign born in America have more than broken
even in every way in the attainment of success in this
new homeland. Many may never know the measure
of success they have attained, because of the artificial
measurements that are applied, giving the man of
great wealth credit for being a success as against the
man who never accumulated riches, though he may
by correct measurements, be a pillar of society.
Pillars of society are not those who are the so-called