California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, Volume 14, Number 10, 2 November 1860 — Stick to Your Own Business. [ARTICLE]

Stick to Your Own Business.

It is not peculiar to this country to "run everything into the ground," as the phrase goes, but it certainly is done to n greater extent, nnd with more rapidity here than elsewhere. No matter w hat branch of business may be established—any-

thing, from the growing of potatoes to the manufacture of gold watches ; from tlie cutting of timber in trie forest, to the manufacture of ships nnd houses; for trade to the I*lc of BboaU, to voyages to the extremes of the earth—anything nnd everything which has the credit of being profitable, is rushed into by nil sorts of people, till the tables are fairly turned, nnd great losses follow groat profit*. Without going back many years, we have twice seen the lumbering business iv Maine, from a state of ordinary activity, which left n handsome profit to those engaged iv it, swelled up—prices raised—lands changing bunds at rapidly rising rales, thousands of people rushing into it who did not know hemlo'-k from maple, und twice collapsed, to tlie iufinite dainugc of all concerned. Twice have we seen ship-building in New England curried to the same extremes. Men did not know a schooner from n ship, tuking up their investments in stocks and mortgages, even borrowing money on accommodation paper, in their haste to share in the fabulous profits to be made by navigation, with the same results. So of all oilier kinds of business, our renders enn readily recall without our rtid, the ups nnd downs thnt have taken place within twenty years, nnd it is safe to say that in nil our pursuits, there bus not been one of any note which has not within that time been "run Into the ground." All these failurea are the result ot enterprise, doubtless, but of a very poor sort of enterprise, which depend-; upon the judgment of others, and follows the lend, without question, of whoever says, ( 'I have made money." Jt is safe, therefore, to predicate of any business, that when it pays large profits, its nice, as a profitable business, will speedily be run—so m:iy many who strike in speedily, while the late coiners wiU not only ruin themselves, but cut down the profits of their predecessors to a point so fine, as to leave them merely nominal, if not worse. Another disadvantage of this course of things is, that credit is thereby expanded to a serious extent, because men who embark in a business which litis the reputation of being profitable are not much scrutinized. "He is in the shoe I'li-iin-ss— everybody is making money at that— of course his note is good.'* Or, "He is ll the book trade ; see bow* many men have got rich in it; why should not he?" Or, "He owns a ship, nnd a ship in these times is a fortune to any man.'' And so the new shoe-man, or hook-tunn, or shipowner, if he has sense enough to look wise, and modestly admits, when pressed to it, that "his business is really not a bad one," will soon get a line of credit far beyond his real deserts, spread himself on it, compete sharply for business, sell without profit, trust others as freely as others trust biiiFfntid finally collapses—an empty shell being left where his creditors ull along believed in a full egg. As a general rule, these collapses happen to the latest coiners, for the reason that the old established concerns in nny trade are able to make the two ends meet, where the new ones will toti ten per cent. Hut the result is the same, namely, to bring the business into discredit, as well us destroy for a time all the profits of it. We have seen the time when the book-trade notes wort looked upon with anything but favor ; when shne-and-leather paper, even with large rates of exchange, did not tempt shrewd bankers ; when to be known ns a large owner of ships w as withering to a man's credit. The misfortunes we have spoken of arise from the eager, restless, money-getting spirit which is never satisfied with small tilings, but is ever on the watch for some opening which promises a fortune speedily, and rushes into whatever other people appear to be getting rich by, in too many cases without the slightest knowledge of the business itself. Those who are brought up to a business—who know all about it—should never leave it for something which looks better. Hy sticking to what they know they will generally get a living —sometimes get rich; by rushing into something new, they will learn too late for remedy that they have lost the bone and have not seized the shadow even. The man who knows all about a ship, from the keel up, who understands all her wants, and the cheapest way to supply them, will make a living profit, while the'amateur, who only knows what others tell him, will lose. The foreign trader, who knows exactly the wants of the flWket to which he sends his ships, will succeed; while another who gets his information from the prices-current, and general information which is open to everybody, will fail. So in any other business. Let every one stick to what he knows. Hy following this rule a man will oftentimes find htpßSttf far as*,ern, apparently, of his more advenfarous neighbors ; but in nine cases out of ten, at the end of thirty years he will look back from the safe position be occupies, upon the wrecks of those same adventurers all along the road. Slick tv the occupation, trade, or business, that you know aU about.—[Huston Journal.