Money--the word has a magical sound. It conjures up before the vision
some kind of enchanted paradise where to wish is to have--Aladdin's lamp
brought down to earth.

Yet in reality money carries with it only two qualities of value: the
character it creates in the making; the self-expression of the
individuality in the use of it, when once it has been made. The art of
making money implies all those qualities--resolution, concentration,
economy, self-control--which make for success and happiness. The power
of using it makes a man who has become the captain of his own soul in
the process of its acquirement also the master of the circumstances
which surround him. He can shape his immediate world to his own liking.
Apart from these two faculties, character in acquirement, power in use,
money has little value, and is just as likely to be a curse as a
blessing. For this reason the money master will care little for leaving
vast wealth to his descendants. He knows that they would be better men
for going down stripped into the struggle, with no inheritance but that
of brains and character. Wealth without either the wish, the brains, or
the power to use it is too often the medium through which men pamper the
flesh with good living, and the mind with inanity, until death,
operating through the liver, hurries the fortunate youth into an early
grave. The inheritance tax should have no terrors for the millionaire.

The value of money is, therefore, first in the striving for it and then
in the use of it. The ambition itself is a fine one--but how is it to be
achieved?

I would lay down certain definite rules for the guidance of the young
man who, starting with small things, is determined to go on to great
ones:--