PASSION FOR LAWS OF SUCCESS

Promises


A business man may be rated as worth a million, but if he breaks his
promises regarding payments or fulfillments of contracts, he will find
later on those who deal with him will insist upon cash transactions.

Keeping promises is the basis of credit. Let it be said of you that you
always keep your promise; that you have never been known to break your
word, and you will need little persuasion to get the credit man's O.K.

If you purchase for cash right along, some day you can ask for and will
receive a small credit, if you promise to make your payments on a
certain date. If you keep your promise you can repeat the operation.
Later on you will be given larger credit, because you have been keeping
your promises. You can increase your credit step by step to amazing
proportions if your promises are always kept.

The business world places much confidence in promises. The note in the
bank is a written evidence of the promise. The note says on the face of
it "I promise to pay." The Government of the United States issues bank
notes on the face of which is a promise.

When you make promises as regards dates, jot down the promise in your
memorandum book. Whatever you do, keep that promise. The man who breaks
his promise in little things will break them in greater ones.

When you make a promise to meet a man it is just the same as promising
to pay a man money. In either instance you are in the man's debt, and
the obligation is not cancelled until the debt is paid. In other words,
until the promise is fulfilled.

Just so sure as the sun sets, the man who habitually breaks his
promises will surely break his business.




Independence


It seems to be the rule rather than the exception that the moment a
business man attains success he grows independent.

There is no such thing as independence within the full meaning of the
word. Every creature in the world is dependent more or less.

The man who takes delight in his so-called independence and forces it
to the front, soon receives knocks.

The constant tapping and knocking hurts anyone. Boosts beat knocks. The
man who has a reputation for being independent never gets boosts.

Some business men forget the obligations they are under. They forget
the help that was extended to them in time gone by. They furnish up a
fine mahogany office, with an outer room, and outside of this another
room with an information desk. They cultivate coldness and
independence. They make it difficult for their friends to see them.
They put a lot of red tape around their business, and by these acts
they get out of touch with the pulse of the business. They look at
things through colored glasses. Their judgment gets warped.

In proportion as a man cultivates independence and autocratic ideas,
just so in proportion is he nearing the brink over which many have
fallen to destruction. When an independent man has a fall, his enemies
glory and loud are the shouts that arise from them, and if we listen
closely we will hear the multitude say: "Serves him right."

There is nothing like democracy in business. By this it must not be
understood that the head of the concern is to see every pedler, or
every life insurance agent. But if the business man is accessible, and
greets you with a glad hand, and in the pleasant manner turns you over
to the proper department head, you go away from the office satisfied,
and you give this man a boost instead of a knock.

The late P. D. Armour was a good example of the point we are making, he
did not waste time in social visits during business hours, but anyone
who had business with the Armour Institution could get an interview
with Mr. Armour. It has often been remarked by business men that they
would rather have a turn-down from Mr. Armour than an order from some
of the other houses, for Mr. Armour always made one feel good.

No one can be independent. The larger one's business is the more the
proprietor is dependent on those around him.

It takes many months to build a sky scraper, yet a wrecking company can
tear a sky scraper to the ground in a few days, and so it is with a
man's reputation. It takes years to get good credit in the commercial
world, but if success spoils a man and makes him independent, he has
created enemies, and there is no telling where these enemies will get
in their work. It is like the worms eating through the bottom of a
ship. Some day the craft goes down because of the silent attacks made
in it, which were not visible from the surface.

Some day the independent man is surprised to have the bank call him in
and insist that he take up his loans. He is astonished; he does not
know why this sudden change has happened, but like as not some secret
enemy in the bank, or some secret competitor who has a friend in the
bank, has gotten in his work, and then this independent man finds out
how really dependent he is.

The safer a man is from attacks, the safer his business is from the
financial standpoint, and the more generous this man should be in his
consideration for others.

No man can afford to be independent. Men who have built up their
business slowly are not the ones whose heads are turned and who affect
this independent air. The independent man is nearly always the newly
rich or the suddenly successful business man, and the moment he sets
himself up as independent he is made the target for an army of enemies
who are waiting for a chance to injure him.




Short Letters


Most business men make much ado about nothing in the matter of
correspondence. They use a wilderness of words to express themselves.
They write at such length that the original meaning runs into so many
by-lanes that the meaning is lost.

The man who writes long letters usually deals out high sounding phrases
and customary paragraphs such as he has picked up through his perusal
of others' letters.

The average business man seems to glory more in his ability to use
euphonious sentences than to talk to the point.

Letters should be like telegrams, they should be short and to the
point, so there will be no misunderstanding on the part of the
recipient.

There is one business man that we have been in close touch with for
over fifteen years. We have heard from him an average of once a week,
and in all that time he has never written a letter of over twenty-five
lines. Our records show there is no customer with whom we had so much
business dealings and so little misunderstanding as this one.

Write short letters. Use small words. Don't be blunt, but be short.




Perspiration


No matter what one's aspirations may be, success will not come without
perspiration. It is well this is so, otherwise success would not be
appreciated. That which a man earns by perspiration he appreciates and
knows how to enjoy.

If success were something that could be drawn by chance, like a prize,
success would not be worth anything.

The measure of any valuable thing, or condition, or relationship is the
amount of work, energy, trouble and sacrifice that has been expended to
obtain it.

None is to be more pitied than the rich idle-born, who have every
comfort around them. They do not know that perspiration must be added
to aspiration before they get success.




Friends


How little the average business man understands this word "friends."

In everyday conversation we hear one man say to another "Mr. Blank is a
friend of mine."

As a matter of fact the word acquaintance could be substituted in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred where the word friend is used.

Real friends are few and far between. A real friend is never determined
until a test has been made, and this test is usually troublous times,
adversity or the loss of a loved one.

When afflictions come to our families, or reverses come to our
business, when the dark clouds hang over us, when stormy seas are about
to swamp us, when we need help, then is the time we find who are our
true friends. When such calls for friendship arrive it is surprising to
see how we have been mistaken in individuals. Those upon whom we
counted most shrug their shoulders, draw their skirts about them and
give us good advice, while those whom we had never counted as friends
come to the front and lend helping hands.

The word friend has been greatly abused. Around places of gaiety, where
drinks and good fellowship abound, we frequently hear the word friend,
but in the time of trouble those who pose as friends will not help us,
and the few who would help us cannot because they have squandered their
substance and have not the ability to help us. A friend in need is a
friend indeed.

There is no relationship more sacred than friendship.

Friendship carries with it love. The true friend is not one made in a
hurry. There is no friend like the old one with whom you went
birdnesting in your youth, the friend that has plodded along life's
road with you shoulder to shoulder.

When you have a friend who has proven himself such, never let up so
long as you live in your evidences of gratitude for the kindness he has
shown you. Repay him with interest for his good offices, and let your
actions towards him ever be a source of happiness and pleasure to him.

Nothing is so much appreciated between friends as gratitude, and
nothing will kill friendship like ingratitude.

Genuine friendship is such a rare jewel that when you have a positive
demonstration of it, let it be your great concern that you will do
nothing to mar this friendship, for broken friendship is a source of
grief to both friends so long as they live.




Employes


The success of any business depends upon the hearty cooperation of the
employes.

We have often heard that a corporation has no soul. A corporation
probably has no soul but most of us forget that the officers of the
corporation have souls and hearts, and in proportion as the individual
at the head of a corporation or private enterprise treats his employes
just so he will be repaid.

