Be a Producer
Employes are divided into two classes—the kind that makes profits and the kind that is on the expense side of the ledger.
The young man who has the foresight and ability to get on the selling side, the side that brings profit to the house, has the decided advantage over the young man who is on the expense side.
Book-keepers, stock-keepers, clerks and all other expense employes are paid far lower salaries than the salesmen and buyers, those who produce results.
In the newspaper business the editor with his college education has practically attained his limit of progress when he is 40 years old. He may get from $20.00 to $80.00 or even $100.00 a week as editor.
The young man in the advertising department may get from $50.00 to $200.00 a week. He is a producer of tangible results; the editor produces theoretical results.
In every business the man who sells things, who brings in the profits, is the man who gets the best pay.
The boss will grudgingly give a dollar a week increase to the book-keeper. He only thinks what it would cost him to replace the book-keeper.
The producer gets his increases in $5.00 and $10.00 a week jumps.
The expense employe is in competition with the great army of the unemployed, and there are multitudes who will work for less money than the man who is holding his job on the expense side.
The producer, on the other hand, knows how much profit he is bringing into his house, and if those profits are steadily increasing he may be sure his salary will increase proportionately. If it does not he can always get another position by laying the facts and figures before some more enterprising house.
The producer is seldom out of a situation. If for any reason he is out of employment temporarily he can go to a good house and work on commission, or get a small drawing account, and at three or six months talk salary on actual showing made.
The shrewd business man won't let profits slip away if he can help it, so the real producer sits in a pretty good seat. He has only to show what he can do and he will be paid accordingly.
The expense man's only stock in trade is faithfulness, neatness and amount of detail he can handle. He has little lee-way in the matter of salary, for thousands are faithful, thousands are neat and thousands can perform great amounts of detail.
The young man just out of school should have for his ideal that he shall be a producer first and a proprietor later on. To this end he should equip himself by spending four or five years acquainting himself thoroughly with all the phases and departments of the business and learning the facts about the manufacture of the goods he expects to sell eventually. All this understanding and preparation will be of great service when he is a salesman, and greater service when he is a proprietor.
The writer started wholly dependent upon his own exertions for a livelihood at fourteen years of age. At fifteen he learned shorthand by evening study. At sixteen he attended to the correspondence and mail order department for his employer. At eighteen he was getting $8.00 a week in cash for his services, and many times that amount in valued experience.
"One day he got a blank application for a $75.00 clerkship in the Post Office. At that time appointments were made by political pull and not through the civil service. The writer took the blank to a relative, who was the leading politician of the State. He asked for the endorsement of this senator and received this advice: "Young man, my signature to this sheet would get you the job, but if you were my son I would not let you take the place. I will give you some advice, which is this—never take a political, railroad or bank job. In all these callings you are in competition with thousands of others. The compensation is small, the chance to better your position is remote, and you are a machine. If you want to make a success of life be a producer, learn to sell things."
This advice was acted on, and the writer remembers it as the turning point in his career.
It is a sad thing to see the old man working for $40.00 or $50.00 a month who in the past drew $3,000 or $4,000 a year. Such men were expense men and not producers.
Moves on the checker board of business are made quickly. The man with silver hair may be an accountant or confidential man drawing a good salary. Something happens, his firm goes out of business or sells out, and our old friend is left without a position. He has been used to the comforts and associations a good salary allows, and now he finds himself out of a place and faces the necessity of starting over again, and his competitors are young and active men ready for the battle of life.
The old man out of a job goes around amongst his friends. The friend can do nothing but gives him a letter of recommendation. He is passed along from one to another until he is foot-sore and heart sick and weary of it all.
He winds up as a sleeping car conductor, or gets a position as floor walker or clerk at the inquiry desk.
The producer, be he ever so old or ever so often out of a job, can catch on again. He gets his job on results and not sympathy.
Business men are on the lookout for producers.
Young man, learn to be a producer.
The Man—Not the Plan
We are prone to give credit to the plan as being the thing that makes a successful business. It is not the plan, it is the man behind the plan that is responsible for the success.
The man who has a well-defined ideal, who hews to the line, who eliminates all deterrent influences, who concentrates his energy on his ideal, who bends his efforts towards the one thing is pretty sure to accomplish his purpose.
We often see a man make a marked success in a field that others have considered barren.
