Three documents:
1. Thompson, Kelly.  Letter to Lena McDaniel, 11/2/1961 thanking her for a copy of the speech.
2. Thompson, Kelly. Letter to Lena McDaniel, 10/18/1961 regarding speeches and notes that McDaniel had made of speech
3. Lena McDaniel\u27s transcription of Thompson\u27s speech Six Cardinal Mistakes of Man Dealing with Men delivered at Greensburg, Kentucky on October 10, 1961

Thompson, Kelly

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Western Kentucky UniversityTopSCHOLAR®WKU Archives Records WKU Archives10-10-1961UA3/3 The Six Cardinal Mistakes of Man DealingWith MenKelly ThompsonWestern Kentucky UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_recordsPart of the Speech and Rhetorical Studies CommonsThis Transcription is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in WKU Archives Records by anauthorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact connie.foster@wku.edu.Recommended CitationThompson, Kelly, "UA3/3 The Six Cardinal Mistakes of Man Dealing With Men" (1961). WKU Archives Records. Paper 3606.http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_records/3606• • Nove ber Z, 1961 Miss Lena B. McDaniel 517 Durham. Street Gre nsburg. Kent ucky Dear Miss Mc Daniel : You are indeed a kind person. I d e eply appreciate the copy of the talk which 1 made in Y9ur fine town • am KT/gb With every go d and kind wish, I Sinc erely yours, Kelly Thompson President . • • October 18, 1961 Mia. Lena B. McDaniel 517 Durham Street Greensbur g, Kentucky Dear Joliss McDaniel: . I t Is indeed a pleasure for me to send you copies of "Am I a Builder?", the prayer of wi sdom, nnd the 1902 ed itoria l on education. I r egret ver y much that t cannot send you a copy of t he nddr ess, as I ~&S speaki ng f r om notes. You could , however, do me a ~~nderfu l favor by send i ng me 8 copy of whatever you ~re able to take down. If, after you have put it together , you could spar e a copy , I would deepl y appr ec i ate it . It wes a genuine pl easur e t o be with you and Al l the fine peopl e Ybo wer e t he r e . You have 8 won-derful community. r:r/gb Encl s . Sincerely your s , Kelly Thompson Pres ident , • . .... .. •• . . . -_ ........ _. -._ ....... -October lO ~ 1961 Greensburg, Kentucky I have chosen as a subject of my talk, and what I am attempting to . do is t hink outloud for awhile on, The Six Cardinal. Histakes of J.tan Dealing With Men. I suggest that if you or I can start t onight mastering some of them we would haTe gained more than I could describe to you if I talked about them to you from now untU midnight . The first onc of the cardinal mistakes you or I can Il".ake in ,d_ealing with people i s this : (1) The delusion that individual advancement is made by crushing others~ That i s a cardinal mistake of any human being in the flOrId. History books are filled with stories of individuals , countries and even nations, that have been recorded on the sheets of t ime, and wrecked under the delusion that the way to get ahead liaS on the back of someone else, or knocking down the other person. (2) A cardinal mistake of man is the tendency to worry about tJlings that cannot be changed or corrected. Certainly now manufacturers make morc sedatives and tranquilizers. Uore demand is being made by you and by me because we worry about things we cannot do anything about. There a re t oo many things ~Ie can change to worry about that whi ch cannot be changed. I f I may, l et me resort t o an ol d prayer: "Oh Lord, hel p me to hav e t he courage to change things ... ,11ich should be changed. Oh Lord, hel p me to have the serenity to live with the things t hat cannot be changed. And, Oh Lord, help me to have the wisdom t o distingui sh between the t wo . II 0) The third cardinal mistake is of trying to live with and deal with men by insisting a thing is impossibl e because we cannot accomplish it. It is a fi r st-class alibi. It i s t o ease our own conscience or mind. The Good Lord. was kind in giving us a good distribution of friends . Most will not call upon friends when we are in need. It id silly to think a t hing i s impossible to accomplish because we cannot do it; com.-plaining, nagging, belitt l ing etc. are but props to t his mistake, and by nagging and • , .' Page 2. complaining we may make ourselves feel better. I heard a fellow say this: II Alway s weigh t he words you say t o keep them sort and sweet, For you don't know from day to day whi ch ones you will have to eat." How m.a.ny in this canmunity, and my guess 1s few; but you h~ve your share, how many people say a thing can't be done, we tried it ten ,years ago, but I hope you find cooperation and go ahead. I would like to quote Am I A Builder: "I watched them tearing a building down A gang of men in a busy to\'m. With a ho-heave-ho and a lusty yell They swung a beam, and the sidewall fell. I asked a f oreman, "Are these men skilled, And the men you 1 d hire if you had to buUd?ll He gave a laugh and said: "No indeed; Just common labor is all I need: I can easily wreck in a day or two What builders have taken a yea r to do. 11 And I thought to myself as I went lflY way, Which of the se roles have I tried, to play? Am I a builder who works ~~th care, Mea5uring life by the rule and square? Am I shaping my deeds to a well-made plan, Patiently doing the best I can, Or am I a wrecker, ~110 ,,18lks t he t own, Content with the labor of tearing down?" (4) The fourth cardinal mistake is refusing to set aside trivial preferences or pettine ss. Husbands and "dves this is a dandy. Employers, companies, workers, neighbors, me rchants, bankers, everything will improve if we set aside trivial. preferences • They often donlt amo\U1t t o a hill of beans and they separate people in a comnrunity. can break up hanes, triendshi ps, and even communities. We might adopt instead the greatest of all medi cine s for the curing ofl.lSHS AND