We are paid back what we pay out. If we are harsh and mean to others,
ever suspicious, ever looking for evil motives, those who work for us
will be suspicious of us and look for evil motives behind our every
act.

The employer who shows consideration, cultivates respect and sets a
good example will find it pays from a monetary standpoint, as well as
in the satisfaction he has in knowing that he is doing the right thing.

Lincoln said "A house divided against itself must fall." If the
employes of an institution spend their time in wrangling and
quarreling, it means a divided house, and the house will certainly
suffer.

Set a good example to your employes. Take them into your confidence.
Recognize ability. Advance worthy ones, and you will find everyone from
the office boy to the officer pulling on the rope in the same
direction, and you will get full measure of ability from everyone who
works for you.

It is impossible to suddenly get a perfect working force. A good
organization comes through the process of evolution and elimination.

Whenever an employe does all he is hired to do and a little more, that
employe is in a position to occupy a place of greater responsibility.

If an employe is a sluggard or a four-flusher, he may be sure these
things will be found out and he cannot hope for advancement.

Employes should remember that the most successful institution is the
one whose managers are developed from the rank and file. The best
houses do not hire high class help from other concerns. The most
successful men are those who started in at the bottom of the ladder,
and by perseverance and pluck and aptitude they climbed the ladder
until they reached the top.

Employes should remember that the most difficult problem the employer
has to solve is that of good employes.

A small want ad. in the metropolitan daily will bring an army of cheap
help. The market is full of cheap help, but good employes that are
worth over $2,000 a year are very scarce. The high priced employes are
generally the best money makers of the institution, for they are
selling their brains rather than their hands. The hands are limited,
the brains are not.

Employes, there are golden opportunities before you. Disregard the
clock. Bend your energies toward doing your work well. The advancement
will be sure to follow.

The trouble with many employes is that their minds are filled with
outside matters of a frivolous nature.

In every large city there are thousands of dude employes, the kind who
wear high collars, the kind who spend all their salary for clothes.

The dude employe stands in his own light. He wears a higher priced tie
than the boss; he is immaculately neat; he looks like a fashion plate,
but at the same time his tailor bill is not paid, he is owing money
right and left. He spends his evenings in the cafes, and at odd moments
during the day he dodges out to look over the racing form and smoke a
cigaret. This dude employe sits up late at night. He spends his salary,
and more too, in the gay life. He is tired next morning when he comes
down.

The dude employe who wears a high collar is not the one that knuckles
down to hard work. Perspiration and high collars do not go well
together. The dude employe does not like perspiration, so he sees to it
that he does not exert himself enough to perspire.

Employes should remember that very truthful axiom: "The employe who
never does more than he is paid for is never paid for more than he
does."

The employe should remember that the boss takes large chances in hiring
help, for there is not one employe out of ten that is a good
investment. The employes should remember that it is necessary for the
boss to make a good margin of profit on each employe, else he could not
maintain his business.

Every employe who studies how much he can do is a help to an employer.
Every employe who sees how little he can do is a hold-back to the
institution.

Employes should remember that prosperity goes in cycles, that it is but
three generations from shirt sleeve to shirt sleeve.

Over ninety per cent. of the bosses today started in and worked their
way up from the ground. The young man who inherits a partnership in his
father's business really has a handicap on him, and is not as likely to
succeed as an employe who starts in at the bottom of the ladder.

Employes should remember that responsibilities only come to those
whose shoulders are broad enough to bear them, and when additional
responsibility comes to an employe that employe should look upon the
responsibility as a distinct advantage to him, for it gives him an
opportunity to show the stuff he is made of.




Laxity


When young men start in business their thoughts are all prospective.
They look forward to the time when they will attain success. They work
hard. They put enthusiasm and long hours into their business. As years
pass they attain success and cash in this world's goods. They buy
beautiful homes and surround themselves with luxury. They indulge in
high living. They have country places. They take things easy. They sit
back in their chairs and imagine their business will go on forever
because they are so well established.

The hard worker is entitled to slacken up a little as success comes to
him, but the moment his energies commence to wane, he should see to it
that he gets the right sort of young material in the institution to
keep up the enthusiasm and hard work which he himself has had.

In the very nature of things it is impossible for a man to keep up his
youthful pace in his mature age, for, as we have frequently observed,
you can't go fast far.

One of the principal elements in Marshall Field's success was that he
got enthusiastic, hard workers around him. The moment he saw signs of
laxity in any of these individuals, he let them out and got new
material.

Laxity means loss of power, and with loss of power the machine does not
do as good work.

Laxity in business is a waste.




Enthusiasm


In these days of keen competition and wonderful activity it is
necessary for the business man to have enthusiasm. If he lacks in this,
his business will be at a stand-still, while his enthusiastic
competitor goes forward.

Enthusiasm should not be carried to an extreme any more than any other
good thing should be carried to an extreme, but at that it is better to
be over-enthusiastic than not enthusiastic enough. No one can be truly
enthusiastic who does not believe in his business. Enthusiasm is a form
of advertising. It shows the people you deal with that there is
something going on and that you believe in your own medicine.




Catching Up


Nearly every one in this business world seems to be engaged in the
occupation of "catching up." Nearly everyone is a little behind in the
matter of finances.

As soon as one gets across the stream and is on dry land and has his
bills all paid, then he takes on new responsibilities and goes deeper
in debt.

It is a very hard game, this catching up. The game of existence is very
easy to play when you are caught up.

We have tramped through the forests of the great West, and we have
invariably found that the pace-makers or leaders are the least tired at
night, while the followers or those who are behind trying to catch up,
are the ones who are most fatigued.

Some people are habitually behind "with their hauling," as the
Missourians say. No matter how their salaries may increase they are
proportionately behind with their hauling all the time. When an employe
gets $50.00 a month he is owing $75.00, he is working hard at the
catching-up game all the time. He figures that if he only got $75.00 a
month, he could apply the $25.00 extra and could catch up in three
months. The theory is all right but the practice is not, for when this
individual gets $75.00 a month, instead of applying that $25.00 extra
to catching up, he finds that he wants better neckties and better
underwear, and makes greater expenditures all along the line, so
instead of wiping out that $75.00 debt he had when earning $50.00 a
month, he finds himself $150.00 in debt on his $75.00 salary.

This catching up has a bad influence. It worries the individual; he
does not do his best work.

When you have all your bills paid and a surplus of $500 in the bank,
your head is higher, your chest is broader, your backbone stiffer, and
you have a confidence that helps you take on greater responsibilities.

To be in debt is to be under obligations to your friends, and it kills
off those strong qualities which you naturally possess but which warp
when you are catching up. The man who is catching up cringes instead of
standing erect, he is suppliant instead of dominant. He is disturbed by
little things, and in the meantime the catching up process is tearing
down his nervous system.

Get caught up with your hauling. Whatever your income is, save a
percentage of it. Do not mistake us in thinking that we are preaching
the old sermon of the savings bank, which is, save your pennies and the
dollars will take care of themselves, for our friend Grizzly Pete of
Frozen Dog, Idaho, says: "Save your pennies, the dollars will be blown
in by your heirs."

No man gets rich through mere saving, but it is the training the man
gets in saving the pennies that gives him a good idea of values of
things and shows him the importance of having a reserve.

If the boss is extravagant in little things, the employe multiplies the
extravagance.

