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“Patience is the power that awaits results calmly, cheerfully, hopefully.  Patience is an exhibition of faith in the order of things.  The wise are patient in all things.  Patience waits, overlooks, excuses, forgives, composes, endures; is not hasty, nor provocative, not revengeful, nor uneasy, nor discontented.  Patience is unselfishness, sacrifice, liberality, generosity, magnanimity. 

To know how to be patient is to know how to overcome.” 

Frederick J. Wulling, Dean, University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, 1899

I have had the privilege of being an APPE extern at ASHP for the past couple of weeks.  For those of you unfamiliar with the rotation, it covers national organization management and involves meetings, conference calls, projects, etc.  It has been a great experience so far, and I highly recommend it to all the students looking for unique APPE opportunities. 

While researching one of my projects, I came across an electronic copy of the 1899 issues of “Pharmacy Bulletin.”  I read some headlines to get an idea of the issues effecting pharmacy 115 years ago.  The information was fascinating: from national work force issues, to new pharmacy schools, all the way to issues with customers wanting to use the pharmacy phone  (Apparently this was quite a hot topic with pharmacists of the time). 

The writing style of these articles is vastly different from articles today.  It was great to see an article from Lucius E. Sayre, the first dean of my school.  During my reading, I came across an article that I have to share with others.  Titled “To the Graduate,” it is an essay written by Frederick J. Wulling, the first dean of the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. (Shout out to all my Minnesota friends.)  He wrote this article addressing graduating students from pharmacy schools.  In it, he details the qualities he feels are necessary for success.  I have the article typed out below, and I encourage you to read it.  Mr. Wulling’s words are an example of the foundation of our profession, and I will consider myself successful if my contribution is even a portion of that of one of these great leaders from our past. 

TO THE GRADUATE

The Young Man About to Take up Pharmacy as a Pursuit is Admonished that It Demands Imperatively the Brand of Character and Brain Which Commands Success in all Callings

By Prof. Frederick J. Wulling

The world is the arena of life and you are in it.  In it you can win or you can lose- you can do as you please.  It is your privilege to choose.  Wisdom guides you: seek it.  Ignorance handicaps you; overcome it.  You have the power to choose rightly.  Having chosen rightly you have allied yourself with the law of success.  This law in its operation for your success demands of you perseverance, application, industry, faithfulness, earnestness of purpose, and contentment with your choice.  With a hopeful, cheerful, continuous exercise of these qualities you give up the possibility to lose.  You can make of the world a vast agency for success; success is in the nature of men and things.  The law requires only that you be in harmony with it, with the world, and with yourself, you must

                  Be self-reliant.

                  Be industrious.

                  Be persevering.

                  Be energetic, courageous, prompt.

                  Be executive, methodical.

                  Be accurate and thorough.

                  Be mannerly and cultured.

                  Be tactful, diplomatic.

                  Be economical.

                  Be patient.

                  Be kind.

                  Be moral and honest.

                  Be an example to others.

                  The sum of these is perfection, whose reward is success, prosperity, contentment, harmony, peace.

BE SELF-RELIANT.

The self-reliant are their own sufficiency.

Rely first upon yourself- “Heaven helps them who help themselves.”  You have the power to be what you will be.  The sum of the experience of men points to self-reliance as the greatest factor of success of the individual; and the success of the individual becomes that of the nation.  Reliance upon others is an indication of weakness and is enfeebling; reliance upon oneself is invigorating and stimulating.  If you need the help of others, seek the guidance, and perhaps government, of those who are mature in experience and wisdom.  Growth and progress are best insured by the exercise of your inherent powers.  Rightly appreciate your powers; cultivate and develop them.  All really great men have become such largely through the perception and development of their own powers.  A knowledge and conviction of your inherent powers stimulate you to attempts which you would not otherwise make.  To be self-reliant you must recognize the powers naturally yours.  You must do for yourself, and above all you must think for yourself.  You must be able to respect yourself.  See to the culture of your character as well as to the development of your intellect and skill.  Do not rely upon institutions or persons to do this for you.  The institutions of men, educational, governmental, social or business, can give you no active aid.  The best they can do is to stimulate you to help yourself.  But if your self-reliance has led you to success, as it must, do not permit your independence to make you haughty or arrogant.  You would then have descended from your lofty pedestal of wisdom to the depths of vain pretention. 

Self-reliance is the recognition of self-power.

BE INDUSTRIOUS.

Let your industry be well-directed.

Self-reliance cannot be practiced without industry.  Industry has built empires- with it you can build yours.  Wisely directed industry lands you in the haven of material prosperity.  Nor should it deprive you of pleasure and enjoyment- these are concomitant with industry and are its offspring.  Be industrious, but never drudge.  You surrender your claim to wisdom if you drudge.  Never fuss or fidget or dawdle.  You can never afford to be so extravagant with time.  Time is Nature’s stock, and it is your capital.  Learn to appreciate the value of time, to improve its moments.  A lifetime is a vast aggregation of moments.  Napoleon said that every lost moment gives an opportunity for misfortune.  Moments demand to be rightfully used. 

