THE MONEY-MAKERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2986, 25 January 1917, Page 3

THE MONEY-MAKERS

WOIiBN AS WORKERS-

Tho Creator must havo peopled this planet with human beings made up on much tho same plan, combining tno samo ingredients iri all,- some exaggciated in this person, others exaggerated in that, thus fitting them for trVo'-nnW different rises of life. While abstractly, in a moment of theorising, wo may accept this premise, when wo get rignt down to .the actual-everyday Pr°^ cn ? of earning a living, we forget all about Nature's having fitted us for certain tilings, and we say we "hate ii t « a < !l j7 ing, we "hate" clerking," we typing—wo "hate" this and we 'hate that, when in truth we really hate none of these things; we can't adjust ourselves to them; that is all. No work is hateful to one rightly adjusted to it. We iave not found ourselves, that is flie only trouble; first find yourself, and you will have no trouble finding your work. To do this is something liko solving a puzzld, we twist and turn the tiny bits, and fit in a piece hero and a piece there*, jind Work ourselves into a fever over ttiv thing, and petulantly asserfc that it ; can't be solved, and then at last,_ almost by magic, a little cube slips into a right place, and every other part is at once correctly adjusted. Tho very first tiling is to discover what Mother Nature fitted you to do. Through what kind of employment can you fulfil the twofold purpose of and service? For however well you may serve, your work has no permanent value unless it' reacts favourably on you. The law of natural life is everything in its place; and the law of artificial life approximates the ideal when it is the same. So first find your place; and to find your place you must first find yourself. What are,your leading characteristics? What traits —ingredients—are exaggerated in you? In what kind of work are you happiest? Not one woman in a thousand asks herself these questions; she faces the necessity of self-support, and she drearily does the thing nearest. If educated in the publio schools, she becomes a teacher; or she takes a six-months' course in a business college and starts out as a book'-lJeeper or stenographer ; or she sews, makes hats, does whatever, comes to hand in a temporary tidingoyer spirit; she does not serionsly consider her relation to money-earning as a permanent part of her life. And yet she may spend a lifetime in that very work she so thoughtlessly chooses; or if but a few months, it may have a governing influence , on all the years that come after. It is. not a thing to be treated thiys indifferently; you can not afford to be an "unsolved puzzle" for any length of time; the machinery gets out of gear; there are twistings and turnings and strainings, lack of adjustment has a marring effect. Broadly speaking, every member of the human family comes under one of twelve heads; the puzling thing is that we lap over here and lap over there until wo are in a maze as to just where we do belong; we interpret appreciation of art to moan that we have sufficient genius to become artists; wo imagine our love of music betokens talent to perform, when this ingredient is not really sufficiently exaggerated in us for success; wo think certain talents are wasted if not made dominant when they were given to us in small measure merely to enable.us to appreciate achievement along similar lines in others. Each of us belongs strongly, markedly, to some one mind typo; and, mildly, to all the others.