If you are always catching up while you are an employe you will always
be catching up while you are boss. If you are always saving and putting
by a reserve while you are an employe, you will be doing the same thing
when you are a boss. The principle is the same. It is merely a question
of figures.

Do not take on financial responsibilities until you see your way clear
to meet the responsibilities, and in addition to meeting them, see to
it that you have made an allowance for good measure.

Catching up calls for double effort and double work.




Anger


In proportion as a man is wise, he controls his anger.

Centuries ago the following truth was written: "Whom the gods would
destroy they first make angry," and in the same era there was also
given us another truth: "A soft answer turneth away wrath."

A man's judgment gets twisted, his ground becomes insecure and his
point of vantage weakens when he becomes angry.

The man who keeps calm when the other fellow gets angry has infinitely
the best of the matter.

Let the other fellow fret and stew and get red in the face, but you
keep calm and you will win the fight every time.

Control yourself, change the subject, and absent yourself when anger
shows.

Cultivate poise, refrain from lowering yourself to the methods of the
ignorant, which is anger. By keeping your temper when your adversary
gets angry you thereby show your superiority, and your adversary
instinctively feels you are a bigger man than he is.

A cool head is wonderful capital for an employer or an employe.

Don't mistake coolness and poise for submissiveness and servility.
Don't let people impose on you and take advantage of your good nature.

State your position in cool, well-weighed words, and carry conviction
with them by your manner.

It takes two to make a quarrel. Whenever anger is present, do not be
one of the two.




Precedent


Precedent has caused many failures. We refuse to make a bold move and
inaugurate a new system because we hate to break away from the methods
established by successful predecessors.

We say "Let well enough alone." We forget that times change, and that
conditions which made our competitors successful, may not now exist.

If you have the precedent habit it is an admission that you have not
the brains to originate, and you are trying to take advantage of
another's brains.

You remember the old fable of the lion and the jackass. The jackass was
browsing on thistles in the desert. It took all his time to gather
enough of the scanty vegetation to keep him alive. One day the jackass
noticed the lion comfortably eating a lamb, whereupon he said "That's
the scheme for me. I will do the same trick as Mr. Lion," and
forth-with the jackass found a dead lion and covered himself with the
lion's skin, hoping that with the lion's skin he would appear as a lion
and thus be able to catch game in large portions, and relieve himself
of this slow monotonous, hard work he had been used to. The jackass
sallied forth, but he could not catch a lamb. He had copied the lion so
far as physical appearances were concerned, but he did not have the
brains of the lion, and he failed.

There are hundreds of wealthy business concerns today who are slowly
dying from dry rot because they have not the nerve to break away from
the precedent that built up their businesses. They let sentiment
outweigh common sense. They maintain the same old lines and follow the
same policy because that policy years before things made them
successful.

Many manufacturers continue to advertise in publications which have
long since lost their advertising value. These manufacturers have the
habit, and on account of precedent they are afraid to break away. They
do not recognize that since they started there are dozens of newer,
brighter and better publications than the ones they are using.

Columbus, Marconi, Edison, Stevenson, Newton, Fulton, and hundreds of
other originators would never have succeeded if they had followed
precedent. They required strong courage to break away from accepted
methods. Each of these men was told in so many words that the thing
never had been done, and consequently could not be done.

Business men who throw aside precedent are more apt to succeed, for by
throwing aside precedent they show they have originality instead of the
ability to copy.




Financing


A financier and a general are much the same thing. The financier makes
the dollars do the work at the best place, and the general does the
same thing with his soldiers. The financier with plenty of money in the
bank and the general with plenty of soldiers at his command are alike.
They give the order and the thing is done, for they have the material
to do the thing with. The difference between the good financier and the
bad financier is like the difference between the good general and the
bad one, the difference being that the good one makes a little go a
long way, and gets the best results from the little under his command.

The cause of many failures is due to bad financing instead of bad
business. The trouble is few business men know exactly "where they are
at."

A detailed statement should be kept of all obligations. The business
man should get along as far as possible without giving notes, and when
he does give notes he should see to it that the notes are taken up when
due.

The business man who overstocks shows he is a bad financier. The man
who buys too much on possibilities makes a mistake.

As you go along this year you should make statistics of the receipts
and expenses by the day, week, month and year. With these figures you
can make up a budget of your receipts and expenses for the coming year
with reasonable correctness.

Keep your resources well in hand. Buy often rather than buy in large
quantities.

If you are owing money to the bank, have your plans arranged so that
you can realize on your assets quickly.

The good general always plans his campaign to be ready for attack that
may come through unexpected sources. The good financier is always ready
for an attack on his finances.

The concerns from whom one buys may be prosperous. The bank with whom
one deals may be flourishing, and yet without warning something happens
and you are suddenly called upon to liquidate your indebtedness. You
should be prepared for this sudden call.

Financing is an art, and you will never be a good financier unless you
have had perplexing problems to solve. In order to solve problems you
must have the pro and con, in other words, the details of your receipts
and expenses. These figures should be put down plainly, with elaborate
detail, if necessary, so you may count on your figures and make your
plans accordingly. Preparing for emergencies is one of the first things
the financier should understand.




Discontent


While in another part of this book we show that ambition is one of the
things that makes success, yet it must not be forgotten that discontent
is another great factor in bringing about success.

When the young man quits school he has life before him and has ambition
to succeed. It is not particularly necessary that we find out what his
ambition is to start him on the right path. Let the young man get
started at any thing. If he is ambitious and has ability in him to
manage a business he will get there finally.

He may get started in the wrong line and this will make him
discontented. The discontent will cause him to try another tack, and so
long as discontent makes him change he will finally get into the right
line by the process of eliminating those callings which make him
discontented.

Time after time we find in reading the stories of successful business
men that they have floundered around in the beginning of their career
from one business or calling to another. Discontented with each of them
they changed and changed and changed until they finally struck the
thing best suited to them, and all the changes they made in the past
were distinctly beneficial because of the experience they obtained.

If it were not for discontent many of the leaders in the business world
today would still be on the farm or clerking in a country store.

Keep busy, young man, do the first thing that comes handy. Change your
job if you are discontented, for no one can do his best work if his
heart is not in it. When discontent causes you to change frequently you
may be sure that some day you will strike your gait, and then ambition
will fire you to stick at it.

When you get on the right track and are not discontented you have
struck it right.




The Generalist


The chapter on "The Specialist" is almost inseparable from this
chapter. One is the positive, the other the negative. What we have said
about the specialist we could repeat by taking the opposite of the
question for the generalist.

This one point, however, we wish to make clear, even at the risk of
repetition. Do not be a generalist in business. If you divide your
efforts your results will surely be divided. The business man who goes
in many outside ventures will not get along as far in the matter of
wealth as the man who does one thing well.

We hear about "The jack of all trades," but the aftermath of the jack
of all trades is "master of none."

Only one concern in fifty succeeds in business, therefore it calls for
your best efforts if you wish to succeed. It calls for a singleness of
purpose.

If you make more money than is necessary in your business put out the
money in some form of investment that will require little of your
attention. Buy mortgages or real estate. Get stuff that you can put in
the green box in the safety deposit vault and not have to worry about.

The stockbroker has a lot of unwritten history about the business man
who divides his energies between his office and the ticker. The
business man who is trying to make more progress than his competitor in
business and at the same time trying to beat out the stock market is
dividing his energies, and between the two occupations he is likely to
fail. Be a generalist in pleasure and recreation, but not in business.




