Recollections of a Busy Life: Being the Reminiscences of a Liverpool Merchant 1840-1910Forwood, William Bower, Sir
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Recollections of a Busy Life: Being the Reminiscences of a Liverpool Merchant 1840-1910
Forwood, William Bower, Sir
Forwood, William Bower, Sir, 1840-1928; Merchants -- England -- Liverpool -- Biography
The hurry of the present day is prejudicial to that thoroughness which
is necessary if we are to attain efficiency. The hurry of everyday life
becomes more and more conspicuous. Living at high pressure, in this
super-heated atmosphere we are apt to lose our sense of proportion, and
crowd our minds with thoughts, schemes and projects regardless of our
power of assimilation and arrangement. Our minds are apt to become mere
lumber rooms, into which everything is tossed. Many things are
forgotten, and cannot be found when wanted. How much better it would be
for ourselves and for the world at large if we could live with more
deliberation, if we could specialise more, be more intense within a more
limited range of thought and activity, less casual, more thorough in the
commonplaces of life. Life would not lose in interest or
picturesqueness, and it would gain in symmetry and value. It may be said
that while it might add to the effectiveness of life, it would deprive
it of much of its colour and romance; this would not, however,
necessarily follow. On the contrary, greater effectiveness would open
out new avenues for thought and action, new spheres of usefulness, more
refined and elevating in their character, and more satisfying in their
results.
These appear to be surroundings in which we have to work out the
problems of our lives, and this leads us to the consideration of how we
are to achieve success under these conditions of competition and hurry.
SUCCESS IN LIFE.
There are various kinds of success in life: business success, social
success, and success in public affairs. Perhaps to the ordinary
individual business success is the most important; it is a source of
happiness, promotes social success, and opens up avenues of public
usefulness.
If we look back and endeavour to trace the careers of those with whom we
have been associated when young, I think we shall observe that those
who have been most successful in their business careers have, with few
exceptions, not been the brilliant and clever boys, but rather those of
duller intellect, who have had the gift of steady application. This
faculty is not born in us; we are by nature casual, and apt to follow
the lines of thought and endeavour which require the least labour, and
offer the most varied interest. We hate the grind of sustained effort,
it bores us, and we long for something new. This dislike of prolonged
application, and desire for change, has made more shipwrecks of business
careers than perhaps any other cause. In its craving for change and
excitement, it leads to speculation as a possible road to wealth without
effort.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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