Chapter 4

PROFITING BY EXPERIENCE

_Experience comes by contact._ There is no way we can have experiences without passing directly through them. If we are up and doing they come thick and fast into our lives, some of them weighted down by the peculiar twists and turns of circumstances, others simple, easily understood, and still others complicated to the point of not being understood at all.

People are divided into two classes--_those who profit by experience and those who do not_. The unfortunate part of it all is that the latter class is by far the larger of the two.

The man of vigorous purpose, fine constitution, and the full knowledge of self, sees through an experience as clearly as through a window. The glass may be foggy, but he knows what lies beyond. Self-reliant and strong he seeks knowledge through experience, while the weak man, the unhealthy-minded, the inefficient, stands aside and gives him the right of way. In later years, however, they bitterly complain that they were not given the same chance to succeed.

The man of experience having long since passed through the stages of indecision has, through careful self-analysis learned to bridge difficulties that would make others tremble with fear. He knows that every lane has a turning. He may not see it at the moment. He may not know where it is. _But that doesn't worry him._ He picks up his bundle and trudges ahead, confident that victory awaits him somewhere along the line.

The fact that he believes in himself, sets him apart from ordinary mankind. Many great men have been at loss to understand why they attained success. It is well nigh impossible for them to outline the causes that led them to the top rungs of the ladder. The reason is that _their lack of fear_ of experiences was an unconscious one, rather than a conscious one. However, they are willing to admit that acting on the principle of profiting by experience _loaned them initiative_ with which to proceed. They soon came to know opportunity at sight and had only to look around to find it.

The young man standing on the threshold of life is, from lack of experience, puzzled over the future. He looks above him and sees the towering successes. He reads in the papers of the massive characters who have risen from the bottom to the top. Naturally he would like to meet one of these giants of success and hear what he has to say. The interview is quite needless. "_Get busy and profit by experience_," is about all the advice one man can give to another. There is no way to profit by experience until we have had experience so there is nothing to do but get busy and experience will come as fast as we can absorb it. Our duty is to strive for success and not expect to attain it except by successive steps. A wholesale consignment would be our undoing. Quick successes through luck or good fortune have not the lasting value of those won by virtue of knowing how--of accomplishing what we started out to do.

Faith in one's self does not come from the outside--it must spring up naturally _from within_. A healthy body and a sane mind are the best foundations for this. The young man who begins his career with these facts in mind is given a running start over his competitors. Poverty and failure are the result of _an ignorance of the value of experience_. Worry, anxiety, fear of not doing the right thing, lack of insight into character ... these, too, are the result of a lack of experience.

Good health is necessary to experience, but a majority neglect to take care of it. If we are to profit by what we learn we _must have the vim_ with which to push forward. We must have every ounce of vitality we possess at command--ready for use. This we conserve for the _big emergency_ which we know is coming. New experiences are pushing us forward and previous experiences are helping to move the load. Experience tells us what to do at this point and that--and at last puts its shoulder to the wheel and "_over she goes_!"

Every mind is in possession of an enormous amount of dormant power and only experience can release it into proper action. We often hear a fond mother say that her son is full to bursting with the _old nick_, which means that the youngster is overflowing with _pent-up energy_. With experience he could find good use for it--but without it this surplus may turn out to be a dangerous possession. Young men of this type should be guarded most carefully and advised to "get busy" _early in life_ at something worth while. Many a bright fellow brimming with excess power has gone as a lamb to the slaughter into the maelstrom of vice because of being held back from _legitimate occupation_. He just had to blow off steam so he did it in a gin mill rather than a rolling mill.

This dynamo called the mind can be trained to do anything. Not only can it be guided at the start but it can be guided by all that follows. It can be used for building additional dynamos to be called into action in times of need. This statement may seem at first far-fetched. If we think so it is proof that we have not _profited by our experiences_ and should get down to "stock taking" before it is too late.

The practical man, after all, is only _one who takes advantage of opportunities_. He could double and triple his power if he only realized how superficial the average setback really is. The young man has just as much chance of being considered practical as the so-called older one, always provided that he has a store of experiences to profit by. The first _big experience_ of life usually makes or breaks us. For this experience we need to be prepared. We must have a _strong heart_ that we may bear defeat nobly from this is not to be our last kick--our last breath--_not by a jugful_!

We are going to start all over again after our setback and we are not going to wait any longer than it takes to bury the dead. This will be done decently and in good order--our training will admit of no indecorum. If the smash was a bad one we will assume the liability, nevertheless, and get back on the job. We are out to win and _eventually we will win_.

And that is what we mean by taking profit from experience. _The powers that break down are also the powers that build up._ The electrician who handles the motor could just as well end his own existence by that mysterious current as he could make use of it for the good of humanity. He spends years of conscientious study and masters the knowledge of it so that its uses are as simple as his A B C's. There is no doubt in the world but that he had to learn by experience. He had to go into the shop and _climb up from the bottom_. There was no other way by which he could come to know how to turn a deadly force into a well-trained necessity.

Yet the average man goes into life with as little knowledge of its forces as the baby who puts its foot upon the third rail. That fact keeps the thoughtless man down until experience comes to the rescue. When it does come, _if he has the sand, the common sense, the will to do_, there is naught to hold him away from his goal.