Our Aches and Pains


When we work hard with our body all day our backs ache and our muscles
ache. This is all right, for Nature has given us sweet refreshing
slumber to drive away the aches and pains so that on the morrow we are
ready for the fray.

In proportion as we have endured these backaches and pains and are
patient in our occupation, the aches will lessen until finally we have
laid up a store of energy so that the aches will not bother us.

The backaches and muscle-aches and headaches we have, when they come
from honest work performed for the benefit of those we love, are sweet
aches and pains. They represent sacrifice, these aches and pains do,
and sacrifice brings happiness. The only way to be truly happy is to do
something for somebody, and doing something for somebody is making a
sacrifice for somebody.

The aches and pains we have endured in performing labor for those we
love is the best evidence of genuine sacrifice.

We gladly suffer when our efforts are appreciated, and when those for
whom we work are grateful, but there is one pain that never lessens,
and it is the pain that kills. That pain is a heartache, and the
heartache comes from ingratitude.

After we have endured backaches and headaches for those we love and
find the effort has not been appreciated, then comes the heartache, and
that is the ache that kills.

Whenever anyone does something for you, your first concern should be to
show appreciation.

Gratitude is one of the most priceless gems in nature's collection.
There is nothing lower on the face of the earth than an ingrate and a
snake's belly.




Dressing


Many persons look upon the good dresser, and think that good dressing
is an evidence of success. In dressing, as in everything else, the
extremes should be avoided. The man who is temperate has the right
idea. A man must be temperate in dressing as in all other things.

We have all seen the solicitor and the business man who look like a
fashion plate or tailor's model. Each day he appears with a different
suit. He wears the latest ties, the latest shoes, and appears in the
height of fashion. This extra dresser is a four-flusher, for he is
trying to appear as something that he is not. Grizzly Pete says "It
ain't what's on a man but what's in him that counts."

In proportion as a man's character or mental training is lacking, he
often tries to make up for it in dress. With some it is a case of
ninety per cent. dress and ten per cent. man, and with others ninety
per cent. man and ten per cent. dress.

In trying to find a word of cheer for the good dresser, the writer
vainly endeavored to recall some successful business man who had
climbed the ladder step by step through a period of years, during which
he was always dressed in the height of fashion. We recall to mind
several extreme dressers who are possessed of millions, but these
millions were the result of accident or inheritance rather than
ability. We cannot remember any instance of a plodder who started in
with nothing and made his millions who during the operation dressed in
extremes.

We have an autographed photograph of Marshall Field, and we venture to
say that there are fifty men in Field's store more expensively dressed
than Marshall Field was at the time this picture was taken, shortly
before his death. Not that Marshall Field was poorly dressed, but that
he was dressed like a gentleman. A gentleman does not wear extreme
collars, extreme neckties, extreme coats. Marshall Field's clothes
fitted him well, the goods were of splendid quality, but of modest
design. Marshall Field was ninety per cent. man and ten per cent.
dress.

When a man recognizes he has not the ability to make a name for himself
on account of his brains, he resorts to dress in order to give him
distinction.

The ability to dress in the extreme of fashion is an advertisement to
the world that dress is your specialty, and if you are a specialist in
dress you will not be a specialist in business.




Declare Monthly Dividends


Make it a rule to declare dividends every month. We venture to say to
the business man that you are meeting all your fixed charges, paying
your rent and employes, paying for postage stamps, lights, taxes and
all other fixed charges. When the Government put a two cent tax on your
checks you paid that tax. You certainly can add one more fixed charge
to your business, and that fixed charge should be a percentage of your
cash receipts.

It is usually a difficult thing to draw your profits out of your
business in a lump at the end of the year, but if you draw your profits
out in monthly installments, you can do so without any burden.

The business man should figure what percentage of his cash receipts is
profit, and this percentage should be deducted every month, less a
little leeway to make the matter easier. Make the percentage a fixed
charge and put this money away in a special account as a reserve fund
if you do not wish to draw the dividends out of your business. If you
have this reserve fund drawn out in monthly installments, you are ready
for attack if your creditors call on you suddenly.

If you have a snug little sum in a separate bank as a reserve
sufficient to withstand any attacks on your business, your step will be
more elastic, you will have more confidence in yourself, you will have
less worry than if you are keeping your nose to the grindstone and have
no reserve.

There is some amount between a dollar a week and a thousand dollars a
week which you can draw out of your business without affecting it. If
you make this a fixed charge you will take care of it, and you will
arrange your business and your purchases so that this fixed charge will
be properly taken care of each month. You will trim your expenses a
little closer, and your business will thus benefit by having this fixed
charge.

Nearly every failure is due to sudden calls of creditors or refusal
of the bank to extend further credit. This fact shows plainly the
necessity of having a reserve fund.

Take your figures for several years back and find what percentage of
the total receipts was profit. If, for instance, your business earned
$9,000 and your total sales were $100,000, then 9% of your receipts
represents profits. You can therefore declare a monthly dividend of 8%,
and when Christmas comes you will have an extra dividend, being the
accumulated 1% each month you did not draw out in dividends.




Debt


If it were not for debt most banks would go out of business, for banks
live because debt is a recognized factor in business.

The plan of getting rich through saving is a very difficult and
practically impossible road to wealth.

The man who is working himself out of debt puts in better effort and
longer hours into his business than the man who does not owe a cent. Go
in debt reasonably and carefully, and you can make money with other
people's money.

Money has a fixed value in itself in the matter of earning capacity.
This fixed value is 5% or 6% or 7% as the case may be. One who puts his
money in securities gets his money which the cash earns without effort
on his part. The hustler, however, can make 10%, 15% or 20% on the
money, plus his hard work. Therefore there is an opportunity for a
hustler to borrow money at 5% or 6%, and with that money and his energy
earn 10% or 15%.

The active man can therefore pay 6% per annum for money, and use that
money to discount monthly bills at from 2% to 5%.

The building and loan association, the installment firms and monthly
payment real estate concerns show what people can accomplish who go
into debt. Thousands of families now live in their own homes because
they went into debt. Few of these families would have homes if they
started in on the saving-the-money-first plan and bought for cash.

Don't go in too deeply. Calculate your earnings in business. Allow a
wide margin for discount on your figures. Hard times and unlocked for
reverses come, therefore you should play safe. Go into debt on a 25% or
50% basis of what you are reasonably sure you can pay.

Up to forty years of age a man is sowing and tilling, and after forty
he reaps. The farmer goes into debt during the spring and summer, and
reaps in the fall.

Very few of our great men had much money before they were forty years
old. Up to forty is the debt period. Up to forty a man pays interest;
after forty he collects interest.

Business calls for the hardest kind of work up to forty or fifty. After
that time the man makes up in judgment and experience what he lacks in
physical activity.

Work hard until you are forty. Go into debt and make the money you have
borrowed earn money. After forty make money by investing your funds in
sound securities, so you will run no risk of losing what you have
worked so hard for during your younger days.

The average banker is over forty. The hustling business man who borrows
is usually under forty. Nature gives the young man ambition, ability
and willingness. Nature gives the middle aged man judgment, experience
and conservatism.

Forty years will determine what is in a man. If he has the stuff in him
to earn a competence at forty, he has usually acquired the judgment and
experience to keep it after he is forty.

