Taming Tribulation Podcast

By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Dig.

Dig right through every obstacle. Fight to uphold the dignity of your Purpose. Dig, bore, squeeze, sweat — but get through!

Dig. The regular, persistent drop of water will wear away the hardest stone. Science says that the even, rhythmic step of an army has power to start the wreck of the strongest bridge. In like manner does determined effort win anything — anywhere. To believe so, start to-day to — Dig.

Dig! You see the other fellow carrying away plenty of “Bacon?” Dig. You failed in many things yesterday? Dig. You want money, reputation, glory? Dig. Mental, moral, or financial Bankruptcy stares boldly at you? Pay no attention. Just — Dig. Success is not a thing inherited. To get it you must — Dig.

Dig. Every man or woman who ever won at anything knew how to — Dig. It is the “A’’-word of the Alphabet of Doing.

Dig. No matter WHAT you want or WHERE you want it, or WHEN you want it, you must first know how to Dig — or you won’t get it. Dig.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Be Sincere. For it’s the mark that stamps and “Trademarks” your Character so that it stands at once as Genuine. Be Sincere. Nobody trusts the man who doesn’t trust himself.

Be Sincere. Look the other fellow in the eye squarely and with confidence, and he will trust you. Be Sincere. Lacks in ability and knowledge are many times excused. But insincerity — never.

Be Sincere. Teach the world once for all that you are square — Sincere — and the “order of business” for you will move smoothly and with satisfaction.

Be Sincere. Sincerity is more than money. Even as the magnet attracts and clusters to itself particles of steel, so does the man who holds Sincerity as his asset, draw Men and Chances and great Works to his record.

Be Sincere. Trouble yourself not that Yesterday was a failure. To-day faces you. Try a new instrument. Tighten new cords for a new Tune. Take hold on a new Force — be Sincere. Then will this day have been far from in vain.

Be Sincere.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Be Systematic.

The Thought, the Plan, the Energy, the Success of your day is measured in value by your application to each — of System.

Be Systematic. First, it is the easiest way. And then, it is the only way. For without System, the most stupendous Task is sure to crack, crumble and fall into a wreck of waste and loss.

Be Systematic. With System, a worthwhile Purpose, and an iron determination, progress is steady and smooth and sure. Difficulties fade away. Obstructions are pushed aside, and the Completed Task rises with precision and reality, like unto the rising shafts of steel that reach skyward, outlining and suggesting and making real the giant form of the completing Skyscraper. All through System!

Be Systematic. Form the habit of undertaking even the smallest Task through System. Then the big things will be achieved with ease and with enjoyment.

Be Systematic. But don’t be satisfied to apply System to yourself alone. Teach it to others. You who are a Stenographer, Clerk, Manager, Owner of a Business — no matter what your niche — see that System rules your Throne.

Be Systematic.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

A man is always bigger than anything big that he does. No man will ever be able to create anything greater than his own Character.

To take a single illustration — Lincoln. To Humanity, Abraham Lincoln is infinitely finer than President Lincoln, and as the years accumulate, deeper and deeper do his superb qualities penetrate into the innermost workings of the peoples and nations of the world.

Lincolnize your Work. The rules of action that guided Lincoln were the rules of ordinary Sense and Humanity. They were unvarnished. They were disguised by no extra trappings and encumbrances. The simplest thinking person immediately grasped the just rulings and conclusions of Lincoln. The best investment that any Business House can make is to gather together the simple rules of conduct that guided Lincoln, and have them Printed, Framed and Hung, before the faces of every one of its Employees.

Lincolnize your Business. When Lincoln promoted General Hooker he told him that he was doing it in spite of the fact that he had glaring Faults, Enemies, Vanities, and a lot of other things. Lincoln recognized the high qualities of Leadership that Hooker had and he was not blinded by his defects. He always saw the Big things in a man. He knew Grant even before he had met him. He felt men by their Deeds. Results to him reflected the man.

