How to make a living. Arranged for class dictation

Front matter

ShelfJ=LV*

How to ^Vlal(C a foiving

KEY

Chapter I. The Value Of Money

1. Every bookkeeper knows that tyros in his business find nothing

2. so difficult of comprehension as the nature of cash. It

3. is difficult to make the student of accounts understand that

4. cash comes by purchase like any other merchandise — that what

5. money one gets one must pay for, and that there

6. is an exact limit to the value of dollars and

7. cents, which must be kept in mind in purchasing money

8. with other things, just as the value of other things

9. must be kept in mind when they are to be

10. bought with money. With the young bookkeeper the difficulty is

1. soon mastered, while the rest of us are apt to

2. blunder on through life with no conception of the real

3. relation of money to other things. We express values in

4. terms of money, and so we come to regard dollars

5. and cents as constituting an invariable standard by which to

6. measure everything else. A unit of measure gets to be,

7. in some sort, an ultimate fact; and we take it

8. as a starting-point. The pound, the foot, the gallon— these

9. we know are fixed measures, and we are apt to

10. place the dollar in precisely the same category of fixed

HOW TO MAKE A LIVING.

1. things, assign to it a certain value; and, while we

2. measure everything else by it, let it go without any

3. measurement at all. 1 In point of fact, however, money is

4. not of fixed and certain worth at all. I speak,

5. now, not of paper promises to pay, which are always

6. reducible to their value in gold, but of gold itself.

7. When the gold dollar will buy two bushels of wheat,

8. and other things in proportion, it is really and truly

9. worth just twice as much as it is when it

10. will buy but one bushel. In other words, its purchasing

1. capacity is the real measure of its value. Now, this

2. purchasing capacity varies in different countries and at different

3. in the same country ; wherefore, it is evident the real [times

4. value of money varies at different times and in different

5. places quite as truly as does the value of any

6. other article of commerce. And it varies for precisely the

7. same reason, too. If the cost of production, — that is,

8. the amount of labor necessary to the production of a

9. given quantity of gold, — be increased or diminished without a 10. corresponding increase or diminution in the cost of producing

[other

1. things, the purchasing power (which is the value) of gold

2. undergoes a change at once. And if for any reason

3. the cost of producing other articles of daily use be [cost

4. enhanced or diminished, without a corresponding change in the

5. of gold production, there must be a proportionate change in

6. the value, as there is in the purchasing power of

7. gold. We cannot always trace these results to their ultimate

8. causes, for the reason that there may be, and usually

9. is, a complexity of cause which baffles us, but we

10. know the fact, nevertheless, that the value of money is

THE VALUE OF MONEY.

1. measured by its purchasing power, — in other words, that money

2. is worth just what it will buy — no more and

3. no less. All this seems simple enough, and yet it

4. is a fact constantly overlooked, and forgetfulness of it is

5. a fruitful source of error on the part of individuals

6. as well as of communities, and it is necessary for

7. the purposes of this little book that the reader shall

8. impress upon his mind in the outset this truth, that

9. money is an article of varying value, worth what it

10, will buy, and no more. % It seems a sufficiently evident

1. truth that we cannot afford to pay more for any 2.' article than it is worth; but how many of us

3. are there who distinctly and constantly recognize the fact that

4. we must pay for what money we get, and that

5. we cannot afford to pay more than it is worth?

6. We constantly forget that we get literally nothing in this

7. life without paying for it in some way. If we

8. read a book for the sake of the information, or

9. the culture, or the amusement it is capable of giving 10. us, we must pay for what we get in a

1. valuable commodity, time. If the time spent in reading be

2. worth less to us than the culture, or the information,

3. or the amusement which the reading brings, we do well

4. to purchase at the price, — to give the thing of

5. smaller for the thing of greater value. And this is

6. true of everything else. We cannot have money, or friends,

7. or culture, or ease, or comfort, or amusement, or pleasure,

8. or any other desirable thing whatever, without paying, in one

9. way or another, for what we get; and so it

10. becomes our duty in every case to learn accurately the

HOW TO MAKE A LIVING.