The man born with a golden spoon never knows what hard work is. He does
not go into debt because he has plenty of money for his requirements.
At forty he has not the experience of his brother who was born in an
environment of hard work and little money. The law of compensation thus
bestows a subsidy on the poor boy and a handicap on the rich one to
even things up. The poor boy goes into debt and works hard; the rich
one lets the money do the work for him.

There is no joy or happiness in the possession of things we have not
worked for, so while we envy the rich who have never worked we should
take satisfaction in the law of compensation which gives us a subsidy
in the way of ability to work hard and earn money, so that later on we
may enjoy the money better than our rich friend who has never worked
for his money.

Don't go into debt on the wholesale plan, hoping to make a big coup.
Don't try to be a millionaire. Don't set too big a mark. Have your
ideal advancement, no matter how little that advancement is. If you go
forward each week or each year you will find at forty or fifty that
your substance piles up much faster than you imagine. From forty to
fifty years of age most fortunes are made. From twenty to forty your
efforts have been foundation work, and the foundation does not show up
much above the ground. From forty to fifty you are building the
superstructure, and when you commence building that your progress seems
more rapid.

Healthy indebtedness is a great incentive to hard work and a material
benefit in building character and gaming experience that in later years
will be of untold value to you.




Brains--Birth--Boodle


One of the weaknesses of the human race is envy. No one is entirely
free from envy, although the true philosopher who has studied himself
and has things sized up correctly is nearly free from envy.

Human kind have three measures for gauging the other fellow. We measure
the other fellow either by his knowledge--which is brains, by his
pedigree--which is birth, or by the money he has accumulated--which is
boodle. These three Bs are like three stars in the sky. The first
star--Brains is usually the dimmest, but it is really the brightest
star of all. Mankind is prone to look at the brighter stars of birth
and boodle.

These three stars of Brains, Birth and Boodle, are three aristocracies.
The first aristocracy has no less authority than that of the Almighty.
The aristocracies of birth and boodle are sham counterfeits gotten up
by man. They do not mean anything when put into the crucible and tested
by fire.

The aristocracy of brains differs from the aristocracies of birth and
boodle as the sun differs from the jack-o-lantern, or as the music of
the soul differs from the bray of the burro, or as a pure woman's love
differs from the stolen affections hashed up by the fourth husband.

Brains like air and water, are not always appreciated until we have
analyzed and investigated thoroughly. The foolish man thinks champagne
is the finest drink. The wise man knows water is the best drink, even
though water costs nothing. The foolish man has for his ideal--money or
birth. The wise man takes off his hat to brains.

The measure of a man is his brain and not his birth or his boodle.
Thought, reason and knowledge are possible to the man who has a brain.
No man can buy brains, and truly he is an aristocrat of the highest
order who is blessed with a good brain.

Some people whose ancestors came over with the Pilgrim Fathers have a
picture of the Mayflower in their homes and they seem to take a great
deal of pride in the picture of the Mayflower. There seems to be a halo
around the Mayflower. The descendants of the passengers of that ship
look upon the picture of the Mayflower as a sort of seal or guarantee
of the good qualities of their forefathers, and consequently, being
direct descendants they take unto themselves a lot of credit for
something in which they had no hand in the making.

The Mayflower was afterwards used as a slave ship, but our disciples of
birth do not want to know about this. Some of the passengers in the
Mayflower performed acts and violated laws and conducted themselves in
such a manner that would cause people of these days to be put in jail
for the same offenses. Some of these good ancestors of the present
descendants of birth burned witches at the stake.

Time wipes out a lot of things, and this is probably as it should be,
but certainly it is true that the world is progressing and the good man
of today is probably better and broader than some of these glorious
ancestors to whom so many take off their hats. Some of our forefathers
in Europe were little less than pirates and buccaneers. Their
descendants today knowing that they can make great claims with little
fear of contradiction, extol the virtue of their forefathers and
complacently take on a superior air. They have thought over the matter
of birth so much that they really think they are superior beings.

Grizzly Pete of Frozen Dog, Idaho, doesn't take much stock in the
aristocracy of birth. He says, "It ain't what's on a man and it ain't
what his father was that counts. The only thing to judge a man by is
what's in him and what kind of brains he has."

One thing about this glorious Western country of ours is that a man
gets credit for and he is punished by his own individual acts. It
doesn't make any difference how far back his pedigree runs, if he
doesn't make good himself, people have no use for him.

The heritage of birth is mighty thin fabric and mighty weak material
for a man to use in making a cloak of exclusiveness to put around him.

We anticipate that some of our readers will take exception to our
attitude on the matter of birth. We wish to be plainly understood that
the matter of good birth and good ancestors is a good thing to have.
The writer has a pedigree that would be his passport into the
aristocracy of birth if he chose to belong to that lodge. Your good
ancestors is no handicap. It is a credit to you, but mark this down
well: You, yourself, are entitled to no credit for any acts of your
ancestors. Your measure is and should be taken for what your own net
worth is.

The aristocracy of boodle is the slimmest aristocracy of all. Yet there
are more people who try to get into that lodge than any other. The
possession of the dollar seems to be the ambition of everyone, and
usually the first thing we try to find out about a man is "how much is
he worth?" The thinker, however, knows that the possession of money
doesn't make a man any better than his neighbor who has no money--their
morals and their acts being even.

Brains. That's the true aristocracy. The professor in college who has
spent a lifetime in study and has devoted his talents to uplifting
mankind is an aristocrat. He may be getting two or three thousand
dollars a year, while his brother with lesser knowledge is getting ten
times that much in another vocation. The aristocracy of brains always
has been, is now and ever will be the enduring aristocracy. Even those
who belong to the aristocracies of birth and boodle find they are sham
counterfeits and many of them turn to study and to good impulses hoping
they may get into the lodge of the aristocracy of brain.

In business the aristocracy of birth or the aristocracy of boodle is a
decided handicap. They make the individual think he is superior and he
is above doing things which seem to him trivial, because he thinks he
is a superior being. The man with brains, however, digs as well as
climbs. Without brains, business would go to the dogs, for if business
were conducted by men of birth and boodle without brains, you can
easily see that the whole fabric would fall to pieces.




Backbone and Wishbone


In proportion as a man's backbone weakens his wishbone seems to
develop.

The ten dollar a week man spends his time saying: "I wish I had the
luck other people have." He says: "I wish I had this place, or I wish I
had that job." He is ever wishing.

Things in our body, whether muscle or bone, develop by usage, and if we
use the wishbone all the time it will develop into huge proportions. On
the other hand if we develop our backbone and use it frequently, we may
not have cause to use the wishbone so much.

Brace up. Stand erect. Strengthen your backbone and, with it, your jaw
bone.

Say "I will" instead of "I wish." The world bestows her prizes on men
with backbone and the blanks on those who use their wishbone.




Do Good


Doing good is planting seed, the harvest may not show at present but in
the future you are going to reap it.

A man is paid back precisely in the same coin he pays out. If he plants
weeds or mean impulses the harvest will be weeds and mean impulses. If
he plants seed of good deeds he will harvest good deeds.

Centuries ago it was said "Cast your bread upon the waters and it will
return to you many-fold."

The man who is doing good as he goes along, who is lending help, kindly
counsel and encouragement will find the world is a pretty good place to
live in after all. As he journeys along through life he will find the
good he has done in the past has flourished and returned to him in
greatly increased proportions, like the bread cast upon the waters.

