Entering into Business.
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Entering into business is, except marriage, the most important act of a young man's life. And, as the proportion of those who are unsuccessful in their first efforts is as much as two out of three — it behooves everyone to look well to what he is doing before taking a step that may involve him in serious losses or difficulties.
The result of our own observation is, that a young man who enters into business under the age of twenty-five, unless he is taken into partnership in an established firm, is almost sure to fail. If he has money — he will lose it; and if credit is his only capital — he will get involved in debt. There are, of course, some exceptions to this, but they are very few.
One necessary pre-requisite to success in business, is a thorough knowledge of that branch into which a man enters. It is, therefore, always a hazardous step for anyone, to commence a business, of the details of which he is ignorant, no matter how flattering may be the inducements held out. This is a prominent cause of failure.
Another cause of failure, is the young man's impatience to get ahead fast, and realize great profits in a very short period. But this is not the history of successful businesses, nor of men who have acquired great wealth. Safe and sure beginnings are always small, and the growth gradual. Sudden inflations, meet with just as sudden collapses.
A young man who has been a clerk in a respectable house, that has been growing gradually for years, determines upon going into business for himself. But he is not content with a small beginning. He must have as handsome an establishment and as fine a stock of goods as his old, substantial employers, and strains his credit to the utmost to gratify his pride and false notions in regard to the true means necessary to success in trade. Without sufficient capital to bear the heavy losses that too often attend a heavy business, and the large accumulation of unsaleable goods, a few years tell the story of his rise and fall. This is the history of hundreds in our large cities. Every year sees the passing away of some scores of businesses established in this way, and yet the lesson seems to do no good; for every year scores of others are ready to take the places of their unfortunate predecessors, without any more of the elements of success about them.
Many young men are tempted into business, and induced to make a bold start, upon the always uncertain basis of credit, from hearing so much said about this one and another who has commenced life without a shilling, and in a few years retired with an independent fortune. There is a great deal of this kind of gossip among clerks and those who have just entered into business. They can name hundreds of instances where young men have launched boldly out, and made from four thousand to twenty thousand pounds in a few years; and will actually point out this, that, and the other one, as the veritable personages. Now, it is one thing for a man in business to say that he has made ten thousand pounds, for instance, and another thing really to have made it. We have seen the end of a good many who had made fortunes in a wonderfully short space of time, and the winding up generally showed them to be worse than nothing.
The reason why the notion is so generally prevalent that a fortune may be made in this country in a very few years, if a man has sufficient boldness, activity, and enterprise, is because, in periods of inflation which have occurred, everything obtains a fictitious value. The time has been when a piece of property, purchased today for one thousand pounds, has sold for ten thousand before the lapse of twelve months; or stocks which cost two thousand pounds last week have netted four thousand this week. In times like those, when the volume of paper money was immense, goods could be sold freely and at large profits. This would make the gains of business very great in a few years. Far more than all the profits, however, were usually trusted out to people who bought freely because they could buy on credit. From engaging in speculations when there was an upward tendency in everything, and from making a few fortunate speculations, combined with an active trade, when everything was brisk — young men, who have had only a few thousands to begin with, have, in a very short period, become quite wealthy. But it was generally the case that this wealth consisted in property said to be worth so much, and which might, at the time, sell for its valuation to somebody, who would give his note for it at six, nine, twelve, or twenty-four months. There are a few instances where people thus successful have had the prudence to convert their property into something more substantial than notes of hand drawn by Tom, Dick, and Harry, or town lots of land from which the first spadeful of earth had not yet been lifted. But in most cases, when the storms came which always follow such periods of sunshine, these men were among the first to be driven under. The story of their rapidly-acquired fortunes is still told, but the real cause of their speedy elevation is not understood, nor is the sequel known or alluded to.
A prudent young man will hardly suffer himself to be deceived by stories of this kind, and tempted into business in the hope of making a fortune by a bold dash: if he should be thus drawn, he will be almost certain to lose what money he may happen to have, and get involved in debt beside; for with the views of business he will hold, such a thing as a small beginning and cautious operations will be out of the question.
As before said, the elements of success in business are to be found in a thorough knowledge of the particular branch in which a young man is about to engage, and in a maturity of judgment acquired by a few years of experience and observation in the world as a man. Along with this, there must exist a willingness to be content for a time with small things — to be willing to wait for the seed sown to germinate, the tender blade to shoot forth, and the stock gradually to increase, and grow, and gain strength to mature and support the grain. It is far better to advance slowly, and wait even as long as ten years before the gains of labor begin to be of much importance, than to rush ahead for a time, and, long before ten years have rolled around, be thrown to the earth, and embarrassed by debts, to pay which the ability may never come.
As the true way to begin is to begin with moderate expectations and a small business, the first rule to adopt is, the determination to make the personal expenses as light as possible. The error which most young men commit is, to increase their personal expenses as soon as they enter into business. The spending of three hundred pounds a year, instead of one hundred and fifty, takes just one hundred and fifty out of the business, and sinks it absolutely. The saving of one hundred and fifty pounds each year for three or four years, and keeping the amount in the business, will, of itself, be an important matter, and may actually save the business in an extremity, or unexpected loss, when, if it had been spent, destruction would be inevitable.
Care in regard to the expenses attendant upon the prosecution of business is also an important matter. In rents, personal expenses, clerk hire, and petty expenditures of various kinds — more than the entire profits of a new business may be consumed. If there is any borrowed capital, and interest to pay thereon, necessity for the strictest economy will be even more imperative.