Lincolnize your Judgment. Lincoln was Just. Lincoln was Generous. Lincoln was Square. Lincoln was Magnanimous. Lincoln was Modest. Lincoln was Gentle. Lincoln was Strong.

Lincolnize your Ideals.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Human beings were created to run themselves. Else at birth, each would have been accompanied by a Book of Instructions.

You are your own General Manager. Realize but this and it will make you thrill with Fire and Force.

Are YOU on the Job? No one else can possibly see your Faults in the clear light that you yourself can see them. No one else can possibly fathom the Mysteries of your Mind so thoroughly. No one else can possibly supplant your ability to powerfully picture your own great Ideals and Purposes. No one else can possibly dictate the Policies and Measures of your own life so well. No one else can possibly so efficiently get Work and Results from your marvelous Brain and Body machinery.

Who’s conducting your shop, anyway?

You are the General Manager. Are YOU on the Job? Most of us are just First, Second, Third, etc., ASSISTANT General Managers. We let someone else do our Thinking for us. We want the fancy Titles and Glory — but shirk at doing the work.

Are YOU on the Job? If not, do this without delay. Call a meeting of your own Intellectual Faculties. Insist on a full meeting. Then lock the door and get down to Business. Take your seat at the head of the table. Discuss frankly and freely the Real Things that concern your Life Success. But keep solidly in mind that you are the Boss — the Force behind all the Artillery, the real Directing Factor — the actual General Manager.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Respect is the name of the Fellow who tends door for your Conscience. His is the most sacred Office in the gift of your Character. For, when he goes wrong, Conscience becomes ill unto Death.

Nothing of Winning matters with Respect gone. Respect is your most faithful Friend, your greatest Guide, your most powerful Protector — your safest Pilot into Port.

Nothing of Winning matters with Respect gone. And Respect is made at home. You are your own Respect. For a man can be on no better terms with anybody than with his Own Self. The Man without Respect is a Make-believe, a Fraud — a Counterfeit.

Nothing of Winning matters with Respect gone. Respect yourself and other people will be compelled to Respect you — and you will Respect them. Respect is the beginning of Wisdom. With Respect on guard, you look people squarely in the Eye without wavering. With Respect, active and unafraid, you go ahead to move away Rubbish and Obstacles and pave a Path for other people to walk in from which they profit.

Nothing of Winning matters with Respect gone. Think about this as you move about To-day. Let it keep you Strong. Let it make you indomitable. Let it lift you from your present position into one higher up. Let it make of you a Leader.

For — Nothing of Winning matters with Respect gone.

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By George Matthew Adams (written 1913)

There is nothing in Ghosts. But they do exist. Ghosts are nothing more nor less than the phantom Imaginations of sick, afraid Minds. They go by various names — Failure Ghosts, Idea Ghosts, Mistake Ghosts, Chance Ghosts, Regret Ghosts — and Millions of others.

Face your Ghosts. Walk right up to your Ghosts. Shake hands with them. Look them in the eye. Give them a hearing. And then kick them out — for they never will do you any good.

Face your Ghosts. Ghosts are always on the Job. In the office of the Doctor, Lawyer, Business man, in your Home, on the Street — everywhere. But Ghosts get uneasy in the Light. They are born and bred in the Dark Alleys and exist only by the Sandbag. Your cue is to keep the Lights turned on — your Mind open — your Courage alert — your Character Impregnable.

Face your Ghosts. To-day when you read your newspapers there will be Ghosts between the Lines of the Print. Ghosts seek you out and constantly try for your scalp. They like Time-Wasters, The Man-Afraid-of-His-Job Hesitaters. They revel among the players of idle Good-fellowship. But Ghosts sneak like cowed dogs with their tails between their legs, at the sight of Doers, Time Users, Obstacle Riddlers, and Path Makers. Be unafraid of Ghosts.

Face your Ghosts. But don’t harbor them. Live, Red-Blooded Men can’t be dragging around a lot of Ghosts and amount to Anything.