It is not only the good one actually gets for the good, he has done,
but it is the profit that comes in the way of happiness he gets for his
actions. The true way to obtain happiness is to do something for
somebody. You get back out of the general exchequer of good in the
world full payment for the good you have done, plus a profit of
happiness which comes from the very doing of good.




The Get-Away


After you have driven the nail home make your get-away.

Many a solicitor has lost his prestige because, after having
accomplished his point, he hung on.

It is quite an art to know when to make the get-away. Study your
customer carefully, and when you have made your point clear and your
proposition is presented to him in the best possible manner, then get
away.

The bore is a bore because he does not know how to get away. The
solicitor is always welcome if it is known he is not a hanger-on, and
that he gets in and gets out quickly.




Double Equipment


For the employe there is nothing better to possess than double
equipment, by which we mean the ability to do two things well.

From the employer's standpoint nothing will stand his business in such
good stead as to have his employes doubly equipped.

In the printing business, for instance, the old time printer knew how
to set type, lock up forms and to run a press.

Nowadays we seldom find a printer in the broad sense of the word.

In the big printing establishment we find the various branches of the
printing trade have employes who are specialists at one thing. In the
printing trade the craftsman is either a compositor a proof-reader, a
make-up man, a pressman or a binder.

The employe who can set type and also run a press is a decided
advantage to the employer. The writer knows a certain publishing house
whose every employe is doubly equipped. The rule of the proprietor is
that every job or branch of the business must have more than one person
competent to run it, and that every person must know how to do two
things.

Double equipment on the part of the employe gives the employer great
resources.

When sickness, accident or other causes prevent the employe from
filling his accustomed place, then the proprietor can call on others
who have the double equipment, to fill in the gap.

The employe who is following a particular line in the establishment
should acquaint himself with some other branch of the business or some
other trade, if he is a craftsman.

The employe who is doubly equipped is decidedly at an advantage over
the employe who knows but one thing.




Initiative


Initiative is simply the willingness and ability on the part of an
employe to do things that are not simply routine, to do things he is
not told to do, to look for opportunities to help the boss or to
improve the business wherever possible.

The employe who has no initiative in his make up is going around a
circle and when you go around a circle you don't go forward. There is
no one thing outside of honesty, ability and hard work that will help
the employe to go forward like initiative.

In every great business there are many opportunities for the employe to
do things he is not told to do and when an employe gets the initiative
habit he is not long in attracting the attention of the boss.

Look over the work you are doing, study the matter carefully, figure
out some plan whereby the value of the work you are doing will be
increased.

Find a chance to lessen the expense in your department.

Put into practice some idea that will increase the receipts.

Acquaint yourself with the operations of other employes in similar
work. Wherever you find a plan better than yours, take advantage of it.

Keep your eyes wide open and you will find many opportunities for doing
things you are not told to do.

Every employe should carry out to the letter the directions given him
by the boss and in addition to this he should have initiative, which is
doing things the boss did not tell him.

It is the plus or initiative in a man's make-up that helps him to the
front.




Night Work


It is always a question among experienced business men whether night
work and Sunday work help the game of business.

Of course there are occasions when a job must be finished or work
completed within a specified time and if you are behind with your
hauling, it is necessary to turn all your resources into a singleness
of purpose to get the thing done.

The trouble is, however, that many business men figure on this night
work as part of the regular scheme and in this they overdo the matter.

The law of compensation says that a man is good for just so much work
and if he spreads the work over into longer hours the intrinsic value
of each hour is lessened.

A man who habitually takes work to his home to finish and counts upon
these extra hours, will soon find the value of his work decreases.

We should all remember that we should work while we work and play while
we play.

Work hard during your business hours, conserve your energies, but
outside of business hours, let play, study and recreation occupy your
time.

If you go home from business at night and forget the things you have
been doing in the day and use your time for the things in life outside
of business, the next day, when you go to your office, you can make
things fly.

It is proverbial that the busy man is the one to go to if you wish
things done promptly.

Those of us who were born and reared in the country know a familiar
type that is to be found in every country town.

He may be a carpenter or blacksmith, or may run a repair shop of some
kind. We find him going to the post office in the middle of the day to
get his mail. We frequently find him in the back part of the country
store playing checkers. At other times he is watching a horse trade.
Again he is arguing politics. This man does not get in over four or
five hours' simon pure hard work in a day.

You take a job to this man and it will drag days and weeks. You become
impatient at the delay. You get after the man and his answer is that he
has not the time.

It is practically a truism that those who offer the excuse that they
have not the time are really the ones that have the time.

Some of our friends treat us shabbily in the matter of correspondence
and when you get a letter from one of them, he says: "Excuse me for not
writing sooner, but I really have been so busy that I have not had the
time to write."

As a matter of fact it takes five or ten minutes to write a letter and
the person who pleads for forgiveness through lack of time has wasted a
hundred times the minutes necessary to write a letter.

The busy man, accepts his duty as a matter of course, a ranges his
correspondence and work in systematic order and goes at the thing,
hammer and tongs, and gets the thing done.

Night work is usually evidence that the man does not do his work
properly in the day time and he is like our friend in the country who
wastes time in the day and tries to make up for it by night work.

The thing to do is to work hard in the day time and rest at night.




Obedience


Several years ago, our friend Elbert Hubbard wrote a little sermonette
entitled "Carrying the Message to Garcia." The story was simply this:
President McKinley called an orderly and gave him a letter and said:
"Deliver this letter to General Garcia."

The employe did not stand around and ask a lot of fool questions about
the trains and things. He put on his hat and duster and he delivered
the letter to Garcia. These facts were stretched out in many words and
made a little booklet. That booklet reached the sale of more than a
million copies.

It seemed to make a hit with business men throughout the country. A
certain railroad bought and gave a copy to every employe. Business men
followed the example. The great sale of the book and the wide-spread
interest it created would seem to indicate that carrying the message to
Garcia was an unusual thing and so remarkable that it attracted
attention.

As a matter of fact the whole theme of the story was simple obedience.

There are thousands of institutions in this country who have employes
who will carry the message to Garcia.

Richard Harding Davis, you remember, was dining with friends in London.
The discussion was along the lines of obedience and the like.

On a wager he called a messenger boy, gave him a letter addressed to
his fiancee in Chicago, told the messenger boy to deliver the letter to
the lady and bring back an answer. That fifteen year old boy carried
the message to Garcia, or in other words to Mr. Davis' sweetheart.

The Colonel of a regiment has under him about twelve hundred men.
Directly under him are his majors, and then come the captains,
lieutenants, sergeants, corporals and privates. The first rule in the
army is obedience of orders without question.

If obedience were subject to question on the part of the subordinates,
the colonel could win no battles.

When your superior gives an order, the thing to do is to carry it out.
If the order is wrong you will not be to blame, but your superior will
suffer.

There are times, of course, when an order is given that is manifestly
impracticable and initiative on the part of the employe might save
trouble.

On the other hand, an executive would be greatly handicapped if his
orders were subject to interpretation and analysis by his subordinates.

The executive may give an order and in the giving have in his own mind
the relation of this order to some other order he has given in an
entirely different department and upon the proper execution of all the
orders given through the various departments depends the ultimate
success of his plan.

The thing for the employe to do is to obey orders willingly, quickly
and to the letter.

