Conditions of success in business.
I. THE MEASURES TO BE ADOPTED.
1. Enterprises not free from hazard. "Cast thy bread upon the waters," meaning, "launch out upon the sea of business speculation." The man who would succeed must be prepared to venture somewhat. A judicious quantity of courage seems indispensable to getting on. The timid merchant is as little likely to prosper as the shrinking lover.
2. Prudence in dividing risks. "Divide the portion into seven, yea, eight parts," which again signifies that one should never put all his eggs into one basket, commit all his goods to one caravan, place all his cargo in one ship, invest all his capital in one undertaking, or generally venture all on one card.
3. Confidence in going forward, The agriculturist who, is always, watching the weather—"observing the wind and regarding the clouds (verse 4)—will make but a poor farmer; and he who is constantly taking fright at the fluctuations of the market will prove only an indifferent merchant. In business, as in love and war, the man who hesitates is lost.
4. Diligence and constancy in labor. The person who aims at success in business must be a hard and. incessant, not a fitful and intermittent, worker. If a farmer, he must sow betimes in the morning, and pause not until hindered by the shades of night. If a merchant, he must trade both early and late. If an artisan, he must toil week in and week out. It is "the hand of the diligent" that "maketh rich" (Proverbs 10:4).
II. THE MOTIVES TO BE CHERISHED.
1. The expectation of a future reward. "Thou shalt find it [thy bread] after many days." Such enterprises, though attended with risk, will not all fail, but will generally prove successful—not immediately, perhaps, but after an interval of waiting, as the ships of a foreign merchant require months, or even years, before they return with the desired profits.
2. The anticipation of impending calamity. As no man can foresee the future, the prudent merchant lays his account with one or more of his ventures coming to grief. Hence, in the customary phrase, he "divides the risk," and does not hazard all in one expedition.
3. The consciousness of inability to forecast the future. Just because of this—illustrated in verses 3 and 5—the man who aspires to prosper in his undertakings dismisses all overanxious care, and instead of waiting for opportunities and markets, makes them.
4. The beige of ultimately succeeding. Though he may often fail, he expects he will not always fail; hence he redoubles his energy and diligence. "In the morning he sows his seed, and in the evening withholds not his band," believing that in the end his labors will be crowned with success.
Learn:
1. That business is not incompatible with piety.
2. That piety need be no hindrance to business.
3. That each may be helpful to the other.
4. That both should be, and are, a source of blessing to the world.