Success

A classic George Ostrom column, from 1968...

Dallas is a beautiful city, if you can call any city beautiful, and they have the same major problem that plagues business in every other town in America.

They can’t find people who want to work. I asked an executive for the Gibson stores what qualifications they looked for in hiring and he said, “They only real qualification in this town is that they’re still warm.”

He went on to say, “Oh, we can find warm bodies alright, but to get someone who’s loyal and really tries to learn our business and not just coast along is almost impossible anymore.”

Thank goodness we haven’t got the troubles they have in Texas.

The more I travel around the country, the more convinced I am that America today offers more opportunities for success than at any other time in the history of the world, and there is no secret to it. Just find something you are good at, something you like, then give it everything you’ve got.

Come to think of it...I guess that’s always been the way to success. They only difference is that the opportunities to apply the formula are now much more numerous.

Lucked out and was home the first few days and the last few days of our hunting season. Opening morning, I went with my brother to his “new secret place” and shot a mule deer buck about 20 minutes after daylight. Also saw nine other mule deer of various sizes.

Last Saturday my brother-in-law from Billings was here and I told him of my good fortune so he wanted to go to the “new secret place.” So I took him out there at daylight and he walked right up the ridge where I’d shot my buck. In about 20 minutes I head him shoot and soon he came draggin’ a buck down the hill.

“What did I tell you Bud? All you’ve got to do is just walk up this ridge and shoot.”

“You lied to me George. Your brother-in-law and you really lied to me.”

He seemed disappointed and I thought he should be happier than a hungry trout in a salmon fly hatch.

“Whatta ya mean I lied to you? You didn’t have to walk a quarter of a mile. The drag was all downhill and the whole hunt didn’t take an hour.”

“I know...but just look at that buck. It ain’t no mule deer. That’s a whitetail.”