1. value of the coveted thing, and the price we must

2. pay for its possession. If the price be too high,

3. we should forego the desired good, as one which we

4. cannot afford to buy. If, on the other hand, the

5. thing wanted is to be had at a sufficiently small

6. cost, we do well to buy it. It is not

7. enough that the thing wished for shall be a good

8. and desirable one. It must be better and more desirable

9. than that which we must give in exchange for it, 10. or we cannot afford to purchase it at all. Books

1. are good things, doubtless, and so are pictures and statuary.

2. Comfortable homes are of great worth. Travel is an excellent

3. educator. All these and a hundred other things are desirable,

4. certainly; but they can only be had at a certain

5. cost in time or money, or both, and the question

6. whether or not we should have them depends wholly upon

7. another question, whether or not they are worth to us

8. more than their cost. There is no doubt of their

9. desirability, but it is not every one who can afford 10. them. What is true of all these things is true

1. also, and equally, of money. It is worth something, certainly.

2. It is worth a good deal, too, but it is

3. not worth everything. It is a good thing to have,

4. but it is not the only good, or even the

5. chief good, to be sought in life. Each of us

6. needs it, and some of it we must have, but

7. there is a limit to the amount of it which

8. we can afford to buy, and beyond that limit we

9. may not wisely go. The trouble is, commonly, that we 10. think and talk about making money, when in point of

THE VALUE OF MONEY.

1. fact we do nothing of the kind. Whatever money we

2. get in the world we buy quite as truly and

3. quite as directly as we buy the clothes upon our

4. backs. Every man begins life with certain possessions. These

5. his muscles, his intellect, his skill at work of any [are

6. kind, his education, his health, his energy, his character and

7. whatever property he may happen to have inherited. With these

8. he must buy whatever desirable things he gets in life —

9. books, houses, money, and everything else. If he be a 10. wise man he will take care not to pay more

1. for any of these than he can afford; but few

2. of us, unfortunately, are wise in this regard. Knowing very

3. well that we may live and be comfortable with small

4. possessions, in the way of money and property, nevertheless we

5. overwork ourselves now and then, — paying in precious health a 6. . price we cannot afford to pay, for money that we

? . really do not need ; or we sacrifice something of character

8. for the sake of increasing our purchases of things which

9. are of infinitely smaller worth ; or we starve our intellects 10. that we may buy more wealth, becoming poor that we

1. may seem to be rich. There are a hundred ways

2. in which we are constantly liable to make bad bargains

3. in purchasing wealth, and the very first lesson in economy

4. is this : Be careful that you do not buy money,

5. or its equivalent, at too high a price. There are

6. very few people who do not feel the need of

7. more money and property than they have, and feeling this

8. daily and hourly, it is only natural that we should

9. come to think of money, which is the representative of 10o all propertj r , as of greater worth than it is. We

1. are in constant danger, therefore, of buying it at too

2. high a price, and from first to last there is

3. nothing more essential than that we shall avoid this error.

4. To do this, each of us must determine, from time

5. to time, how much money he can afford to make.

6. Beyond the necessity of providing for his own and his

7. family's absolute wants, the making of money becomes a mere

8. question of one's ability to buy. " I have not time

9. to make money," said Agassiz, and with all his ability 10. to amass a fortune almost without effort he died, owning

1. nothing except his library and a mortgaged homestead. The

2. of money would have been very easy to him. His [making

3. vast store of knowledge might have been turned into popular

4. books and lectures, almost without labor, and money would have

5. flowed into his lap. He had need of money, too,

6. and could have used it to better advantage than most

7. men can. But he could not afford to buy it.

8. The cost he must pay for it was time, and

9. he felt that to be more precious than anything else.

10. His hours were worth more than the money they would

1. buy, and he, being a wise man, refused to purchase

2. at a price which he thought too high. Time is

3. not so valuable to every man as it was to

4. him, but time is not always the only thing one

5. must pay, and there are but very few of us

6. who do not, in one way or another, pay too

7. high a price for the money we get in the

8. world, — very few who do not buy more money than

9. they can afford, and there is no worse extravagance possible 10. than this. Each of us has certain aspirations in life.