CHY5I1S and all other t ypes of divisions. I would like to quote t o you, or f or you, a little verse: "Tell Him Nowll : "If with pleasure you viffi'T any work a man is doing, If you like him or love him, tell him now; Denlt withhold your approbation till the par son makes oration And he lies With snowy lilies on his brow; No matter haw you shout it he wonlt re~ care about it; He wonlt know how many teardrops you have shed; If you think s ome praise is due him nowt s t he t ime to slip it to him, For he cannot read his tombstone when hets dead. • They • Page :3 More than fame and more t han money is the comment kind and sunny And the hearty, wann approval of a friend. For it gives l ife a savor, and it makes you stronger, braver, And it gives you heart spirit to the end; If he ea rns your praise -besta\-, itj if you l i ke ,him let him !mow it; Let the words of true encouragement be said; Do not wait till l i fe i s over and he I s underneath the clover, For he cannot read his tombstone when he I s dead. II C. ,9D J1; ~ '"t ;Jv.;t_ ~ (5) Number five i s t he neglecting of the developement of the mind and the continued study of assimilated knowl edge as long as it is true, It is t aken for granted in our country that when a person get s t hrough school he i s educated. Lots of people t ake t hat for granted and "Then thw- reach that point they just for get all about it. There is no excuse, for ignorance now; there might have been once, but not now. The provisions for education are available; t here are books, magazine s , T- V, nel·rspape r s, radio. I am sure ,,,e have but to reach out to avail ourselves of the knowledge t hat is' , t here. Literacy is now optional in Kentucky today. Searching for a salty size- up of the sad state of book learning today, we stumbled across t he f ollowing editorial lament: "When we were boys , boys had t o do a little work in school. They were not COJs.ed ; t hey were hanunared. Spelling, writing, and arithmet i c we r e not electives; and you had to l earn. I1 In t hese more f ortunate t ime, elementary educati on has become in many places a sort of vaudeville show. The chil d nru.st be kept amused and l earns what he pleases . l~ sage teachers scorn the ol d-fashioned r udiJnents , and it seems to be regarded as between misfortune and a crime for a child t o read ~ __ • n A current complaint? Not at all. It is taken f rom a New York Sun Editorial dated 1902 . Like \"rill Rogers said, "ThingS ain't what they used t o be and probabl y never wuz. 1I • Page 4 (6 ) And the sixth cardinal mistake i s atte:r.lpting t o compel others t o believe and live as ~'le do. Of the six mistakes I have listed t his ona is wrapped up in the aglessness of mankind. When the individual seeks to compel someon~ else to live and believe as he doe s he brands himself as one of t he great est egotists the world has ever produced. I do not sugge st t hat anyone not be loyal to t he things he doe s believe. He wi.ll be worthless if he does not charact erize t hings in which he doe s be1.ieve. ----·-------·------to make slaves; ,'11th some of the awful places with which we "a re conf ronted; one hold death over the workers, its citizens, its subjects, t o compel t hem (or you or me ) and a1.l m.an.\cind to live and believe as t hey do . These siX cardinal mistakes of mankind are generalities, and yet I think they are sufficient . I have been t ol d, or I know di r ectly some of the outstanl ing progress being made in your corrununity . I lOlet ... of the ' 550, COO. OO hospital, a magnificent setup f or Green County and Gr eensbur g; I lOlow of your new sewage dis posal plant and sewer system; I KnOli of the plans f or expanded, or expanding, school facili ties; and other improvements being undertaken in Green County today, anyone of which Nould not and could not have been undertaken by the city or count y 25 years ago. I t could not happen if there ,'le r e not a minimum amount of the mistake s I have listed, but in our individual. 11 ves - - - - - - - - to do something about it . The Rotary Club Bas a s its motto: " He profiteth most who serveth best . " I would l ike to congratulat e you for what is taking place here in your community, and you deserve t o be congratulatee. You have not only the Geographical locat ion, you have the traffic routes, and you have the greatest natu~ resources any cormnmity canq have. - - - - - - - - if we are not now doing wones of vision in Green County, we can improve by st opping and meditating on these t hings, then act upon it, it is worthWhile. If t he se are pretty good, there are lots of ot hers ~1dch need to be and can be done. • Page 5 In 106 B. C. there was a philosopher named Julius r.£a.r cus Cicero . He was a great philosopher and one night he wrote an essay . In t his essay he wrote, II I consi der the most cardinal mistakes of men t o be: II (1) The delusion that individual advancement must be made by crushing, or climbing on the backs of others. (2 ) The tendency t o worry about things which cannot be changed .... (3) Insist ing things are impossible because we cannot accomplish t hem. (4) Refusing to set aside trivial preferences or pettiness . (5 ) Neglecting the develoJlllent of t he mind and the cont inued study of assimilated knowledge. (6 ) Attempting t o compel others t o live and believe as we do. " Wouldn It it be wonderful if we could master t hese six mistakes? Or even j ust five of them? Or even one of them? I thank you . (Address by Dr. Kel ly Thompson at Greensburg, Kentucky on October 10, 1961 before t he Rotary Club and gue sts at Greensburg High School ) (Transcribed from the shorthand notes taken by Lena B. McDaniel . ) 

UA3/3 The Six Cardinal Mistakes of Man Dealing With Men

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UA3/3 The Six Cardinal Mistakes of Man Dealing With Men

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