The employe is not blamed when he does his duty.

It is a source of great satisfaction to the boss to know he has
dependable employes and that when he gives an order the thing is done
so far as further effort on his part is concerned.




Pay Day


We have all tried all sorts of plans regarding pay day, but the plan
most satisfactory to all concerned is to pay each Tuesday or each
Monday for the previous week. If the nature of your business is such
that Monday is an unusually busy day, then Tuesday should be your pay
day.

Monday is usually called blue Monday, because the employes blot out
some of the sunshine on Sunday by thinking of the hard week's work
ahead of them. Much of the blueness is driven away, however, if in
looking forward they know that Monday or Tuesday they will get their
pay checks.

The old fashioned habit of paying off Saturday nights is a bad one,
especially if most of the employes are men.

Many men are weak and it is difficult for them to pass a lot of saloons
on Saturday night without the money in their pockets burning a hole.

The Saturday pay day may mean that a percentage of your employes will
not show up on Monday morning. Many men will go on a spree on Saturday
night on the theory that they can rest up on Sunday, who would not
think of going on a spree on Monday night or Tuesday night, for it
would interfere with the work next day.

The writer does not know of a single concern that has adopted this
Monday or Tuesday pay day plan and practiced it for a reasonable time
without finding it works admirably. Try it in your business and you
will not go back to the Saturday pay day.




Saving


We will not indulge in the proverbs handed out by the savings bank in
the matter of saving. We are not pessimistic when we say that no man
ever became wealthy through the savings bank plan of putting away a
certain amount each week. We will say, however, that there is no better
training for the employe than this one thing of saving. Saving a part
of your weekly income and putting it away, if carried on for a number
of years becomes a habit and it means that you will keep your expenses
within your income. It is the saving habit that makes the benefit, for
later on when you are in business the habit stands you in good stead
and teaches you the value of having a reserve.

By all means, put away a certain amount each week. If it is not a
dollar, put away fifty cents. If that is too much, put away half of it,
or even ten cents a week.

Have some amount as a fixed charge in your operations and put this
amount in the savings bank. Later on your balance will grow and you
will have much satisfaction in watching its development to better
proportions.

Habitual saving makes you careful in the things you do. It teaches you
the relationship between principal and interest. It shows you that when
you buy something useless and pay ten dollars for it that it is costing
you interest each year to maintain it.

The man who does not save is pretty sure to live beyond his means and
some day trouble or affliction will come and he will be out of a job
and then he appreciates the difference between the butterfly and the
bee.

When you haven't anything to fall back upon, the world is a mighty blue
place. When you have money in the bank it is a mighty good place to
live in.




Waiting For Success


It takes a good poker-player to know when to lay down his hand.

It's a wise business-man who knows when to quit a forlorn hope.

It's all right to build up a business. It is all wrong to play a losing
game in business for a succession of years in the hopes of ultimate
success.

As years go by the business man is establishing matters on a firmer and
more solid foundation. Sales generally increase; the volume of the
business gradually grows greater. This fact is responsible for many
business men continuing their business at a loss, lured on by the hope
of final success. It's all right to build a reputation and to be
patient, but when the odds are against you and by all the changes you
make and all the brains and ingenuity you put into your business, you
cannot turn it into a profitable basis, then get out of that business
and start something new.

It's all right to build, provided that as you go along you are making a
living profit, but dogged determination to play a losing game year
after year is not to a man's credit.

Every man has some particular channel in which his talents will fit and
produce good results. If your business goes along year after year at a
loss, it is evident that your talents are not in the right channel.

The great thing in business is that it shall respond quickly and show
signs of life right away. If it does not, then the business is wrong.

The shores of the great ocean of business are strewn with wrecks which
have been dashed to pieces on the rocks sailing for that false beacon
light, "keep everlastingly at it brings success."

This saying is true, providing you are making expenses and some profit
as you go along, but to keep everlastingly at it when your business
shows a loss means failure.

The thing that lures many on is the increased sales. Meanwhile, the
expenses are increasing proportionately, and if these two lines are
always parallel, there is no hope of your making a success. Better quit
before you get too deep in the hole and have a lot of "dead horses" to
pay for.

It's all right to have ambition, tenacity and patience in business and
to look forward to the far future as crowning success of your efforts,
but it's all wrong unless you are paying expenses and making a living
while doing these things.




Our Sons


The noblest and most important work we have to do is the training and
teaching of the coming generation.

The successful business man has no more difficult problem to solve than
what he will do with his son.

It is a fact that the greatest successes in the business world today
are those men who had to start in the battle early, and fight their way
to the front.

The successful business man usually tries to arrange matters so that
his son will not require to go through the hard working school of
experience he himself attended, and in this the business man rather
goes to the other extreme in that he tries to make things easy for his
boy.

As the twig is bent so the tree is inclined. The young mind is plastic
and capable of receiving impressions, and we know that the impressions
made in our youth are lasting all our days.

The problem in the country is not so difficult, for there are so many
things to do about the home that the young country boy usually has
plenty of chores and duties to perform.

Occupation is a decided blessing and a present benefit to a boy.

People in the cities have all creature comforts about the homes,
transportation facilities are ample, the homes are heated by steam,
stores are in abundance, people buy from day to day, and every little
convenience is at hand to keep the scheme of living going along
smoothly.

Because the city boy is surrounded with schools and the comforts of
home he has much time on his hands. The boy is active, and if his
activity is not turned on useful things, it will be turned on useless
things. The young boy goes to the grammar school, and the daylight
hours, outside of school hours, are devoted to play. This is right and
as it should be, but when the boy gets along to twelve or fourteen
years of age, the parents should arrange for him some little duties,
some regular task to perform. The youngster will get accustomed to
this, and it is decidedly beneficial. As the boy enters the high school
he finds his hours shorter and his leisure hours longer.

The high school period is a most important one in the boy's life, and
the father should see to it that the high school boy is occupied for
several hours each day, either in his own place of business or in some
other establishment.

There is no way of teaching a boy the value of money like having him
work for money.

Arrange to pay your boy so much an hour for the duties he performs.
Have his occupation regular, talk with him about what he has done
during the day, be a companion to the boy, and soon you will notice
that he evinces interest in the things he is doing, and as time passes,
ambition is fired in his breast, and when the time comes for him to
enter the threshold of business he has been prepared for the work.

It is strange that while we parents realize the importance of
education, we pay so little attention to the boy while he is going to
school. We should keep in touch with the boy's teachers and with the
boy himself, taking an interest in his studies. The business man as a
rule drifts apart from his son during his younger years.

There is nothing that will help the boy so much as being a companion to
him, being interested with him in the things he does, whether work or
study. Fathers and sons should be comrades.

A close companionship between father and son is not only a great
satisfaction and source of happiness to each of them, but is decidedly
beneficial to both.

By all means have some regular occupation for your boy while he is
going to school. Keep in close touch with him. Explain to him the
things he does not understand. Show him the great possibilities ahead
of him if he does right, and the impossibility for him to succeed if he
does wrong.




Pull


The young man who is expecting to get a fat job through pull is working
on a false basis. The young man whose objective is to get a snap shows
he has not ambition, and surely this young man will occupy inferior
positions as long as he gets a job through pull.

There is a legitimate pull in business, and that is activity and
ability. Don't look for snaps. Snaps are merely traps. Men are not paid
for snaps, but for snap.