1. There are certain things which each of us would like [sion

2. to accomplish, and for the accomplishment of which the posses-

3. of money is necessary. For the most part, these aspirations

4. are worthy ones, or at least not unworthy. But their

5. accomplishment is not absolutely necessary — if we be rightly

6. people — even to our own happiness, and we must be [constituted

7. careful not to let our zeal for these things mislead

8. us as to their value and the value of the [should

9. money necessary to their accomplishment. But above all we 10. never forget that while money is an excellent means, it

1. never can be a worthy end. It is an excellent

2. servant, but the worst of all possible masters. It strengthens

3 . our hands for all purposes, but has no value whatever

4. except in its use. Now we all know precisely what

5. money will purchase, and so we have an exact measure

6. of its worth constantly at hand. We know that a

7. given amount of it will enable us to live in

8. a certain way, to have certain comforts and luxuries, to

9. indulge certain tastes, to relieve a certain amount of distress, 10. to accomplish certain desired ends. Knowing this and knowing

[precisely

1. how desirable it is to live in this way, to

2. have these comforts and luxuries, to indulge these tastes and

3. to accomplish these ends, we have only to ascertain precisely

4. how much of economy and of labor, how much of

5. self-sacrifice, how much of the sacrifice of those dependent upon

6. us, we must give, — in short, what price we must

7. pay for these things, to know whether or not we

8. can afford them. If we can accomplish the ends we

9. have set before us at reasonable cost, we should do 10. so by all means. If we cannot, then we have

1. no right to accomplish them at all. We are in

2. that case, precisely in the predicament of a man who

3. wishes to live in a costly, well-appointed house, but

4. is without the money necessary to pay for the luxury.

5. T The truth is that most of us make more money

6. than we can afford. We begin by spending too much,

7. indulging extravagant tastes, and living in a style which requires

8. not more money, perhaps, than we can make, but more

9. than we can afford to make. In order that we

1 0. may do this we overtax our strength in work ; deny

1. ourselves needed rest; pinch our souls in a hundred ways;

2. impoverish our minds ; deny ourselves the advantages of reading,

3. study and travel ; and sometimes cut short our lives. Can [leisure,

4. there be doubt that, in all such cases, we pay

5. more for the thing we get than it is worth?

6. It should be our care, then, not to set before

7. ourselves too great a task in life. We should begin »

8. with small ends in view, and allow our purposes to

9. widen when the means for their accomplishment shall be ours. 10. We should beware of creating an artificial necessity for money

1. lest that necessity lead us to buy the commodity at

2. an extravagant price. In this, as in everything else, it

3. is of the utmost importance that we shall decide in

4. advance what we intend doing in life. A vague purpose

5. to make a good deal of money, and do a

6. good many other things, is about the worst one with

7. which it is possible to begin life. As a rule,

8. he that does two things will do neither well, and

9. it is important that every young man shall determine precisely 10. to what end he will live. In this country one

1. can make money in considerable quantities, if he devote himself

2. to the task to the exclusion of everything else, but

3. it is by no means easy for one to become

4. rich, while he is accomplishing anything else. If you would

5. become learned, your time and your energies must be given

6. to the task of acquiring knowledge. If you desire to

7. make a name for yourself, you must add attention and

8. industry to what talent or genius you may have, and

9. pay the whole for the reputation you seek. If you 10. would be rich, you must deny yourself all other good

1. things, — you must give your days and nights, your thoughts,

2. your energies, to the making of money; you must restrain

3. your hand when you would be generous in almsgiving; you

4. must deny yourself luxuries and comforts ; you must forego most

5. of the pleasures of life, and devote yourself wholly to

6. the one task of getting and keeping money. This is

7. the price which most of us must pay if we

8. would be rich, and it is the price, too, which

9. most men, who have become rich, have paid. There are 10. exceptional cases now and then, but they are too rare