Industry does not mean constant work or occupation merely; it means wise and judicious employment of moments, hours, years, lifetimes.  Let your application be of the kind that is fruitful.  Never debase your powers by putting them to unprofitable, unremunerative, unavailing, dishonest, vain, or useless employment.  To be industrious with healthy, profitable pursuits is to become trained and disciplined as you could not become by any other agency.  The element of progress for both the individual and the State is fruitful, congenial industry.  I would rather that you have a hobby than you be idle, but make your hobby bring you entertainment or instruction, or both.

Successful careers depend on judicious industry.

BE PERSEVERING.

If your design is just and wise, pursue it to the end.

If you are self-reliant and industrious, you must as well be persevering.  That fortune is usually the reward of the industrious disproves that fortune is an accident.  Industry through the quality of perseverance ripens into prosperity.  Perseverance is a quality to be cherished.  If you have it not, acquire it.   Persevere until you will have acquired perseverance.  With it you overcome, without it you are overcome.  Continuity of application to a just purpose gives success its birthright and makes failure mythical.  You need not be a genius to become successful.  Genius annihilates   time in acquiring, doing, and accomplishing.  Given other equal qualities, perseverance will do what genius does- it only needs more time.  Some geniuses have developed through perseverance and application, but the world does not then call them geniuses.  You can become a genius by the slow progress, employing the agency of perseverance.  A really marvelous lightning calculator of whom the writer knows, claims that the remarkable power which he possesses, and which the world calls genius, was acquired, and that all who will devote time and perseverance to the subject may acquire similar accomplishment.  Newton worked out his discoveries by “always thinking unto them.”  Keppler brooded with the whole energy of his mind upon his subjects.  Watts and Stephenson taught themselves chemistry, arithmetic, and mechanics during their leisure moments.  Their perseverance gave us the steam engine and the locomotive.  Had Columbus been less persevering and persistent, civilization might not now have America.  Scheele, Priestley, Dalton, Davy, and millions of others benefited themselves and the world by their persistent application.  An assiduous cultivation of knowledge and of skill is a solvent of all obstacles.  Accident and so-called blind fortune are not breeders of success; wise and persistent industry and faithful application are.  Let not a day pass in which there will not ripen a fruit of your perseverance.  The limit of your accomplishments and achievements is measured by the limit of your painstaking and perseverance.  

Excellence is the end of perseverance.   

BE COURAGEOUS, ENERGETIC, PROMPT.

The courageous inherit the world.

The stimulating quality of courage never disappoints.  Courage grows but of conviction and knows not fear.  If you are convinced that you are right, proceed upon your purpose, but make no error as to the quality of your conviction.  The quality of conviction must be single, must be sure.  Be not courageous spasmodically; have courage all the time.  That strength of mind that enables man to encounter danger with firmness is not the only species of courage.  There is another kind- that kind that is the source of patience in enduring, of forbearance under injury, and of magnanimity in all conditions of life.  The former is valor, the latter fortitude.  Have both and exercise them as occasion may necessitate, but do so without murmuring. 

Active energy is akin to courage.  Courage without energy may fail ere it purpose is fulfilled.  Your energy should insure the continuance of your courage.  Energy gives emphasis to purpose; it is your inherent power of vigor, strength, force, and life.  To be without energy is to be enervated, weak, feeble, effeminate.    If you allow your energy to lie dormant, latent, you are unpardonable wasteful and foolishly extravagant.  If your courage and energy have led to resolution, let promptness follow swiftly.  Promptness is never behind time.  The courage that begins to-morrow when it should set to work at once dies of inanition ere the morrow comes.  Promptness is quickness of action following decision- it is recognition of the value of time.  Your promptitude should not be only of the kind that stimulates your courage into quick operation in the suddenness of vicissitudes, but it as well should characterize your behavior in the execution of the many little things that come to you for administration. 

Courage, energy, promptitude, are rapid means with which to overcome.

BE EXECUTIVE, METHODICAL.

To be executive is to be wisely administrative. 

To be methodical is to be wise in the manner of doing.

Man is born to have dominion.  His dominion makes him an executive, and if he fails in wisely administering the affairs of his life and condition and vocation he becomes dominionless; a sorry spectacle to behold.    Direct and execute your affairs wisely that you may prosper.  Wisdom is many things- it is the employment of method in the manner of your doing.  With method there is order, without, confusion.  Method is wise economy. 

Method facilitates.

BE ACCURATE AND THOROUGH.

Accuracy is permanence.

The result of thoroughness is perfection.

One cannot be accurate without being thorough.  Accuracy leads to permanent results.  Thoroughness is a parallel means to the same end.  Accuracy is precision, correctness, nicety, without which the practice of any vocation is failure.  Inaccuracy is error and serves no purpose.  Take time to be accurate.  Thoroughness is completeness, reliableness; it is something to be depended upon.  It is not halfness, but wholeness.  Things worth doing at all are worth doing accurately and thoroughly.  The doing of things not worth doing thoroughly is often waste of time and energy.  Superficiality never leads beyond the obvious and apparent; it never penetrates.  A little knowledge of an exact nature is invariably more valuable for practical purposes that a smattering of much.  Be accurate in your speech, your methods, your doings. 

