Only one thing in the world can improve you and better your condition, and that thing is your own effort. You begin life with certain mental faculties, and with certain muscular faculties. Their development or decay depends entirely on yourself. No work that you do is worthless. It will NEVER pay you to neglect or slur the task that you have undertaken. You may be idle, in the thought that you are indulging yourself at the expense of your employer. It is a dishonest thought, and it is a stupid thought at the same time. You may rob your employer of the time that he pays for, but when you shirk your work you rob yourself first of all. ---- You may say that your employer pays you too little. Perhaps he does. But that is no reason for hurting your moral character through dishonesty. It is no excuse for failing to develop yourself. The store, or factory, or office in which you work is to your mind what a gymnasium is to your muscles. You enter a gymnasium AND PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF WORKING THERE. You do not say to yourself: "This gymnasium belongs to another man. The profits go to him, and so I'll not work hard." On the contrary, you realize that the owner of the gymnasium gives you the chance to develop your muscles, and you thank him, although he makes you pay for the privilege. And you do your very best, on the trapeze, rings, parallel bars, or in any other direction. Act in your work as you do in your gymnasium hours. There is no kind of work that can fail to make you a better and more successful man if you work at it honestly and loyally. If you sweep an office, sweep it well. And begin punctually each day, remembering that punctuality acquired in sweeping an office may be used later in governing a city. Train your mind through your work, whatever it is. Study the lives of those who have succeeded. You will see that they did whatever they did as well as they could. Edison was an ordinary telegraph operator. But he was not content with merely working as others worked. He worked very hard, devised means to make more valuable the instruments of his employers. Soon he was an employer himself, and what is far better than being an employer, he was a creator of new ideas and a benefactor of the world. ---- Intelligent readers will not misinterpret this advice to mean that they should OVERWORK themselves, or work regardless of their own physical welfare. The right course is this: Do as much as you can in the present, without drawing on your future reserves. Don't work all night and then go on the next day. Such effort impairs permanently your store of vitality, and that vitality is your capital. But never form the habit of neglecting work, of shamming and lying instead of achieving honestly. You may deceive one employer, or ten. But 36> you can't deceive nature, and you can't deceive yourself.