Take a small town, for instance, where there are many retail stores. The people of the town will tell the prospective merchant that the town is already overcrowded with stores, that none of the stores seem to be making more than a bare living, and that it would be impossible for another store to make a success, on account of the already overcrowded conditions, yet the right man comes along and starts a store in that town and makes a marked success.
If the plan were the making of success, all an enterprising business man would have to do would be to pick out some plan which was successful and then imitate it.
The great ocean of business has many derelicts on it as a result of copying plans. It is a part of the law of compensation that the man who originates a plan and carries it to successful conclusion has a patent on his business. This patent is his individuality and good business equipment. The man who steals his plan physically is unable to steal the mental end.
Since men have recorded facts in the shape of history, we find that men have made successes of plans and businesses that have been discarded by their predecessors as played-out plans.
When a plan is presented to you do not calculate the outcome by the plan, but by the man.
Two banks may start side by side with exactly the same office furniture and exactly the same business operations. They use the same kind of money; they make loans on lands or on securities. The operations of these two banks may be as closely identical as possible, yet within ten years one bank will have considerable surplus and the other may be out of business.
If the plan were the measure of success these two banks should fare equally well, but the fact that they differed so materially is in itself evidence that the success is determined by the individuals and not the plan.
The illustration of a bank may be carried into other lines, merchandising, manufacturing or railroading.
Compensation
The law of Compensation is—you pay for what you get, or you get what you pay for.
This law says if a horse can run fast it can't pull a good load and vice versa.
This law says a horse cannot go fast far.
It says that for every sorrow there is a joy, for every positive there is a negative.
Where evil exists there is some good to offset it, says compensation.
The law of compensation is the measure optimists use, and in nearly every chapter we have written in this series, compensation will be found as a ground-work.
You can't get away from nor violate this rule of compensation.
It is not new, it is as old as creation itself.
Centuries ago it was expressed this way: "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap."
Too many try to ignore this great rule, they try to get something for nothing.
You may eat first and pay afterwards, or you may pay first and eat afterwards.
You may play the butterfly; sip life's sweets and sow your wild oats now, but pay day will come and may be you will be unable to pay.
You may spend your income now and suffer want later on.
You may work hard now and play as you go along. You may have happiness each day you live; you can make life worth living if you work.
Happiness is compensation for work; no work, no happiness.
You may have what you want, but, you must pay for it.
Millions cost happiness and often cost health too.
The dinner is properly balanced when it has sweets as well as substantials. The sensible person finds the dinner is better if the sweets come after the substantials.
To violate the law of compensation is to eat the sweets first and then the substantials, and by this law the substantials do not taste good when they are eaten after the sweets.
The man who procrastinates is violating the law of compensation. When you see your duty attend to it at once.
The Boss
By the boss we mean the active proprietor, the executive head, the owner of the business. He is sometimes called the "old man."
The success of an institution depends largely upon the example set by the boss.
If the boss is careless in little things, if he is sharp in his practice, if he does mean acts, he may rely upon it his employes will copy him, and later on, when some blow strikes the business, he will find it has happened through the practices of the employes who got their cues from the boss.
Kindness wins kindness; love wins love. If the boss is generous and charitable, if he sets a good example, he will have an esprit de corps among his employes that is of incalculable value.
There is not one chance in a thousand for the boss to make a success unless he has risen to the position of boss, and climbed and earned his position through steady progress.
The boss must know how to do the things he hires others to do.
The boss who can show an employe his error in a kindly manner and point out a better method, leaves a good feeling in the heart of that employe.
The boss who shows his heart to the employe and is concerned in the things not necessarily business will be repaid a thousand-fold in loyalty and willingness on the part of the employe.
Employes deeply appreciate consideration, and especially the little kindnesses which are not what might be called business practice.
The boss should not be too far aloof; he should be just head and shoulders above those working under him; he should be just far enough above that he stands out as a commander.
He should be willing to grant an audience to an employe and should work with him.
The boss should say we rather than I. He should talk with the employes and not down to them. He should make each individual under him feel that he is part of the institution and an element in its success.
Remember this—employes watch the boss and they copy him. Where you find hard working employes you will find a hard working boss.
The boss cannot run the whole business himself; he is dependent upon willing hands, and, in order to get willing hands, he must have willing hands himself.
If the boss is alert and discovers wastes and leaks in his business, the employes will discover them too, and the business will receive double benefit.