The average young man just out of college looks for a job through the
pull of his father or some relation, and in this he is making a great
error. The best way to get a job is to get it without pull through your
own energy and aggressiveness.

The best jobs are obtained through push and not pull.

The City Hall and Government buildings all have the word "pull" on the
front door, and in direct contrast with this you will notice the front
doors of the successful business institutions are marked "push."




Gossip


It is surprising to see the extent to which gossip is carried on among
business men. The funny papers always refer to women and the members of
the sewing societies as gossips of the first class, but if the gossip
going around business circles could be tabulated, we are sure the
sewing society would have the joke on us.

It is a footless thing to spend valuable time in idle gossip, for the
gossip is seldom a successful business man.

Gossip takes hold of some men to such an extent that most of their
waking hours are spent in finding out something to tell to someone
else, and thus leaves but little time for business.




Bribes


Many business men seem to think that bribes are efficient helps. It is
not so. The moment you bribe a person you acknowledge your dishonesty
by paying for his dishonesty, and you may be sure that the bribe habit
will grow; the demands of the men accepting the bribe will grow to
alarming proportions. For every dollar you make by bribing someone, you
are losing ten dollars in other ways, especially in your own self
respect and satisfaction.

The moment you give a bribe you are under obligations, and some day or
other the facts will be brought out and you will suffer the
consequences of your own weakness.

Underhand, clandestine information you get is no more than dishonesty
on your part. You can get better information and accomplish your
purpose more surely by going direct to a competitor, stating your case
plainly, and announcing your abhorrence of underhand methods. Your
competitor will appreciate you more for your fairness, and he will go
out of his way to give you information when you have shown you are
square.




Stenographers


Few young men realize the advantage of learning stenography. We all
know the young man who writes shorthand comes in touch with the boss at
once, and while acting as amanuensis or secretary is getting a
schooling that money could not buy. He is going through and becoming
familiar with business as it actually exists.

He sees the decisions made by his employer, and he unconsciously
absorbs methods which would be almost impossible for him to learn were
it not for his proximity to the boss.

Shorthand is decidedly beneficial, first--because it is a good training
for the mind; second--it is a help all through one's life. It enables
him to take down memoranda and keep notes of verbal transactions; it
enables him to get in the private office, and to be in the middle of
the nerve centers of business.

Some of the greatest men in this country were shorthand writers. The
stenographer who is alert soon gets to the center of the business; he
soon has responsibilities given him by the boss, and is in direct line
for promotion.




Hypochondriacs


Here is a type we run across every day in business. We see the
apparently well man taking out a pill box or a bottle of medicine as he
sits down to lunch. We ask him what is the matter, and he proceeds to
tell us about his bodily ills and infirmities.

Many men seem to take a keen delight in having something the matter
with them. They go to a physician, though often the disease is
practically mental.

You can't get health out of a glass bottle. The man who is taking
medicine all the time is going at things wrong end to. If his stomach
is out of whack he should change his method of living rather than to
try to cure his dyspepsia with stuff that comes in a bottle.

The man who needs a tonic before he can eat a lunch had better take
plenty of air and exercise than to take poisonous drugs into his
system.

If you are a smoker and find you have no appetite for lunch, give up
cigars in the forenoon, and you will notice an immediate difference
when you sit down to the noonday meal.

The hypochondriac imagines he has things the matter with him, and he
becomes confirmed in his belief, he finds that so long as he lives he
has something the matter with him. He no sooner gets cured of one than
something else attacks him. There is no medicine like air and exercise
and occupation. The man who gives in to trifling ailments is in a sad
plight. He is never happy unless he is sick. He is unreasonable, and he
is the last one to appreciate what can be done by a man who cures
himself through the mental processes.

We all know that we can take a perfectly well man and pre-arrange to
have a dozen of his friends on a given day greet him with some remark
about his ill appearance. That man will be sick before the tenth man
accosts him.




Politics


Politics is a losing game. Every man owes it to himself and to his
family and to his country to take an interest in politics to the extent
of getting out to the primaries and voting for the right man, and help
to get good men in office. But when a man carries politics to extremes
or mixes it with his business, his business is sure to suffer.

There are two kinds of politics--the honest kind and the grafting kind.
The honest politician gets very slight remuneration for the time and
energy he spends, and the grafting politician sooner or later winds up
in the soup through his dishonest practices.

There is no greater danger to business than to have the proprietor
spend much of his time in politics. The upright business man will not
descend to the things practised by the dishonest politician, and the
sharp business man who has no compunctions on this score will make a
loss in his business.

The law of compensation surely comes in here, for in proportion as a
man plays politics his business is bound to suffer.




Profanity


Twenty-five years ago profanity was found on every side. Today you find
it only among laborers. Business men won't allow profanity.

Swearing goes with lying. The truthful man can look you in the eye and
chisel out his words and you know he means it.

The liar gets angry and swears, and he is a bluff.

Truth doesn't need curse words to make it stick.

Some great men swear and many small men swear. Usually, however, the
truly great man doesn't swear.

Men who think, men who study and analyze, seldom swear.

Swear words are usually used as fillers in sentences. Some men have
limited knowledge of adjectives so they resort to swearing.

Mark this when you hear a man firing a volley of profanity in rapid
succession--You lose respect for that man!

Profanity is an easier habit to acquire and harder to give up than its
distant relative, slang.

Slang has its value for it has taken place of much profanity.

Slang and profanity, and logic and thought don't mix well together. The
more profanity, the less brains in your make-up. Profanity is a
hold-back.




System


System is all right so long as it lessens labor. Generally system is
complex and increases fixed charges.

The system of copying every letter is a waste of time. Not once in a
thousand cases do you require to refer to a letter.

Have fixed rules and prices and you won't have to refer to letters.

When you do copy a letter copy it on the back of the letter you are
answering. Use a carbon sheet.

Have Simplicity your rule instead of System.

System has tangled many institutions.

Beware of system that makes more work.

Don't clutter up your office with a lot of useless data and wagon loads
of old letters and records.




Rule of Gold


Centuries ago Confucius was walking through the woods soliloquizing and
analyzing and sizing up things in solitude. While thus engaged he was
waylaid by two Chinese peasants. These men had heard of Confucius'
philosophy, but they could not make much out of it, for Confucius used
words beyond their limited understanding. These men, with raised clubs,
halted Confucius and said to him: "Our minds are small. We do not
understand the things you say. Tell us how to live. Make your story
short or we will slay you. We can only remember as much as you can tell
in a moment. Therefore, stand on one foot and tell us quickly what we
are to do. We can only remember what you can tell while standing on one
foot."

Confucius stood on one foot and said: "Sing, fat, bong, lung, looy,"
which, being interpreted, means "what you would like others to do to
you, do to them."

This is the golden rule which has been handed down through centuries.
It has been alloyed and simulated. It has been attacked, but, like all
pure gold, it has endured forever. There is no line of action we can
suggest or anything that will prove more valuable to the young man or
old man through life than the golden rule.

The golden rule is not theoretical, but a wholly practical help, and so
in closing this series of talks with you, the writer feels that the
essence of all the logic, good advice and philosophy may be summed up
in the following:

"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

In saying good-bye we suggest that you particularly remember the key
to knowledge, which is O.R.B., and which means Observe, Reflect and
Benefit, and the practice of the following: Work, Horse Sense and
Golden Rule.