Face your Ghosts.

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By George Matthew Adams (written 1913)

Imagination is the greatest asset that the world’s Doers have ever had. Money, titles, estates — they are all cheap beside this marvelous gift. Imagination is the creator of them all in most instances.

Cultivate your Imagination. You who read this — did you ever stop to consider that you would not be worth the free air you breathe were it not for the fact that you possess to some extent the power of Imagination?

Cultivate your Imagination. People do the things they first see done with their Imagination. McAdoo with the eye of his mind saw rapid cars taking thousands of people daily under the Hudson river. Of course, people turned their heads and smiled at his dream. But McAdoo made real his dream in the Hudson tunnels. Marconi saw the messages of people thousands of miles away floating on the waves of the air and sounded off at a marvelous instrument. He was at once rated as crazy. But he went ahead and presented to an astonished world the unbelievable Wireless telegraph!

Cultivate your Imagination. People call America the “land of Opportunity.” It is the land of Imagination. Hera the humblest rises to the greatest position of power. It’s the working of Imagination that contributes most. The obscure clerk sees himself President of the concern he serves. Then he advances step by step until he realizes his aim. His first step toward the President’s job was to see himself with his Imagination, occupying it.

Cultivate you Imagination. The great Perthes once said “that a quick Imagination is the salt of earthly life, without which nature is but a skeleton; but the higher the gift the greater the responsibility.”

Cultivate your Imagination. Cultivate it in little things. Then the little things will become big things. Then the big things will take their place among the undying things. History is but the story of the achievements of people who had Imagination.

Cultivate your Imagination.

By George Matthew Adams (written 1913)

To serve is to find Something to do — and then do it. It matters not what this Something is, so long as it serves a Useful end.

Honor your Job. The biggest man or woman who ever lived, was in no way, after all, greater than a Servant — in some way or other. The world is a world of Servants. You are a Servant. The one you Serve is a Servant.

Honor your Job. Proportionately every man is as great as the greatest if he Serves to his fullest Capacity. To do this is to Grow. And Growth only comes to the people of Capacity. You who do your best to-day will do better tomorrow. To Service there is no limit. Honor your Job. No occupation is so dignified as Service of some kind. Nothing brings greater rewards in Happiness and Power. He climbs highest who helps another up.

Honor your Job. The truest fact in all this world is that the more you do for someone else, the more you boost your own game — the stronger your own individual influence and Character becomes. Suppose you try it out to-day and learn for yourself. Try it in your Home, at your Office, in your place of power or in the midst of the humblest circumstances. Be a real Servant. Serve. And be glad in doing it.

Honor your Job. And by so doing become one of the factors in the stirring affairs of your time.

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By George Matthew Adams (written 1913)

Happiness is Helpfulness bubbling over at the rim. Also, Happiness is getting in time with the music of the Band of The-Out-of-Doors. There is no unhappiness in Nature. Lend a Hand.

Make Happiness a Habit. The people who are Happy are the people who are Successful — not in money, merely, but in Contentment, realized Aims and completed Effort. To win — be Happy. To be Happy — do something worthwhile. Lend a Hand.

Make Happiness a Habit. The fastest growing concern is the one with the most Happy helpers. Happiness produces health. Health plows up the field of native ability and makes ready the soil for the Happy Harvest. Lend a Hand.

Make Happiness a Habit. Happiness cannot be bought. Being rated as of all things about the most Precious — it is at the same time free. It is for all. But there must be mustered the effort to take it. And after you have it, if you would keep it — give it away. Lend a Hand.

Make Happiness a Habit. For Happiness boiled down is nothing more nor less than being well content with your progress by seeking better things all the time, being glad that you are alive, thanking God that you have a chance, believing that you have some things that nobody else in all the world has, and just resolving that you are going to make this world a marvelous place to stay in for a while. It’s also having something that everyone else will want — and giving it to others. Lend a hand.

Make Happiness a Habit.

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