not fail because they do not know enough, or because they are lazy;
they fail because business cannot always depend upon them--they break at
the wrong times. We can find men who know their work and who are capable
of learning the requirements of a better job. We can find plenty of men
who are willing to work, and who will work even harder for the promise
of a better job in the future. But we cannot find enough men whose
emotional mechanism is dependable--at least not in sufficient numbers to
carry on the responsibilities which business would like to place upon
them.

Peculiarly enough, the results of emotional instability are complex, but
the chief cause may be defined simply: trouble at home causes more
emotional upsets, more instability in business, than any other single
factor. By the same token, lack of progress in business causes trouble
at home. No home can be run successfully without a degree of financial
progress, and such progress cannot be made--except by a negligible
few--without harmony at home.

All wives have, by and large, an equal stake with their husbands in
their husbands' material progress. The increased income is a major
consideration, but it is only the beginning in a chain of useful
consequences. Business progress means mental growth, added intelligence
to be applied to both working and living. Personal growth means a fuller
home life, a finer environment in which to bring up children, an
opportunity to become a respected member of the community. Business
progress means greater responsibility, and this breeds the ability to
take on still more responsibility, both at home and in business.
Progress eventually brings more leisure, more culture, and more of the
other refinements of living. Progress is accelerating, feeding upon and
multiplying itself.

No one would deny the truth of all this, yet only a searching few have
actually created at home the degree of harmony which has been the aim
of this series in _Good Housekeeping's_ course on marriage relations. If
effective contributions from home to the consistent progress of
breadwinners were universal rather than rare, half of our troubles in
finding men for added responsibility would be over. The majority of men
dissipate their energy in _wishing_ and _wanting_, but restrict
themselves to wishing and wanting the _result_, rather than the _cause_.
These insist that they want to better their situations, but insist also
that business is a thing apart