76 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



TRAINING FOR ACTION 



Bx H. W. FARWELL 



COLUMBIA DNIVEESITT 



EDUCATION is properly preparation for service. That man who 

 enters upon his work with a poor idea of what is required of him 

 is at once seriously handicapped and often prevented from reaching a 

 goal which he hopes to reach, and strives to attain, sometimes with an 

 enormous waste of energy. Much praise should be given to training 

 which seeks to give high ideals and broad outlook, but surely something 

 must be spoken for effort to make clear the means of attainment of a 

 laudable ambition based on high ideals and broad outlook. 



We know well the value of fundamental principles. We spend much 

 time to ascertain what things are essential. We try to bring to younger 

 minds the best of the results of continual analysis; yet on one point 

 there seems to be very little effort made to make more certain the 

 accomplishment of tasks whose essential features are readily traced to 

 underlying principles. One of the greatest things about any work 

 is its final solution, accomplishment or completion. The conception 

 of a work of art, of a suspension bridge, of a transportation system, ia 

 not for all of us. There have never been too many "men of ideas." 

 But ideas arise from imagination and only too often the plan goes awry 

 before the final realization. The "man of ideas" needs a man with a 

 power to accomplish. 



There seems to be prevalent the notion that executive ability is a 

 gift from nature, made to comparatively few in a generation. When 

 one of these endowed individuals is thrust into a position of respon- 

 sibility, his talent appears and success follows almost of necessity. 

 Since this ability is rare, much time is lost in finding a man who 

 possesses it; meanwhile, a great injustice is done to those dependent 

 upon the executive. Such a point of view can hardly be considered 

 fair even to the average man, for not all positions demand the highest 

 order of executive ability. 



Other people apparently assume that executive ability ia a character- 

 istic of all men, that any one in a position of responsibility, for which 

 he has the requisite training in principles and methods, will be able 

 to accomplish as much as any one else. How fallacious is this assump- 

 tion may be quickly seen by considering the varied accomplishments of, 

 let us say, our representatives in congress. 



Executive ability is a gift from nature, to be sure, and possessed by 

 every man, but in the same way that each man has talent for music 



