THE HABIT OF DOING MORE THAN PAID FOR 573I had made one of the most embarrassing admissions of my life;
I had laid my soul bare, admitting temporary defeat at almost every
crossroad that I had passed in my struggles, and I had capped all this
off by admitting that an exponent of the Law of Success was himself
a temporary failure.
How incongruous it had seemed! I felt stupid, humiliated, and
embarrassed as I sat in front of the most searching pair of eyes and
the most inquisitive man I had ever met.
The absurdity of it all came over me in a flash-the philosophy
of success, created and broadcasted by a man who was obviously a
failure! The thought struck me so forcibly that I expressed it in words.
"What?!" Mellett exclaimed. "A failure? Surely you know the
difference between failure and temporary defeat;' he continued. "No
man is a failure who creates a single idea, much less an entire philos-
ophy that serves to soften the disappointments and minimize the
hardships of generations yet unborn."
Before I left Mellett's office we had become business partners,
with the understanding that he would resign as publisher of the
Canton Daily News and take over the management of all my affairs,
as soon as this could be arranged.
In the meantime, I began writing a series of Sunday feature-page
editorials which were published in the Canton Daily News) based on
the Law of Success philosophy.
One of these editorials came to the attention of Judge Elbert
H. Gary, who was at that time the chairman of the board of the
United States Steel Corporation. This resulted in Mellett contacting
Judge Gary, and that in turn led to Judge Gary's offer to purchase
the Law of Success course for the use of the employees of the Steel
Corporation.
The tides had begun to turn in my favor. The seeds of service
that I had been sowing over a long period of years, by Doing More
Than Paid For, were beginning to germinate at last!