Sizing Up Things
One of the most necessary as well as beneficial practices a man can have is to take fifteen minutes to an hour each day and devote the time to sizing up things, to planning the day's work for the morrow, to threshing the wheat from the chaff, to reviewing the accomplishments of the day.
Sizing up things can only be well done in solitude.
The benefits of sizing up things in solitude are so great it is a wonder more has not been written on the subject.
Plants grow in darkness, yet the common understanding is they grow in sunshine. The sunshine is absolutely necessary for the growth of the plant, but the real growth is done in the quiet darkness.
A man's brain develops in solitude, yet bustle and crowds and business activity are as necessary to the man as sunshine is to the plant.
The real brain and moral growth takes place in solitude.
Here again we must remember the law of compensation, for if a plant had all sunshine and no shadow, and if a man had all hustle and bustle and no solitude, it would be like a machine without a governor; the man and the plant would run so fast something would have to give way.
On the other hand compensation says that if a man is too much in solitude, or the plant too much in darkness, they will wither and die.
Man has always had strong admiration for the strong individual, whether bird, beast, fish, plant or human.
There are two kinds of birds, the kind that lives in flocks, like the blackbird and the wild duck, and the kind that lives by itself, like the eagle. Amongst birds the eagle is chosen as an emblem for the flag, and never the duck or blackbird.
Amongst beasts there are two classes, the herd kind like sheep, and the strong individual, like the lion. The lion is the symbol of strength and courage, the sheep the symbol of innocence and simplicity. The lion appears on coat of arms but not the sheep.
In the fish family there are two classes, the kind that lives in schools, like the mackerel, and the kind that lives by itself, like the whale.
When first the savage drew a rude picture of a fish on his hut it was a whale, and not a mackerel.
We do not find the mackerel's picture excepting at the fish dealers and on the menu, and then only because the mackerel is good to eat.
Among trees the one that attains great proportions and beautiful symmetry is yonder giant oak or elm that grows in the open. It needs room to breathe and grow. It grows better if it is segregated from the crowded forest. The giant tree is not the one that grows in the dense forest.
There are two kinds of men, the kind that lives in the herd and the kind that has strong individuality that needs room to grow. The herd man exists in infinitely greater numbers than the individual man.
We cannot imagine Lincoln, Bismarck, Webster, Clay, Edison or Burbank living in the herd, or spending their time in the boulevard cafes.
The man who lives in a herd, who is ever present where the lights are bright, where gaiety abounds, where excitement reigns, where feasting is present, soon gets himself into the habit of cultivating this excitement. He is never happy when alone.
The brain never sleeps and something must occupy it. The herd man fills his brain with frivolous things, he seeks constant excitement. He is like the plant always in the sun, he burns himself out.
The great man with the individuality is great because he has always spent plenty of tune by himself, sizing up things in solitude. Sizing up things makes the brain grow and makes it stronger.
The universities of this country tend in a great measure to produce the herd man. The students dress alike. All have the same mannerisms, all have the same tilt to their hats, and all the same turned up trousers. They feed at certain restaurants and crowd in flocks. Very few college men learn the benefits of sizing up things in solitude until in after years.
On the other hand the student in the school of practical experience does not copy his fellow students. That is why in this great practical experience school we find Lincolns, Edisons, Jim Hills and Carnegies. Those men have to wrestle with the problems for themselves. They had to size up things in solitude instead of reading the sizing up from text books, as is done in the regular university.
Every man before retiring at night, or even during the day, should take a few minutes to himself and carefully analyze the doings of the day.
He should weigh the positive and negative acts, the good and the bad, the wise and the foolish, the right and the wrong impulses, the gain and loss in achievement. He should strike a balance, and if he sees that the bad, deterrent and backward things in the lead he should resolve to get a move on himself.
The man who goes along without this sizing up things in solitude is like the merchant who keeps no record, who pays his bills from the cash drawer and takes what is left for profit. He will still be running a little shop in twenty years, while his competitor who sized things up each day will be in the wholesale business or will have retired with a competency.
Try this sizing up things for two weeks, and the benefits you will receive will be so manifest it will need no further suggestion to make you keep up the practice.
Competition
The saying is "competition is the life of trade," and this saying is true, or it would not have endured so long.
If it were not for competition we should be living in the woods in a state of savagery.
