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CHAPTER IV
PERSEVERANCE AND THE CHOICE OF A VOCATION
True vocations are, we must admit, very rarely to be found, and the man who is
seeking to establish a purpose in life is very often like the traveler who, set
down where four roads meet, tries to divine, by means which are as yet quite
unknown to him, which of the four is the path he had better take.
It is first of all necessary to state this general proposition: every
profession, every employment, presents some advantages and some draw backs.
The thing to be done is to be able to discuss both the one and the other and,
having done so, to weigh them against each other with the desire of being
absolutely impartial.
Too many young people allow themselves to be led away by the attractions of the
first idea that occurs to them, without making any attempt to examine into it or
to investigate its merits.
They prefer merely to look upon the bright side of the profession they propose
to embrace, leaving its difficulties to be appreciated a little later on.
To the suggestion of others in relation to them they pay no sort of attention,
contenting themselves with shrugging their shoulders and replying that every
medal has its reverse side.
They set to work at once in their chosen profession and, from the very start,
run into difficulties which, in some cases, turn out to be absolutely
insurmountable.
They then cherish the dream of retracing their steps, but the difficulties of
making a start all reappear in the first years of beginning a new career, and
they find themselves in the same unfortunate position as before, which is
accentuated by their remorse at having wasted their time.
If they decide to make a third trial of fate, they run the risk of acknowledging
their complete inferiority, for, while they are feeling their way blindly,
their companions are forging ahead, and they find themselves left so far behind
that it becomes a difficult matter to catch up with them without working day and
night.
Their task is rendered the harder by the fact that they must largely increase
the amount of work required of them by the profession of their final choice
before they can hope even to catch up with those persons who have gone on ahead
of them.
It is for this reason that one can not sufficiently impress upon the minds of
young people the necessity of profound consideration before making choice of a
career.
It will be the part of wisdom to put them on their guard against brilliant
mirages, whose glittering reflection too often masks mean and sordid realities.
A really satisfactory choice at the start is the sole means of succeeding in an
honorable and enduring fashion.
Have we not famous examples of this guiding instinct which takes hold of the
mind, dominates it, makes it the servant of the controlling idea, and renders it
capable of performing the most difficult enterprises?
Antiquity has given us the example of Demosthenes, who being dominated by the
desire for eloquence, undertook, in order to develop his voice, a veritable
battle against the defects that he inherited from nature.
His defective utterance, his clownish gestures, his weak chest, apparently
banished him for ever from all possibility of participation in oratorical
contests.
But the dominant idea, foundation of all perseverance, upheld him firmly.
Was it perseverance alone that gave him the strength to overcome his defects in
pronunciation by means of the pebbles that he placed in his mouth?
Was it not also the enterprise of the dominant idea which drove him to struggle
against the want of carrying power in his voice by declaiming his speeches in
the teeth of the wind and forced him to make his words heard above the noise of
the crashing billows?
He was an exceptionally nervous man, but nevertheless he determined that he
would learn to repress the impulsive gestures which he made quite involuntarily.
To achieve this he made use of a means that it took real courage to employ.
After having carefully studied out his attitudes, so that he familiarized
himself thoroughly with the frequent recurrence of certain gestures, he set a
naked sword close beside him in such a position that the imminence of the
physical danger might put the check upon his gesticulations that he was not able
to impose by the strength of his will.
It would be idle to recount what all the world already knows, and to dwell upon
the astonishing results of this heroic perseverance.
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