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THE
REVIEW
V O L . LIII. N o . 2 5 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI at 1 Madison Ave., New York, Dec. 23,1911
SINGI
$? OS°P P ER S VE O AR ENTS
Advance of the Fighting Few
REVIEW of the year which is now drawing rapidly to a close reveals some interesting facts.
The first half of 1911 trade was most unsatisfactory, but the last six months the business pace
has materially quickened and we will round the yearly milestone with fairly good headway. In
summarizing, the year will not be a good one when compared with the high : water mark, but ex-
cellent when measured up with the low-water mark.
Some houses have shown material advance—others have dropped back a pace; for in any trade there
will always be men who will lack the necessary confidence to achieve success.
When times are not of the best they immediately retrench to an extreme point, and over-retrench-
ment is even more dangerous than too much business headway with full steam on.
The business world belongs to the fighting few, and when a man loses faith in his own business
future and in an industry of which he is a part, it shows at once that he is losing the opportunity to make
a record.
Wishing for good things does not acquire them.
Thinking and doing are not the same by a long shot, and easy problems are hardly worth the solution.
The great things in the business world are not for the doubters—not for the men who lack courage
and perseverance to move straight ahead, even though everything is not sunshine all about them.
No field of endeavor is so barren that it will not respond to cultivation, and the man who lacks a spine
is not the one who will advance even under plain, ordinary conditions.
There is a chance for every man in this country to win out if he shows courage and perseverance.
The man who plays the game unrelentingly is the man who wins, for to him the prize means nothing
unless it stands for something—a sign of. business victory, and the man who thinks he has no chance weak-
ens his possibilities by an acknowledgment of self-defeat.
The business opportunities for the past year have not been of the best, but it is an undeniable fact that
some men—the fighting few—have won out in a splendid manner.
That fact alone shows that the possibilities have been with us and it only needed the men to develop
them—profit by them—and the men who fail to do their part and expect that the business will move on at a
rapid pace are of course bitterly disappointed.
The friction of men in action is the energy that makes the world of commerce active, and if men all
lie down and just wait until times are good they will wait a long time.
It needs the combined energy of all to make general conditions optimistic, and when intelligent effort
is backed by determination, trade triumphs will be surely won, for it should be understood that one-half of
greatness is grit, and the determination to hang on has helped many a man to a comfortable position on
that thoroughfare known as "easy street" where most of us desire to acquire residential quarters.
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