That is an asset which your whole career of
unsuccessful probity should have accumulated for you; and it is
dissipated if you remove from among those in whose minds that belief
in you exists.
I have seen this serious error made so many times, and nearly always
with such destroying results, that I give it more space than its
relative proportion deserves. I have in mind now two men who did
precisely this thing. Their success in the two country towns where
they had lived had been reasonable, but not considerable. It did not
appear to be success at all to them, though.
They were quite sure that they were bigger than their
opportunities--yes, that was what was the matter--they needed larger
opportunities, "larger fields," more "scope" for their powers. Each
man was about fifty years of age. Each was a man of far more than
ordinary talent. Each removed to a city. And in the city which each
chose, each miserably, utterly, hopelessly failed.
Had they remained where for years they had been planting the seeds of
confidence, respect, and achievement, and had they awaited the slow
processes of the harvest, each man would soon have become the leading
man in his town, county, and district, and would have remained so
until the end of his days; for the harvest was nearly theirs.
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