SELF-CONFIDENCE 217developed capacities for strong drink-eapacities they developed because the $l 00
that each oj them received each month made it unnecessary jor them to struggle.
Theirs is a long and sad story, the details of which will not interest
you, but you will be interested in the outcome. As this lesson is being
written I have on my desk a copy of the newspaper published in the
town where these boys lived. Their father has been bankrupted and
his costly mansion, where the boys were born, has been placed on the
block for sale. One of the boys died of alcohol-related causes and the
other one has been confined to a mental-health facility.
The lives of not all rich men's sons turn out so unfortunately, but
the fact remains, nevertheless, that inaction leads to atrophy and this, in
turn, leads to the loss of ambition and Self-Confidence, and without
these essential qualities an individual will be carried through life on the
wings of uncertainty, just as a dry leaf may be carried here and there
in the stray winds.
Far from being a disadvantage, struggle is a decided advantage,
because it develops those qualities that would forever lie dormant
without it. Many have found their place in the world due to having
been forced to struggle for existence early in life. Lack of knowledge of
the advantages accruing from struggle has prompted many a parent to
say, "I had to work hard when I was young, but I shall see to it that
my children have an easy time!" Poor foolish creatures. An "easy" time
usually turns out to be a greater handicap than the average young man
or young woman can survive. There are worse things in this world than
being forced to work in early life. Forced idleness is far worse than forced
labor. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in
you temperance and Self-Control and strength of will and content and
a hundred other virtues which the idle will never know.
Not only does lack of the necessity for struggle lead to weakness
of ambition and willpower, but, what is more dangerous still, it sets
up in a person's mind a state of lethargy that leads to the loss of Self-
Confidence. The person who has quit struggling because effort is no