[Sidenote:  Self-advertised Disqualifications Unrecognized Capabilities]

We are sure of the failure of the man who is utterly disqualified to succeed; not because he has particular faults, but because they self-advertise and sell the idea of his disqualifications for success.  His characteristics and actions make on our minds an impression of his general worthlessness.  Defects are apt to attract attention, while perfection often passes unnoticed.

Millions of worthy men, otherwise qualified for success, have failed solely because their merits were not appreciated and rewarded as they would have been if recognized.  Capabilities, like goods, are profitless until they are sold.  Therefore the man who deserves to win out in life can make his victory sure only by learning and practicing with skill the certain success methods of the master salesman.

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[Sidenote:  The Duty to Succeed]

Down through all the ages has come the duty to succeed.  It was enjoined in the Parable of the Talents.  No one has the right to do less than his best.  Then only can he claim full justification for his existence.  The Creator accepts no excuses for failure.  Every personal quality, and every opportunity to succeed that a man has, must be used, to entitle him to the rewards of success.  He owes not only to himself and to his fellows, but also to God, the obligation of developing his utmost capability.  If he does not pay dividends on the divine investment in him, his dereliction is justly punished by failure in life.  Sometimes he even forfeits the right to live.

[Sidenote:  Success Cannot be Copied]

Many ambitious people, who recognize their duty to succeed but do not know how to go about it, make a common mistake in thinking.  They believe the secret of certain success can be learned from examples; that success can be copied.  So men who have succeeded conspicuously are often asked to state and explain their rules, for the benefit of other men who regard them as oracles.

[Sidenote:  Other Men’s Formulas]

Doubtless you have read much about Marshall Field, J. Pierpont Morgan, Charles M. Schwab, and similar outstanding business men.  You have studied their principles of success.  You have tried to practice their methods.  But somehow the most careful following of their directions has not made you a multi-millionaire, nor can you see riches as a prospect.  Naturally you are both disappointed and puzzled.  Perhaps you have tested faithfully for years various formulas of success extracted from the advice of successful men.  Yet you have failed, or have achieved only partial and unsatisfying success.  You have been unable to solve the problem that you once felt so sure could be worked out by the rules you mastered.