--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 9 number: 5 published: 1906-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Be Somebody," *Improvement Era* 9, no. 5 (March 1906): 396.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0905unse 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: improvementera0905unse start_page: 396 end_page: 396 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0905unse publication_year: 1906 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 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Be Somebody 396 IMPROVEMENT ERA. their faith to grasp the possibilities. It may be applied to those who have learned, or who can know by reasun, that among all the works of God's hands, there is nothing more able than man to fill the measure of his creation. If for this class of people there is any one thing that is more bitter than all others, it is that they "might have received" better things, if they had been inclined strongly enough towards them. Why should we not aspire to the best places of which we have heard? And when we have aspired in real earnestness, why should we not feel confident of success? If the thing we undertake to do is in harmony with all truth, it has within it the elements of eternity. Though we be hindered for a time, we can return as a god to his never-failing purposes, knowing that in the end we must conquer; that all the forces of heaven are in our favor. Though our aspirations be like "the longing of the moth for the star, " and we have difficulty, and hardship, and disappointment; and though the goal of our hope seems no nearer, if we "pray always and not faint," and if we sleep with unfaltering trust, and labor with uncompromising diligence, no power can deny us our hopes, but heaven will give us all we merit, even though it be what once seemed impossible. Grayson, Utah. BE SOMEBODY. It is within everybody's power to be somebody, and to do something worth while in the world, and the man who does not do it is violating his sacred birthright. Every man or woman who goes through the world with great continents of undiscovered possibilities locked up in him, commits a sin against himself and that which borders on a crime against civilization. Don't be afraid to trust yourself. Have faith in your own ability to think along original lines. If there is anything in vou, self-reliance will bring it out. Whatever you do, cultivate a spirit of manly independence in doing it. Let your work express yourself. Don't be a mere cog in a machine. Do your own thinking and carry out your own ideas, as far as possible, even though working for another. — Orison Swett Marden.