I stood clear and clean without a financial obligation or property which I did not own and which was not fully paid for.

My only obligations were those connected with our business; and I was prepared to pledge for it every dollar I owned, and to endorse every obligation the firm had outstanding.
Up to this time I had the reputation in business of being a bold, fearless, and perhaps a somewhat reckless young man.

Our operations had been extensive, our growth rapid and, although still young, I had been handling millions.

My own career was thought by the elderly ones of Pittsburgh to have been rather more brilliant than substantial.

I know of an experienced one who declared that if "Andrew Carnegie's brains did not carry him through his luck would." But I think nothing could be farther from the truth than the estimate thus suggested.