You Can

George Matthew Adams was an American newspaper columnist and founder of the George Matthew Adams Newspaper Service, which syndicated comic strips and columns to newspapers for five decades. His own writings were circulated widely to The Gettysburg Times and many other newspapers.

You Can

YOU CAN make of yourself anything the germ of which lives within you. But to realize your full possibilities—to Dominate and Achieve—you must have High Aims, Ideals and Ambitions—all linked to an Iron Will. You yourself determine the height to which you shall Climb. Have you the Summit in view? All right—

Then Start for it.

YOU CAN take command of yourself at any moment you desire to do so. You can make of yourself a towering figure in the work of the world. No one owns you. One hundred per cent of the Stock in your personal Corporation belongs to you. The little People of Destruction that whine at your door, whine at the door of every forceful man. You can make them mere Pygmies in their Power over your Future. Are you doing this Now? Well—

Then Keep it up!

YOU CAN get Smiles and Cheer and Continued Youth—simply by sticking to your own craft and running your own pilot wheel with “Your Best” as the Place of Port. Results will take care of themselves. Never mind the Sneers, the Criticisms, the Misjudgments of others. Time will fade them all away from you if your Accumulated Strength of Character has taught you how to Wait. To-day is Yesterday’s plans put into action. To-morrow begins To-day. Your Worth to yourself and the World is measured by what you contribute each day in Usefulness. (Success is the Sum of the Days.

Then Do To-day.

YOU CAN make Success sure by Work, Sacrifice, Enthusiasm, Unselfishness and Self-control. You are the Master of your own Destiny. Take personal command of yourself To-day.

YOU CAN!

50-50

No man in all this world ever rightfully Gets more than he Gives. And if he does he is just a plain Thief—a discredit first to Himself, then to everybody else. The Equal Division is always the Just Division—half to you and half to him. In other words, on the basis—50-50.

Be glad to Give as much as you Take.

You who are an Employee, are you Sure you are giving in Service as much as you are taking in Money, Experience, Inspiration and Training from your Employer? Right now, take invoice. Do the results look like—50-50? If not, start this plan into action—

Be glad to Give as much as you Take.

This plan of 50-50—rightly interpreted, means death to Whiners, to the Disgruntled, and to the Assassinators of Success. They can’t five in the atmosphere of it. The Air is too Invigorating.

Be glad to Give as much as you Take.

Every dispute in this World is traceable to the lack of the 50-50 principle. The broken-up Homes, the disintegrated Businesses, the abandoned Friendships, the wasteful Armies of the World. There is need d this principle in every phase of Life. But never will it become a rule of every-day Action until YOU, in your place, begin to apply—50-50.

Be glad to Give as much as you Take.

Silence

Yes, Silence is many times Golden. You know that. But try to realize it more strongly. For the Silent Man is usually the Thinking Man and the Silent Worker is the Get-Things-Done Worker. But best of all, Silence as a rule of daily life Conduct makes you Big and Powerful.

Don’t talk Back.

The World’s great Doers have all been Men and Women of few words—Napoleon, Cromwell, Washington, Grant, Lincoln, Marshall Field—Edison. These men didn’t have time for disputes, wrangles—revenges.

Don’t talk Back.

The World is coming to the Idea of Silence—fewer Words, more Deed-doing. It is the big Law of Nature. It is becoming the great Law of Business. For Silence can’t be answered. There is nothing to answer.

Don’t talk Back.

Look around you. You admire the Silent people—those who mind their own business and Build. You know the names of the Useful men of your town. You can’t waste their time—you can’t get them “mad.” You can’t steal anything from them. Their Silence is their Wealth and every time they walk along the streets they speak volumes. Add another motto to those you may already have. Make it this—Silence.

Don’t talk Back.

Health

Few people Wear out before their time. Mostly they Rust out, Worry out, Run out—Spill out. A Machine must have care and its different parts must be adjusted properly. No Machine has ever approached the Human Machine. When it is right, it is in Health.

Make Confidants of Air and Exercise.

