Vol. 1" No. 5
Friday, September 21, 1945
SUCCESS IN YOUR JOB
Many people today are only inter
ested in their vocation as a means
of making a living. To use a trite
expression, they are working for
"five o'clock and pay-day". Real
success in their work is to them a
matter of opportunity and luck.
?/hen someone achieves success, have
you not heard people say: "the
lucky stiff, I knew hirii when he did
not have a dime". Yet, success is
not a matter of luck, but the result
of ambition and the necessary will
power to work hard and consistently
to realize one's dream.
Let me tell you the story of a
fellow student I had the pleasure
of Icnowing vjhile I was in college.
His first name was Karl; his full
name does not matter.
Karl was 40 years old, when he
entered the University to study
mining engineering. Due to his age
and experience, the school viaived
the entrance requirement of a High
School diploma. His formal school-
ing, prior^to entering the Univer-
^ consisted ol about two years
primary training in some obscure
country school.
When Karl was about fifteen, he
went to sea as a sailor. He soon
tired of this occupation and came
back to his home town, doing odd
jobs whenever he could get them.
By the time he was twenty—one years
° had established himself as
a ditch digger.
Now dig^ng ditches does not seem
to be an interesting ivay to earn
assured me
that he really enjoyed digging
ditches. I'/hen I was with him, he
would occasionally talk about his
early work as a ditch digger. He
would grow thoroughly enthusiastic
about the subject. Karl would en
lighten you about the right and
wrong viay to handle a pick and
shovel. He would discuss the pro
blem arising from different soil
composition; To him a ditch was a
work of art, that only an expert
craftsman should attempt,
Karl, hoYjever, was not satisfied
to keep on digging ditches. He
knew that other men were laying out
and planning the work for him. He
enrolled with a correspondence
school, taking a course in surveying.
Yes, you guessed it; his previous
schooling was not sufficient to pre
pare him for his course in surveying.
Undaunted he took a High School
course with the same school. He fin
ished this course and then continued
studying surveying. It was not long,
before he laid down his pick and shovel
and was woricing with a surveyor's
transit. Vi/hen Karl was in his early
thirties he had established himself
as a contractor and had become quite
wealthy. He had acquired a piece
of mining property and in order to
manage it himself^ he turned over his
business to someone else to manage
v^hile he attended the University to
study mining engineering.
You can see that it was not luck that
made a mining engineer out of a ditch
^fsgsr, but it tvas his ambition, deter
mination and a great deal of hard work.
If I have bored you with this story,
I am sorry. The question I am asking
you is: are you digging ditches and are
you satisfied to keep on digging dit
ches the rest of your life?
F. H. Ponish
PERSONALS
Mr, Newell is back with us but is dis^-
gusted with his sling getting in the way
_ his work. Be patient until the iiand
IS well IS our- advice to him.