But entering into business is one thing, and conducting it on right principles another. Enough has already been said in this work to make anyone see and feel the force of the position, that the common good ought to be regarded by every man, and that whoever seeks to secure the common good — most effectually secures his own. This does not mean that a man should throw all his earnings into the treasury of the commonwealth, or do any act of a similar kind; or that he should neglect his own interest in seeking to forward the interests of others. The arrangement of society, under the direction of an all-wise Providence, provides for every man's well-being in the pursuit of some employment which benefits the whole; and the conducting of these employments on right principles is nothing more than each man attending diligently to his own business in life, but without in any way interfering with his neighbor's business, or taking the slightest advantage of him in any mutual transactions. If such were the acknowledged laws of trade, the well-being of all would be secured. He who most served the public good in the greater extent of his useful products — would receive the greatest return; and he who was less active and diligent — a smaller return.
Such, however, are not the laws that govern trade in these evil and degenerate days. Most men seek so eagerly to increase their worldly gains, as to disregard entirely the interests of others; nay, not only to disregard them, but actually to invade them with deliberate purpose. Thus, we have cheating of all grades, from the speculator's overreaching operations down to the selling of goods by spurious weights and measures, or obtaining them under false pretenses.
But let every young man who is about entering into business, no matter what it may be, or who commences the practice of a profession for which he has duly qualified himself, resolve, before he takes the first step, that he, for one, will be an honest man in the community; that he will diligently seek to advance himself in his business or profession by all right means; but that he will in no case take even the smallest advantage of his neighbor. He need not be anxious about the final result; all he has to do is to use diligence, wisdom, and prudence — and these will carry him through, even amid the wrongs and disorders of society as it now exists. He may not grow rich as rapidly as his neighbor who can manage by cheating to make a larger profit on his goods, and by false pretenses to gain a greater amount of custom; but his advancement will be rapid enough to give him all that is needful for health, comfort, and a good conscience.
It is seriously argued, by many who are engaged in business, that deception and false representation are absolutely necessary to success; that it is impossible for a strictly honest man to succeed in business. But this is not true. We believe, however, that in a business community where nearly all take unfair advantages in trade — an honest man will find it difficult to sustain himself, unless he is wary, active, and energetic; for he will lose by the dishonesty of others, without being able to repair the loss by dishonest practices in turn. But what right-thinking man would not rather suffer the loss of worldly goods — than the loss of honor? Who would not be content with a smaller portion of wealth, accompanied by a consciousness of having done what was just and right between man and man — than to be the possessor of millions obtained by dishonesty and a system of successful fraud not recognizable by the laws? Any undue advantage in business is stealing; for it is taking another's goods without his consent or cognizance.
There are various modes of overreaching in business, against which every honest young man will set his face. Nearly all speculations are dishonest means, by which one man gains a certain amount of money in a transaction, which another loses. A merchant gains news of a rise in the price of some article in a neighboring market. He goes to his neighbor, who is yet ignorant of this rise, and buys from him all of that article which he has at the prevailing prices of the day, and thus secures both his own and his neighbor's profits. This is a very common transaction, but, judged by the rule we have laid down, a very dishonest one. Again, a merchant buys up all of an article there is in the market, at a time when he knows there will be a scarcity, and doubles the price. This is not honest; for he is enriching himself by extorting from others an exorbitant rate for a necessary article. All stockspeculations are conducted on the broadest principles of loss and gain — like gambling. We doubt very much if any man who engages actively in them can be governed by an honest regard for the interests of his fellow-man. It seems to be nothing but an eager scramble for money, no matter to whom it properly belongs. These are bold and palpable modes of overreaching in business, and men enter into them unblushingly.
The concealed and underhand methods are far more numerous. They appertain to every trade and calling, and are practiced under the most perfectly assumed exteriors of fairness and honesty. These are short weights and measures, false representations as to quality, exorbitant prices where the buyer is ignorant, and various other frauds upon purchasers. The craftsman slights his work in places where it cannot be readily seen, and thus is enabled to sell cheaper than his neighbor who makes a good article. And throughout all trades and professions, there prevails a system of fraud upon the public which is becoming apparent in the gradual deterioration of almost every article of general consumption — while the makers stun the public ear with declarations of the superior quality of everything they produce. Thus the effort of each calling to secure its own interests, at the expense of the whole, has been the effort of all; and the consequence is, that all are worse off for it. But this result is no matter of surprise. It is the legitimate effect of an adequate cause.
The only remedy for this is for each man, acting from a principle of integrity, to strive honestly to perform all that appertains to his calling. If he is a craftsman, let him not look altogether to the money he is to receive for his work, but consider as well him for whom the work is intended, and be careful that it be of a good quality, and worth the price he receives for it. If he is a merchant, let him buy with judgment, and sell with a just regard to the rights of others. And let all men, no matter what may be their calling, faithfully regard the good of others as well as their own. To do this, is simply to refrain from injuring others in any transactions had with them.
If every young man, now entering upon life, were to act from the principles here laid down, how different, in a few years, would be the aspect of affairs in the business world! Trade would be in a far more healthy condition, and every man in business would feel himself more firmly established. And the reason is obvious. There would be no overreaching; no disturbance of the regular course of trade by eager, selfish speculators; no interference with one man's business by another, as is now often the case, by which it not infrequently happens that his prospects for life are ruined. Instead of sudden and great accumulations of money in a few hands, for the purpose of affecting the market for selfish ends, to the injury, perhaps, of hundreds — there would be, in time, a greater equalization of capital, and the simple and true law of demand and supply, as a regularly-existing state, subject to but few, and they not sudden and broad fluctuations, would be the balance wheel to trade. This would be a blessing to all.
Most earnestly do we urge upon young men, just entering or about to enter into business, to look this matter fully in the face, and endeavor to feel it as a subject vital to the true well-being of society. Whenever a reform begins, it must begin with them. To them society looks as its regenerators. Let every young man endeavor to feel the responsibility that rests upon him as an individual, and act well and wisely his part, when he finds himself standing in the world's arena.
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