Page:Engineering as a vocation (IA cu31924004245605).pdf/57

 The majority of men, however, who are trying to secure an engineering education by night study will never succeed, for their trouble is temperamental. They went into practical work instead of going to a technical school, because they imagined four years was too long a time to spend in study and thought there was some royal road to learning. Some, in fact many, believed there was no necessity for all the studies the technical student must take. The desire to begin earning money led them to neglect the preliminary school training. Later in life they take up night study, but the impatient spirit still stirs within them and prevents rapid or great progress. Such men are generally pretentious to a degree and are a positive detriment to the profession.

A man succeeds in the present day because of one or all of three things, as compared with his competitors. They are:


 * Superior intelligence,
 * Greater energy,
 * Superior preparation.

The superior intelligence must be proven and it takes many years generally for a young chap to prove he has ordinary intelligence. The possession of greater energy must be proven and this takes years of hustle in competition with seasoned veterans in the battle for existence. Adequate preparation along lines which a century of