No great Battle was ever won with antiquated Artillery. Nor is it possible for Men or Women to give the best that is in them, aided by weak, ill cared for, abused Bodies. For Health puts on the alert every quality of Soul and makes the Brain and Heart and Nerve stations work in even unison, throbbing out big things in Deeds.

Make Confidants of Air and Exercise.

Pure Air, wholesome Exercise, a few good “Hobbies” put an edge to a human being that all the Pills in creation can’t equal. In addition, by touching up your Pace with plenty of 22-Karat Smiles, you have briefly a Home Remedy for Health of great power and very practicable.

Make Confidants of Air and Exercise.

You have time to eat, you have time to make money, you have time to take to your bed when abuse brings on aches—you will have to take time to die. It is good sense, then, to take time to get Health.

Make Confidants of Air and Exercise.

Everybody is quickened and inspired by the vibrating Health and warm Magnetism that is felt instantly from the Healthy man. He is the man who does things. He is the man who is a Success. He is the fellow who has time to take on Air and Exercise and grasp Health. Also he is the one who accomplishes twice the work of the weakling and has the MOST time.

Make Confidants of Air and Exercise.

If you aspire for large jobs, of necessity you must aspire for—and get—a vigorous Body, filled to the brim with Health. (Half of Health is in the Mind. The rest is in getting into the Air and giving every Muscle of the body and every organ a good daily stirring tip with use and Exercise. Let this thought radiate from your face and bearing toward every man, woman, or child that you meet: “I am a Happy, Healthy Human Being!”

Make Confidants of Air and Exercise.

Character

Character is the sum total, worthwhile, of what a man has after he has won all and the sole thing he has left after he has lost all.

Character is Power.

J. Pierpant Morgan, the greatest single power in Finance in all the world, at the time of his death, once stated under oath, that “Character is the only gauge of a man, or the only rule by which he can be gauged in business, and that physical assets are therefore of secondary importance.”

Character is Power.

The walls of Character that a man builds will withstand the most merciless assaults that any man can direct at them. Ta man’s or a woman’s good Character is absolutely unassailable. Reputation may be besmirched—but not Character. For Reputation is what people may say a man is, but Character is. what he really is.

Character is Power.

Character is greater than talent, genius, fame, money, friends—there is nothing to compare with it. A man may have all these and yet remain comparatively useless—be unhappy—and die a bankrupt in Soul. But—Character pays out endless Dividends, molds a man into a mighty Deed-doer, and builds for him a deathless Name.

Character is Power.

Character is Power in Business, in the Home, on the Street—everywhere. And it’s free for the asking to the man willing to be kind, honest, square, broad, generous, loyal, fearless—Big! Stamp your Character deeper on people to-day and make it rule your work. Let it lead you on. But fight every hour to make it stronger For—

Character is Power.

Mistakes

Study your Mistakes.

There are two kinds of Mistakes. Those that happen from ordinary human mis-thinking and those that come from carelessness and petty un-thinking.

Study your Mistakes.

No one ever gets too big to make Mistakes. The secret is that the big man is greater than his Mistakes, because he rises right out of them and passes beyond them.

After one of Henry Ward Beecher’s sermons in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, a young man came up to him and said: “Mr. Beecher, did you know that you made a grammatical error in your sermon this morning?”

“A grammatical error,” answered Beecher, “I’ll bet my hat that I made forty of them.”

Half of the power of the forceful man springs out of his Mistakes of one sort or another. They help to keep him human.

Study your Mistakes.

But the Mistakes that tear away the power of a man, weaken him, and make him flabby, are the stupid, the reckless Mistakes. The Clerk who forgets, the Stenographer that doesn’t care, the Worker who neglects—these are the ones whose life blood and vitality is sapped and sucked away into failure.

Study your Mistakes.

One of the great things of each day for you is to do your best—unmindful of Mistakes. But after your work is done and you realize your blunders, don’t shirk, don’t whine, don’t despond, but—

Study your Mistakes.

Then profit from t hem—and go ahead!