1. to be taken into account in this place. As a

2. rule, one must forego the thought of becoming rich, if

3. he would accomplish anything else in the world, and the

4. choice ought to be made at the start. The trouble

5. is, that many of us are constantly trying to get

6. wealth and hoping to get it, while we steadily refuse

7. to pay the price. We even allow ourselves to grow

8. unhappy, sometimes, over our failure to get that for which

9. we deliberately refuse to pay. We live in a style

10. which we can well enough afford, perhaps, but which precludes

1. the possibility of amassing a fortune; we indulge tastes which

2. are altogether commendable, but which cost us a good deal

3. in time, money, attention or energy; we open our hands

4. to the needy, as we ought, but as we cannot

5. afford to do if we are to become rich; we

6. pursue studies which enrich our minds, at cost of neglecting

7. the getting of money; we entertain our friends, and keep

8. our families in comfort, which is right and proper, but

9. is not at all the way to make a great

10. deal of money ; and having thus used our means in

1. buying innumerable good things, we grumble at our inability to

2. purchase that wealth for which, if we are to have

3. it at all, we must forego all these things. Nothing

4. is commoner than this, and nothing could be more unreasonable.

5. We cannot eat our cake and have our cake, and

6. it is the part of wisdom to decide whether we

7. shall eat or keep it. If you set wealth before

8. you as the object of life, the way is open

9. and evident to the attainment of your end. You have

10. only to surrender all other objects; work without regard to

1. anything else; make all the money you can, and keep

2. all you make ; stint your body and starve your soul.

3. The mere accumulation of money by these means is easy

4. and certain, but the price you must pay is an

5. outrageously high one. Yet it is the price which ninety-nine

6. men in a hundred must pay if they would have

7. wealth. It is far better to abandon the idea of

8. getting rich and to devote one's self to a higher

9. purpose from the beginning. But some money we must have, 10. and the question each should decide for himself in beginning

THE DUTY AND THE DANGER OF MAKING MONEY. 13

1. life is, How much money can I afford to make?

2. The answer will depend upon several other things. In the

3. first place, you must ascertain what your money-making capac-

ity is—

4. not in a vague, uncertain way, but positively. Knowing this

5. you must determine also how much money you will be

6. required to spend in living, as you purpose living, and

7. the difference will be the amount you can afford to

8. save. An intelligent conception of one's purpose in life, kept

9. steadily in view, will go a great way toward solving 10. the problem of happiness or misery. It puts an end

1. to vague longing and precludes discontent. It enables one to

2. accomplish, at least approximately, the end he has set before

3. him, and so makes of him a satisfied instead of

4. a disappointed man. It puts fancy in harness and makes

5. her help to draw the load.

Chapter II. The Duty And The Danger Of Making Money

1. Having determined how much money you are capable of mak-

2. how much you wish to make, and how much you [i n g? —

3. can afford to make, it remains to be decided how

4. much you have a right to make, for in this

5. every man is subject to a limitation which he may

6. not transcend without wronging himself and defrauding the

7. its just dues. There can be no more positive error [world of

8. than the common thought, that every man has a right

9. to make all the money he can by honest methods. 10. Life brings duties with it, as well as privileges, and

1. every man owes the world a debt which he must

2. pay if he would be truly and perfectly honest. To

3. refuse payment in this case is as positively a failure

4. in honesty as to neglect it in any other. Every

5. man owes it to the world to do the very

6. best work of which he is capable. We live in

7. daily enjoyment of a civilization wrought out by those who

8. have gone before us, and in enjoyment also of the

9. results of the work done by our fellows still living. 10. The world gives us all these things, and in return

1. we cannot honestly refuse to render our own best service.

2. Disguise the fact as we may, the family of mankind

3. is a community, each individual sharing, in one way or

4. another, the work of all the rest. No man has

5. a right, therefore, to devote himself so exclusively to the

6. task of making money, as to neglect the doing of

7. his best work in the world, or to unfit himself

8. for its doing. The force of this is felt most

9. strongly when one comes to determine what his business shall 10. be. Professor Agassiz was bred a physician, and might have

1. made the practice of his profession much more lucrative than

2. he could ever hope to make the work he chose

3. to do in the world. But while he might have

4. been a useful and prosperous man, writing prescriptions in some

5. European city, he would, in that case, have defrauded the

6. world not only of the scientific discoveries he made, but

7. also of the museum at Harvard, one of the completest

8. natural history collections in the world, which was built up

9. almost exclusively by his labor. We should have lost, too, 10. the influence he has exerted upon the educational system of

