at the hand of the
former stable-boy.

Life is made up of such contrasts. Every successful man, in whatever
degree and in whatever line, has, at every step of his life, been on
seemingly equal terms with hundreds of his fellows who, later, reached
no such measure of success as he. Every miserable failure has had at
some time as many chances, and at least as much possibility of
cultivating the same qualities, as the successful people have had at
some time in their lives.

Since humble birth and handicaps of every sort and degree have not
prevented success in the determined man; since want has often spurred
to needed action and obstacles but train to higher leaping, why should
men fail? What causes the failures and half-successes that make up the
generality of mankind?

The answer is manifold, but its lesson is plain. As one writer has
expressed it, "_Every mainspring of success is a mainspring of failure,
when wound around the wrong way._" Every opportunity for advancement,
for climbing for success, is just as much an opportunity for failure.
Every success quality can be turned to one's disadvantage through
excessive development or wrong use. No matter how broad and strong the
dike may be, if a little hole lets the water through, ruin and disaster
are sure. Possession of almost all the success-qualities may be
absolutely nullified by one or two faults or vices. Sometimes one or
two masterful traits of character will carry a person to success, in
spite of defects that are a serious clog.

The numerous failures who wish always to blame their misfortunes upon
others, or upon external circumstances, find small comfort in
statistics compiled by those who have investigated the subject. In
analyzing the causes of business failure in a recent year
_Bradstreet's_ found that seven-tenths were due to faults of those
failing, and only three-tenths to causes entirely beyond their control.
Faults causing failure, with per cent. of failures caused by each, are
given as follows: incompetence, 19 per cent.; inexperience, 7.8 per
cent.; lack of capital, 30.3 per cent.; unwise granting of credit, 3.6
per cent.; speculation, 2.3 per cent. It may be explained that "lack
of capital" really means attempting to do too much with inadequate
capital. This is a purely commercial analysis of purely commercial
success. Character delinquencies must be read between the lines.

Forty successful men were induced, not long ago, to answe