This week’s Monday Morning Message from Wm. H. Danforth, founder of Ralston Purina: What is the Monday Morning Message?

Do you think that you can not change the things that are wrong in your life? Some things “just happen” but there are many factors within our control–if we are willing to take control.

The South has produced such a surplus crop of cotton above current needs that the price of the entire crop falls below what is generally believed to be the cost of production. Man’s acreage and Nature’s weather did it. Man could not control the weather but he could the acreage. Everlastingly, Agricultural Bureaus keep preaching diversified farming.

In like manner I keep on preaching diversified living to you Purina Leaders. I keep hammering away on the four-fold life represented by our trade mark, the Four-Square Checker. Unless somebody constantly hammers away at you, you may get a bit careless and become unbalanced. It is so easy to forget the weak side. When anything goes wrong there is something at the bottom of it. When the price of cotton tumbled the controllable factor was the acreage. When something goes wrong with your living there is a controllable cause.

Are you strong physically and alert mentally —but grouchy? Find the cause.

Are you a “hale-fellow-well-met” bristling with personality—but not getting results? Find the cause.

Look around you this week and see if you are living a diversified, balanced, four-fold life. If not, find the cause. Find the controllable error and when you find it put it under control.

Don’t let this slide in the waste basket without Thinking Hard.

In what areas of your business or your life would you like to achieve better results? What is holding you back?

Your first answer to the question of what is holding you back is probably something that you feel is out of your control. Although we all feel the effects of external forces, we may forget how many things are within our control.

Look for the factor you can control, and make a change.