MAKING A CAREER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1938, Page 9

MAKING A CAREER

IMPORTANCE OF HOME INFLUENCE.

The good home fosters in the child a proper social sense; it gives him the right aim when he enters on his career, writes Mr E. D. Laborde, careers master at Harrow School. It is probable that at the outset the majority of intelligent boys look forward to earning a salary which will enable them to live up to a certain standard of comfort, to marry at a suitable age, to bring up their children at the same standard of life as they themselves enjoyed, and to provide for their declining years. They also aim" at attaining to an executive post carrying some responsibility and freedom of action. This is a very proper ambition and one which every reasonable young man may be expected to cherish; but as an aim in life it is incomplete. Man cannot live by bread alone. He needs to consider his spiritual and intellectual development as well as his material advancement. After all, a man’s career is his life. His success cannot be measured in terms of his bank balance or even of high promotion, but by the fullness of life to which he attains. The right aim is the attainment of happiness. Not the sensual pleasure derived from passing physical activities, not the negative state of the contented cow, but the moral and intellectual satisfaction of a life well lived. This satisfaction can only be attained by a sense of duty well done, service to others, a true perspective of life; and the choice of the pure and noble rather than the vulgar and base.