THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



341 



PREPARATION AND PLANS. 



Their Importance in the Success 

 of Life. 



I have frequentl}' referred to the im- 

 portance of carefully thoug"ht out 

 plans, and equally careful and 

 thoroug'h preparation for carrying- 

 them out, and my attention was again 

 called to the matter to day by an arti- 

 cle in the daily paper setting- forth 

 some of the whys and wherefores of 

 Japanese success in the present war. 

 While there is a vast difference be- 

 tween the battles of life and the bat- 

 tles of war, there are also many paral- 

 lels. The same might be said of busi- 

 ness and warfare. 



To illustrate, let me quote the open- 

 ing paragraph of the article to which 

 I have referred. It says: — 



The lessons of the campaign are a 

 text constantly before the eyes of the 

 military observers with the army They 

 have made no revolutionary discoveries 

 thus far; indeed, the chief lesson has 

 been the overshadowing importance of 

 WxeLtannplete preparation which has made 

 every cog of every wheel of that great 

 machine slide quietlj' into its groove 

 at the appointed minute, and the at- 

 tention to detail, for lack of which 

 the servants of the Czar are wasting so 

 much brave food for powder. 



Allow me to quote one more para- 

 graph: — 



Gen. Kuroki is a quiet and un- 

 assuming gentleman, rather the Moltke 

 type than the theatrical general 

 who rides about exhorting and cursing 

 his men. His type is apparently the 

 prevailing one in the Japanese. Some- 

 times it appears he has worked out his 

 plan of battle so perfectly before the 

 event that he can sit down confident of 

 its fulfillment and takes little further 

 interest in the proceedings. During 

 the critical hours of July 31, when ad- 

 vancing across the valley to charge the 

 Russian entrenchments on the heiglits, 

 he sat in the courtyard of a Chinese 

 temple, chatting casually with mem- 

 bers of his staff. A court painter 

 could have made no battle picture 

 there. Gen. Kuroki's force partakes 



of his character It might be des- 

 cribed as the silent army. 



I sometimes find myself wondering 

 just how far ahead some of my readers 

 have planned their work. 



Have you even a plan for tomorrow ? 

 Have you a plan for next week, or 

 next month, or next year ? So many 

 men seem to work on and on, day after 

 day, with no particular objective 

 point; no plan; no thought of accomp- 

 lishing this, and then taking up that, 

 and so on, for life. My friend, look 

 ahead; consider carefully the situa- 

 tion; decide what you will do, and 

 what you will accomplish, and what 

 you will be. Are yon going to keep 

 more bees, or less ? Are you going to 

 be a specialist or are you going to do 

 a variety of things ? If a variety, 

 what will thay be, and why ? Make 

 out a general plan, so to speak, for 

 life, and then begin to plan so that 

 things will "come out" in such a man- 

 ner as to help this plan. Of course, 

 plans sometimes fail, but the man who 

 plans stands a much better chance for 

 success than the one who works in a 

 hap hazard manner. How often do we 

 hear some man exclaim: "If I had 

 only made calculations, I might have 

 done so and so. " Make calculations. 

 Plan; and then remember that "pre- 

 paredness is the secret of most succes- 

 ses. " 



Just a few more words on this sub- 

 ject of planning. It may sometimes be 

 advisable to sacrifice present advan- 

 tages for the sake of future success. 

 A young man may go to work as a 

 common laborer, and, at the end of a 

 few years, lay up more money than 

 the young man who spends some years 

 in learning a skillful trade, or prepar- 

 ing himself for some profession, but, 

 in the end, the man who takes pains to 

 prepare himself for some important life- 

 work, will far out-strip the one who 

 takes up with almost any work that 

 conies along, and that can be performed 

 by almost any one with very little 

 preparation. 