Ages ago all men and women led the simple life. Their chief vocation was idleness. When the weather was hot the man sat in the shade; as the sunshine crept to him he moved into the shade again. In winter he reversed the process.
When our savage ancestor felt a pain in his stomach, his simple instinct showed him that if he put things in his mouth and swallowed them the pain in the stomach would leave.
This low browed man's whole object in life was to keep from having those hunger pains, and the only energy he expended was in hustling for food and in protecting his food from the other savages.
One day a man observed that the beasts lived on each other, so he conceived the idea that it would be good for him to live on other animals. That it would be easier than digging roots and gathering herbs, so this man caught and ate slow-moving animals. He used a club to do the killing.
Along about here competition began, for another man learned to throw a club and kill his game. Then another competitor discovered that a round stone was a more effective weapon than a club.
These hairy forbears of ours lived in caves until competition led up to the building of huts.
One day a savage discovered that while the skins of animals were hard to eat, they nevertheless made a good body covering. Another discovered that if the skins were tied about him it left his arms free to act. This man was the first tailor. He punched holes in the skin and tied the rude garment together with strips of skin. This first tailor was quite an important man among his fellows on account of his great discovery.
Some of these wild men were fleet of foot and had well developed cunning. They became expert hunters. On the other hand some of the less active, by the law of compensation, became more expert tailors, so trade was formed. The hunter killed enough for himself and the tailor, while the tailor made clothes for both of them.
In these days the woodsman lived on animals and the plainsman on vegetables mostly. So the woodsman traded skin clothing with the plainsman for grains and herbs, and this marked the birth of commerce.
Then dugouts and canoes were built, and thus our ancestors crossed lakes and seas and developed maritime commerce.
From away back in those dark ages up to the present time competition has stimulated mankind and spurred him on towards better conditions. The whole human race has benefited by each improvement which competition has brought about.
We have in mind a certain mail order house that up to 1894 had things its own way. Then it sold two to three million dollars worth of merchandise annually. A competitor came into the field, stirred things up, and now the old mail order house is doing eight to ten times as much business per annum as they did before they had the competition.
In the matter of competition we must early learn not to worry over competition, but to derive as much good from it as possible.
If a competitor does something better than you do, do not kick or protest, but jump into the band wagon and do the thing as well or better than he does it.
Price cutting is the simplest and most common phase of competition, but a better way to get advantage over your competitor is to improve your business by cutting off wastes and leaks, and reducing fixed and fancy charges so you can give your customers more quality and more quantity for the money.
In proportion as you increase the value you give for a dollar, just so you will find it easier to get the dollar.
Do not regard competition as hurtful to your business, but rather look upon it as a pace-maker for you.
If you had ten experts working for you studying how to improve your business you would certainly get benefit from it, but probably not enough benefit to offset the great cost of hiring these ten experts.
On the other hand, if you have ten competitors who are sitting up nights studying how to improve their businesses, you can get the benefit of their experience without it costing you anything.
The world is big and there is room for all, but old compensation says the prizes are given to the fittest.
If you are a laggard, if you are on the defensive instead of on the aggressive, get busy, wake up, do it now.
Advertising
Good advertising is good publicity. Advertising is the thing that makes your trade increase.
Everything you do in connection with your business and every act of yours outside of your business is an advertisement.
Reputation is an advertisement, so is honesty, politeness, correspondence, methods, catalogues, circulars and salesmen. Neatness is an advertisement, and so is promptness, thoroughness. And then there is another kind of advertising which is your statement in the newspaper. This is the printed kind of advertising, and this kind of advertising is the most common, in fact, when we suggest that you should advertise, it immediately comes to your mind that advertising is space in the newspaper.
Keep in mind, however, when we speak of advertising we refer to everything in connection with your business that makes an impression upon the public or the prospective buyer.
Some of the old timers refrain from printed advertising in newspapers, saying that the best advertisement is merit. Merit is a good advertisement, but it is mighty slow in its action.
If the inventor of the typewriter planned and built the machine in his barn without letting anyone know about it, if he kept absolutely quiet about his doings, relying on the fact that the typewriter had merit, it would never be known to the public unless he told about it. If the inventor of the typewriter waited for merit alone as the vehicle for acquainting the world with the merits of the typewriter, the world would never know of it, unless, perhaps, a fire inspector or an health officer accidently stumbled across the machine while inspecting the premises.
If the inventor waited for intrinsic merit to sell his goods, he would find that months and years would elapse before he could develop his business into profitable proportions.
