Lessons

1. Chapter 1 - Don't Mistake Your Vocation

   15 mins

   The safest plan, and the one most sure of success for the young man starting in life, is to select the vocation which is most congenial to his tastes.

2. Chapter 2 - Select The Right Location

   18 mins

   After securing the right vocation, you must be careful to select the proper location. You may have been cut out for a hotel keeper, and they say it requires a genius to "know how to keep a hotel."

3. Chapter 3 - Avoid Debt

   18 mins

   Young men starting in life should avoid running into debt. There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt.

4. Chapter 4 - Persevere

   20 mins

   When a man is in the right path, he must persevere. I speak of this because there are some persons who are "born tired;" naturally lazy and possessing no self-reliance and no perseverance. But they can cultivate these qualities, as Davy Crockett said:

5. Chapter 5 - Whatever You Do, Do It With All Your Might

   20 mins

   Work at it, if necessary, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now. The old proverb is full of truth and meaning, "Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.

6. Chapter 6 - Use The Best Tools

   15 mins

   Men in engaging employees should be careful to get the best. Understand, you cannot have too good tools to work with, and there is no tool you should be so particular about as living tools.

7. Chapter 7 - Don't Get Above Your Business

   25 mins

   Young men after they get through their business training, or apprenticeship, instead of pursuing their avocation and rising in their business, will often lie about doing nothing. They say; "I have learned my business, but I am not going to be a hireling; what is the object of learning my trade or profession, unless I establish myself?'"

8. Chapter 8 - Learn Something Useful

   5 mins

   Every man should make his son or daughter learn some useful trade or profession, so that in these days of changing fortunes of being rich to-day and poor tomorrow they may have something tangible to fall back upon.

9. Chapter 9 - Let Hope Predominate, But Be Not Too Visionary

   5 mins

   Many persons are always kept poor, because they are too visionary.

10. Chapter 10 - Do Not Scatter Your Powers

    8 mins

    Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it.

11. Chapter 11 - Be Systematic

    20 mins

    Men should be systematic in their business. A person who does business by rule, having a time and place for everything, doing his work promptly, will accomplish twice as much and with half the trouble of him who does it carelessly and slipshod.

12. Chapter 12 - Read The Newspapers

    5 mins

    Always take a trustworthy newspaper, and thus keep thoroughly posted in regard to the transactions of the world.

13. Chapter 13 - Beware Of "Outside Operations"

    15 mins

    We sometimes see men who have obtained fortunes, suddenly become poor. In many cases, this arises from intemperance, and often from gaming, and other bad habits. Frequently it occurs because a man has been engaged in "outside operations," of some sort.

14. Chapter 14 - Don't Indorse Without Security

    20 mins

    I hold that no man ought ever to indorse a note or become security, for any man, be it his father or brother, to a greater extent than he can afford to lose and care nothing about, without taking good security.

15. Chapter 15 - Advertise Your Business

    20 mins

    We all depend, more or less, upon the public for our support. We all trade with the public—lawyers, doctors, shoemakers, artists, blacksmiths, showmen, opera stagers, railroad presidents, and college professors.

16. Chapter 16 - 'Don't Read The Other Side'

    20 mins

    Of course I did, and so did everybody else, and I learned that the man had made all independence by first attracting the public to his business in that way and then using his customers well afterwards.

17. Chapter 17 - Be Polite and Kind To Your Customers

    18 mins

    Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly.

18. Chapter 18 -20 Be Charitable, Don't Blab, Preserve Your Integrity

    25 mins

    Of course men should be charitable, because it is a duty and a pleasure. But even as a matter of policy, if you possess no higher incentive, you will find that the liberal man will command patronage, while the sordid, uncharitable miser will be avoided.