THE DUTY AND THE DANGER OF MAKING MONEY. 15

1. our country; the school at Penikese; the hunger and thirst

2. for scientific information which are working a revolution not in

3. our schools only, but in our lives as well. The

4. world would have lost all these merely that Louis Agassiz

5. might accumulate a few thousands of dollars. And the rule

6. we apply to his case is applicable to all. It

7. is given to few men to accomplish the tenth part

8. of that which he did, but every man may do

9. far more if he choose his work wisely and conscientiously, 10. than if he determine it merely by the test of

1. its pecuniary productiveness. Besides the general duty of every

2. to do the work for which nature has best fitted [man

3. him, every man owes it to himself so to choose

4. his business as to secure the largest intellectual and moral

5. growth, and the greatest degree of happiness to himself and

6. to those around him. All these things should have their

7. weight not only in the choice of a business, but

8. equally in its pursuit, and all these things limit the

9. right of a man to make money. The general principle 10. involved may be stated in a few words, as follows:

1. It is the duty of every one to make money

2. enough to supply the reasonable wants of himself and of

3. those dependent upon him. It is his privilege to make

4. as much more as he can without sacrificing worthier ends.

5. The application of this principle will be seen in subsequent

6. chapters, and in its application to individual cases it leads

7. to various results. It prompted Agassiz, as we have already

8. seen, to forego the easy accumulation of money in order

9. that he might do that for which he was so

10. eminently fitted, and which the world so greatly needed. On

1. the other hand, such men as Stephen Girard and Peter

2. Cooper have been impelled, by identically the same principle, to

3. the laborious accumulation of enormous wealth, with which alone

[their

4. equally excellent work might be done. Had Agassiz made money ,

5. his work must have been neglected. To Girard and Cooper

6. the making of money was an essential part of the

7. task set them. % There are so many pleasant things connected

8. with the possession of wealth, and man is so prone

9. to think those things good which are agreeable, that every 10. one of us is in danger of magnifying both the

1. duty and the privilege of accumulation. We are apt to

2. think ourselves best fitted for those things at which we

3. can most readily, and most surely, make money, and here

4. is a danger to be avoided. Without doubt, our ability

5. to make a calling profitable is, in some sense, and

6. to some extent, a measure of our fitness for it;

7. but that it is not always a correct measure is

8. evident. There is another danger, too, to be guarded against,

9. namely, that as our accumulations increase, the desire to accumu- 10. will grow with them, until it becomes a genuine passion, [late

1. in which case it is sure to override every other

2. consideration, and to make of us mere machines for making

3. money, than which no fate can well be worse. The

4. birth and growth of this passion is almost always imperceptible,

5. and hence it is one that can be guarded against

6. only by the utmost watchfulness of an alert conscience. To

7. avoid it with certainty, one must keep constantly in view

8. the purposes for which he is making money, never allowing

9. himself for a moment to regard the money itself as

10. an end worth working for. These general principles are not

THE DUTY AND THE DANGER OF MAKING MONEY. 17

1. in any sense new. They have been stated so often

2. that I should gladly omit them here but for the

3. fact that they are constantly neglected in practice. Upon them

4. rests the whole body of the ethics of money-making, which

5. in oar country, at least, involves almost all there is

6. of ethics. Their statement here is necessary, too, as a

7. foundation for what follows. It is necessary for the reader

8. to understand at the outset the point of view from

9. which we are to consider our subject, and to this

10. end I recapitulate the principles upon which this little treatise

1. rests, as follows: first, it is both the right and

2. the duty of every man to make money enough to

3. supply the reasonable wants of himself and his family. Second,

4. it is the right and, in some sense, the duty

5. of every man to make as much more money as

6. he can, consistently with his obligations to himself, his family,

7. and the world at large; third, every man must pay

8. for whatever money he gets, and the price of wealth

9. is very much greater than most men can afford to 10. pay, and much greater than most men are willing to

1. pay; fourth, money is good as a means to the

2. accomplishment of worthy ends, but as itself an end, it

3. is utterly unworthy of human effort ; wherefore its pursuit, except

4. as a means, must of necessity be debasing.