FEBRUARY 14 The Secret of Success

working in the same institution, and even its director was a Jew, I asked him the secret of the Jews’ success in America, where they form a tiny minority. He said it was due to their notion of excellence. They made excellence their target, and once they had earned distinction in their work and qualified themselves for their careers in a superlative manner, no one could stand in the way of their success. He said, moreover, that the academic institutions set up by the Jews in the U.S.A. observed what seems to us to be a very strange principle. That is, they awarded scholarships to non-Jewish applicants with even as few as 40 per cent marks, while making the criterion for Jewish applicants much more strict. To be eligible for a scholarship, Jews had to have 75 per cent marks. If they failed to come up to this high standard, their applications were simply not considered. Why do Jews follow this principle in their institutions? This appears to be a very unjustified procedure but, in actual fact, it is of the greatest benefit to their own young people, because it encourages them to work really hard, it inspires them to forge ahead, leaving all others behind. Here, in this competitive world of today, those who want concessions will always find themselves in the back seat. It is only those who make every effort to earn excellent qualifications who will ever come to the fore.