It is beneficial for young people to start at the most basic positions. Many leading businessmen in Pittsburgh were entrusted with serious responsibilities at the very beginning of their careers. They began by sweeping offices and spent the first hours of their business lives doing so. Nowadays, offices have janitors, so young people often miss this valuable part of business education, but if the janitor is absent, a young person with the potential to become a future partner will not hesitate to take up the broom. I myself once performed such tasks.
Assuming you have found employment and started well, my advice is to "aim high." I place little value on a young person who does not already envision themselves as a partner or head of an important firm. Never settle for being a clerk, foreman, or manager in any company, no matter how large. Tell yourself: "My place is at the top." Be a king in your dreams.
The prime condition for success is to concentrate your energy, thought, and capital exclusively on the business you are engaged in. Once you start in one field, resolve to excel in it, adopt every improvement, use the best equipment, and know the most about it.
Businesses that fail are usually those that have scattered their investments, which also scatters their intelligence. They invest in this, that, and everything everywhere. The advice "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" is incorrect. I say, "Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket." Observe carefully; those who focus rarely fail. Managing one basket is easy; managing too many often leads to losses. One fault of American businessmen is a lack of concentration.
To summarize: aim high; avoid bars and alcohol, or if at all, only at meals; never speculate; never endorse beyond your surplus cash; make the firm's interests your own; always concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket and watch it; keep expenditures within revenue; and finally, do not be impatient, for as Emerson says, "No one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourselves."
