--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - D. E. Davis collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 3 number: 9 published: 1900-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'D. E. Davis, "Business Training," *Improvement Era* 3, no. 9 (July 1900): 658–660.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera39unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera39unse start_page: 658 end_page: 660 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1900-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera39unse publication_year: 1900 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1900, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Business Training BUSINESS TRAINING. BY D. E. DAVIS. [D. E. Davis, a resident of Box Elder County, is a graduate this year of the Commercial Class, Brigham Young Academy, Provo, and was the class speaker. The following extract, "loaded with ideas," is taken from his address which was courteously submitted to the Era by Dr. Geo. H. Brimhall . — Editors.] Starting out in life is more dangerous than going to war; more hazardous than taking a trip to Klondike. Greater responsibility than this no man has ever assumed. The trio of a successful life is character, energy, and education. Surely, a noble father or a wise mother could not have neglected these three helpful and indispensable accomplishments that are needed to give success to their son or daughter. The world, it is said, is always looking for men who are not for sale; men who are honest, sound from core to circumference, true to the heart's core ; men whose consciences are as steady as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right, if the heavens totter and the earth reels; men who neither flag nor flinch; men who can have courage without shouting for it, men in whom the courage of everlasting life runs still, deep, and strong; men who know their message and tell it; men who know their places and fill them; men who know their own business and attend to it; men who will not lie, shirk, nor dodge; men who are not too lazy to work nor too proud to be poor; men who are willing to eat what they have earned, and wear what they have paid for; men who are not afraid to say "No" with emphasis, and who are not ashamed to say "I can't afford it." BUSINESS TRAINING. 659 The sea of life is safe to travel on if the pilot of your boat knows the dangerous places and how to avoid them. Without such pilotage, the trip is a dangerous one. Don't take the chances of being wrecked by failing to secure the services of that skilled and reliable pilot, Business Education. You need not wait for something to turn up, for something will turn up if you throw aside chance and luck, and depend upon your own exertions. The main point is to get up the steam of energy and application, and then, with Business Education at the helm, you will steer clear of the many dangers that obstruct the current, and safely land in the harbor of success. Too many students spoil a lifetime by not having patience and perseverance. They take up a business course and pursue it until they see about one half of its mysteries; then they get the idea that the world needs their services so badly that they must leave school and go to work, or else they get discouraged and tired of study and quit school. The truth of the matter is, the world does not need your help at all, unless you are thoroughly competent to do the work it has to do. Do not be in a hurry. You would better stay in school, and in the back-ground a few months longer; yea, even a few years longer, if necessary, and be recognized for some special qualifications when you get out, than to get out too soon to make a failure of life just because you have learned nothing to a finish. An opportunity to better one's condition in life is like the nugget of gold that lies hidden in the ground. It may turn up at any moment, but in order to secure it, you must be on the ground ready to seize it. There will always be high, honorable, and lucrative positions for those who are qualified to fill them, but the world is getting more exacting every day, and is demanding higher qualifications. The highest success can be reached only by those who demonstrate that they can do, in the best way, the work that the world wants done. Education prepares one to grasp the opportunity, and the opportunity well improved leads to success. Like time and tide that wait for no man, opportunity does not wait on preparation. To secure the golden prize, you must be ready to grasp it when it passes your way. Places that are so acceptably filled today, by those who deserved success by the hard work they 660 IMPROVEMEN1 ERA. did to attain it, may, tomorrow, be vacant, and those best qualified to fill the places will be called to the front. Never, in the history of civilization, were there better facilities for obtaining a preparation for the work of life than today, and never were the rewards greater. It is just as true, too, that never were the punishments of ignorance so severe as at the present time, when ignorance must compete with machinery. Educated and well-trained minds will get the remunerative work, while ignorance will serve to add to the great army of tramps. Opportunity offers the choice of two roads for the youth of this land to take, one is ignorance, which leads to failure, and the other is education, which leads to success. A moment's reflection shows that deficiencies in business training are responsible for a great many financial failures. Many a fortune has been lost just because its possessor knew nothing of business. It is a good sign when university professors begin to realize that a business training is among the necessities of a popular education. There is a time coming when each of us must live upon the memories of the past, but that time is not present. There is a time in every person's life when he must depend upon others; then there comes another time, and that is when they are expected to "start out on their own hook." You cannot always stay at home with father and mother, and it is not well that you should do so. They will not always be with you, and when they are gone, you will have to get out into the world and depend upon self. Why not get this preparation before they leave you? Every person should consider himself under the guardianship of his parents until he reaches the age of maturity, but during this time he has two duties to perform, one to assist his parents, the other to educate himself by acquiring practical and useful knowledge. The parents' duty lies in helping him to do this in a most satisfactory manner. It will be noticed that a business education embraces those branches of an education that have a direct application to the practical affairs of life. The utility of a good, practical, legible handwriting is conceded by all. In almost every business and professional office, shorthand and typewriting are in demand. Improved and up-to-date methods of book-keeping are demanded by