-day to which a care of other interests can be added.
Let a man attempt to serve the interests of one master, and if he
serves him well he has his hands and his head full. There is a class of
ambitious young men who have what they choose to call "an anchor to the
windward" in their business. That is, they maintain something outside
of their regular position. They do this from necessity, they claim. One
position does not offer sufficient scope for their powers or talents;
does not bring them sufficient income, and they are "forced," they
explain, to take on something in addition. I have known such young men.
But, so far as I have been able to discern, the trouble does not lie so
much with the position they occupy as with themselves. When a man turns
away from the position he holds to outside affairs, he turns just so
far away from the surest path of success. To do one thing perfectly is
better than to do two things only fairly well. It was told me once, of
one of our best known actors, that outside of his stage knowledge he
knew absolutely nothing. But he acted well,--so well that he stands at
the head of his profession, and has an income of five figures several
times over. All around geniuses are rare--so rare that we can hardly
find them. To know one thing absolutely means material success and
commercial and mental superiority. I dare say that if some of our young
men understood more fully than they do the needs of the positions they
occupy, the necessity for outside work would not exist.

Stagnation in a young man's career is but a synonym for starvation,
since there is no such thing as standing still in the business world.
We go either backward or forward; we never stand still. When a young
man fails to keep abreast of the possibilities of his position he
recedes constantly, though perhaps unconsciously. The young man who
progresses is he who enters into the spirit of the business of his
employer, and who points out new methods to him, advances new ideas,
suggests new channels and outputs. There is no more direct road to the
confidence of an employer than for him to see that any one of his
clerks has an eye eager for the possibilities of business. That young
man commands the attention of his chief at once, and when a vacancy
occurs he is apt to step into it, if, indeed, he does not forge over
the shoulders of others. Young men who think clearly, can conceive good
ideas and carry them out, are not so plentiful that eve