nd the chagrin
of his brothers' advancement soured his whole life.

When he began business for himself in Philadelphia, there seemed to be
nothing he would not do for money. He bought and sold anything, from
groceries to old junk; he bottled wine and cider, from which he made a
good profit. Everything he touched prospered.

He left nothing to chance. His plans and schemes were worked out with
mathematical care. His letters written to his captains in foreign
ports, laying out their routes and giving detailed instructions, are
models of foresight and systematic planning. He never left anything of
importance to others. He was rigidly accurate in his instructions, and
would not allow the slightest departure from them. He used to say that
while his captains might save him money by deviating from instructions
once, yet they would cause loss in ninety-nine other cases.

He never lost a ship, and many times that which brought financial ruin
to many others, as the War of 1812, only increased his wealth.
Everybody, especially his jealous brother merchants, attributed his
great success to his luck. While undoubtedly he was fortunate in
happening to be at the right place at the right time, yet he was
precision, method, accuracy, energy itself. What seemed luck with him
was only good judgment and promptness in seizing opportunities, and the
greatest care and zeal in improving them to their utmost possibilities.

The mathematician tells you that if you throw the dice, there are
thirty chances to one against your turning up a particular number, and
a hundred to one against your repeating the same throw three times in
succession: and so on in an augmenting ratio.

Many a young man who has read the story of John Wanamaker's romantic
career has gained very little inspiration or help from it toward his
own elevation and advancement, for he looks upon it as the result of
good luck, chance, or fate. "What a lucky fellow," he says to himself
as he reads; "what a bonanza he fell into!" But a careful analysis of
Wanamaker's life only enforces the same lesson taught by the analysis
of most great lives, namely, that a good mother, a good constitution,
the habit of hard work, indomitable energy, determination which knows
no defeat, decision which never wavers, a concentration which never
scatters its forces, courage which never falters, self-mastery which
can say No, and stick to it, strict integrity and downright honesty, a
cheer