sons, of the Rapid
Transit Commission of New York as a candidate for a position. "What
can you do? Have you any specialty?" asked Mr. Parsons. "I can do
almost anything," answered the young man. "Well," remarked the Chief
Engineer, rising to end the interview, "I have no use for anyone who
can 'almost' do anything. I prefer someone who can actually do one
thing thoroughly."

There is a great crowd of human beings just outside the door of
proficiency. They can half do a great many things, but can't do any
one thing well, to a finish. They have acquisitions which remain
permanently unavailable because they were not carried quite to the
point of skill; they stopped just short of efficiency. How many people
almost know a language or two, which they can neither write nor speak;
a science or two, whose elements they have not fully mastered; an art
or two, which they can not practise with satisfaction or profit!

The Patent Office at Washington contains hundreds,--yes, thousands,--of
inventions which are useless simply because they are not quite
practical, because the men who started them lacked the staying quality,
the education, or the ability necessary to carry them to the point of
practicability.

The world is full of half-finished work,--failures which require only a
little more persistence, a little finer mechanical training, a little
better education, to make them useful to civilization. Think what a
loss it would be if such men as Edison and Bell had not come to the
front and carried to a successful termination the half-finished work of
others!

Make it a life-rule to give your best to whatever passes through your
hands. Stamp it with your manhood. Let superiority be your
trade-mark, let it characterize everything you touch. This is what
every employer is looking for. It indicates the best kind of brain; it
is the best substitute for genius; it is better capital than cash; it
is a better promoter than friends, or "pulls" with the influential.

A successful manufacturer says: "If you make a good pin, you will earn
more money than if you make a bad steam engine." "If a man can write a
better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than
his neighbor," says Emerson, "though he build his house in the woods,
the world will make a path to his door."

Never allow yourself to dwell too much upon what you are getting for
your work. You have something of infinitely greater importance,
great