You can state to any young man or woman to whom you send this
advice that the man who gave it formed the character and judgment
of Alexander, the world's most successful young man.
DO YOU FEEL DISCOURAGED?
A young man lost his money in stocks the other day and killed
himself. Other young men lose heart when things go against them
and drift through life helpless, useless derelicts. Let us give
such men a bit of advice:
Don't let failure discourage you. Almost all the brilliantly
successful characters of history have known early trials and
reverses. The great philosopher, Epictetus, was a slave. Alfred
the Great wandered through the swamps as a fugitive and got
cuffed on the ears for letting the cakes burn. Columbus went
from court to court like a beggar to try to raise money for the
discovery of the New World and when he finally won the favor of
the Spanish Queen he was so poor that he could not go to court
until Isabella had advanced him money enough to buy decent
clothes.
When Frederick the Great was fighting all Europe he fell into
such desperate straits that he carried a bottle of poison about
with him as the last way of escape from his enemies. If he had
taken that dose the whole history of our time would have been
different.
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