How to Study, the Best Short Stories, an Analysis of Edward J. O'brien's Annual Volumes #249792

Charles Caldwell Dobie has said: 1 Any man who has made a success of his business or profession always seems to consider it his duty to warn others off the field. The advice of both failure and success appears to be em bodied in one and the same word, Don't!' This is a curious paradox, and I shall not attempt to explain it. Perhaps it is because the roads to success or to failure are hard to distinguish, the sign-posts at the parting of the ways almost undecipherable. Yes, I think it must be this realization of the nearness of defeat that makes the successful one so anxious to dissuade others from the struggle. And yet, after all, there IS a bit of egotism back of the kindly advice we offer, rather patronizingly, to our friends.