Accuracy and thoroughness are the roadways to profundity.   

BE TACTFUL, DIPLOMATIC.

The tactful precede action by inquiry.

To be diplomatic is to be superior.

He who has tact has a faculty whose exercise brings harmony.  Tact discerns, discriminates, selects the best.  Tact knows what and when and how to do.  Tact adjusts, constructs.  It is the means whereby you remain out of avoidable trouble.  It is the exercise of common sense.

Diplomacy is cleverness, quickness, sagacity in dealing with your fellows.  Diplomacy adjusts what temper would upset.  It wins by peaceful means.  If your adversary must be overcome, let diplomacy be the weapon of your defense, but use it honestly.  Let your victory consist in convincing your adversary of his error.

Tact never offends.  Diplomacy seldom fails.

BE ECONOMICAL.

Economy in all things is wisdom.

Economy does not mean to undergo privations to save and hoard money.  That is blindness and extravagance called parsimony.  Economy is wise management, judicious regulation, and competent government of your affairs and things.  It not only includes a prudent and conservative management of all means whereby money and property are obtained, but also judicious application of talent, knowledge, skill, and time.  Economy increases money by spending it to advantage; it demands a fair return; it incurs no waste.  You can afford to be economical in an extravagant way.  It is the only kind of extravagance you should not deny yourself.  Economy delivers from helplessness, from dependence.  To be economical with your time is to fill your moments with prolific industry; to be economical with your dollars is to use them judiciously and in a way that will make them bring you competent return. 

Economy produces.

BE PATIENT.

Patience is a conqueror.

There is this difference between perseverance and patience: the one is active, the other passive.  Perseverance is continuous doing, patience is continuous waiting.  He who sows must wait in patience for the harvest.  Impatience never hastens nor accomplishes anything.  Patience is the power that awaits results calmly, cheerfully, hopefully.  Patience is an exhibition of faith in the order of things.  The wise are patient in all things.  Patience waits, overlooks, excuses, forgives, composes, endures; is not hasty, nor provocative, not revengeful, nor uneasy, nor discontented.  Patience is unselfishness, sacrifice, liberality, generosity, magnanimity. 

To know how to be patient is to know how to overcome.

BE KIND.

True kindness is voluntary.

Conduct toward others is the criterion by which men are judged.  Courteous behavior brings pleasure and reward.  Respectfulness, civility, politeness are good qualities to possess, but kindness is their superior.  They spring from intellect, kindness from the heart; they may be artificial, feigned; kindness is always natural and sincere.  Kindness is voluntary, spontaneous; it succors, relieves, sympathizes, pleases, supplies.  Kindness creates good feeling, gratefulness, happiness.  It springs from the deep recesses of the nature in which love has its origin.  It gives and expects on return.  Kindness is benevolence, charitableness; it is good-will to all.  Kindness elevates, refines, dignifies; abolishes rudeness, vulgarity; establishes harmony.  If you are kind to others you are kind to yourself.

Be not sparing with your kindness.

BE MORAL AND HONEST.

Obey the voice of your conscience.

There is a voice within you whose counseling you should regard.  It is the tribunal which decides for you unfailingly; it approves or condemns.  Your moral sense decides between right and wrong, between lawfulness and unlawfulness.  It is your Supreme Court.  Its decisions are infallible and instantaneous.  Do not deny the dictates of your conscience; rather appeal to the voice when it seems silent.  If you follow its directions you will be of necessity moral and honest.  Do not be honest simply because some one has said that honesty is the best policy.  That would be utter weakness.  If you were honest only because it seemed politic to be so, your honesty would not be trueness.  You would then not hesitate to be dishonest if it seemed politic for you to be so.  It is natural to be upright, moral, honest; it is unnatural to be otherwise. 

In whatever you do have the approval of your conscience.

BE AN EXAMPLE TO OTHERS.

There is not instructor the superior of example.

Man imitates involuntarily; he is apt to become like his associates.  His association and environment influence man.  Actions are more often the results of imitation that of advice- the eye learns more readily than the ear.  Mankind follows example.  See that your example fittingly represents you.  Man of to-day, by precept and example, is largely shaping the destiny of man of to-morrow.  You are an important factor in shaping the mind and manners of those about you, and within your sphere of influence.  You have a moral responsibility, owing it to your fellows to radiate only that which is worth imitating. 

Live so that others will strive to be what you are.

A WORD IN CONCLUSION.

If you aim to be a true man in the fullness of perfection you must be true to yourself, true to your neighbor, and true to your Divinity.  There is a power within you that is your means.  You are endowed with faculties that are capable of greater things than you have ever dreamed of, but they need training, development, and application.  There is no limit to the possibility of achievement.  It matters not what vocation you follow- the possibilities are the same.  Your best thoughts and actions wisely and willingly carried out will find for you the place in the ranks of men that you can best grace. 

Wulling, Frederick J. "To the Graduate." Bulletin of Pharmacy XIII.3 (1899): 102-05.