If you have a good thing you must tell about it. Telling makes selling. Telling is advertising.
Professional men hold up their hands in horror when you suggest advertising to them. They tell you they don't believe in advertising, that it is not ethical, that it is not dignified. Doctors and lawyers are most notable in this respect. One of the first things of their code of ethics is "Thou shalt not advertise." They mean paid newspaper advertising. The man who originated this idea evidently did not have the money to pay for any, and it was a case of sour grapes.
Let us look into this matter of ethics and see whether the doctor and the lawyer really believe what they say about this matter of advertising.
It is a rare spectacle to find a lawyer who will not gladly give an interview to a newspaper reporter during some important trial.
The doctor gladly avails himself of the opportunity to read a paper before a medical society, and he sees to it that this paper is published in a medical journal later on.
Professional men belong to clubs, take part in public affairs, speak before people, work on committees, and actively take part in anything that will bring them in the limelight of publicity. They do this advertising themselves, yet they say they do not believe in advertising.
Uncle Sam builds war ships, equips his soldiers splendidly, conducts his business affairs with high grade talent, all this that the United States may be well advertised among our sister nations.
Advertising is absolutely essential to successful business. Not printed advertising alone but all kinds of advertising. The quality, the price, your aggressiveness, everything in your business is an advertisement, either a good advertisement or a bad one. It behooves you to see the advertising you do, whatever kind it may be, is of the good kind.
If you expect to remain in business a long time your advertisements must be good. Keep in mind that methods are advertisements.
One bad move, which is a bad advertisement for you, calls for two or more good moves or good advertisements.
Have everything, every detail of your business carry a good advertisement, that is, have it help your business.
Have every employe pulling on the same center tugs and have them all face forward, and your vehicle will move forward.
Buying
The buyer derives much information and much shrewdness by carefully watching the seller's methods.
Some buyers seem to think that bull-dozing tactics, cute lies and irritable manners make the seller humble, weak-kneed and non-combative. This is a great mistake.
The best buyer is first a gentleman. He keeps his word, he is patient and he knows his business thoroughly.
The buyer gains much by being open and above board with the seller. Let the seller know that your success consists in getting as much value as you can for the money, and that your continuous trade will result only through fair treatment.
Let the seller understand that the better he treats you in the matter of price and quality the better you will be able to treat your customers, and the longer you will be able to deal with the seller.
The moment a buyer shows bull-dozing methods, the seller is antagonized, and his object then is to soak the buyer.
The buyer who keeps his temper and goes at the matter philosophically is the one who wins out.
The buyer should explain to the seller that the seller can get the best of him once and may be twice, but not more than that.
The main thing for the buyer to possess is a most thorough knowledge of the goods he buys. Learn who makes the goods and where they are made, and get at the factory cost.
Then learn whose factories have the best reputation, and whose are the best fitted and established to make the goods you buy.
Remember you can afford to investigate. When you find a factory over-sold you will find that factory more independent. When you find a factory short of orders you will find them eager for your trade, and the chances are you can do much better with this factory than with the one that is behind on its orders.
Don't get excited, don't hurry. Speak gently. Know your ground. Cultivate a reputation for fairness rather than smoothness. Laxity and indifference in buying means that you are allowing wastes and leaks to creep in your business, and that you are placing a handicap on your traveling salesman, for goods well bought are half sold.
Expenses
If you get confidential with Mr. Bradstreet or Mr. Dun so that they will give you access to the inside history of the commercial concerns which have failed in business, you will quickly discover that in the majority of cases the cause of the failure was "too much expense."
It has become quite a common saying in speaking of failures that "the expenses ate up the profits."
Our friends Mr. Dun and Mr. Bradstreet tell us that there is about one concern in fifty which succeeds in business. If you will look at the successes you will find out that the proprietors were good buyers as well as good sellers but that the particular point that made them successful was their ability to make careful analysis in the matter of expenses.
The business man should have his expenses divided into as many classifications as possible. His payroll should be separated into various departments, office, salesmen, workmen, accounting, and so on; through all the items of expense the division should be made as finely as possible.
The proprietor should have a statement each week on his desk showing how every cent was expended. These items should be summarized monthly, and constant reference made to the items of expense in comparison with items of expense for the previous month, as well as items of expense for the same month of the previous year.
One of the pit-falls in nearly every business is "general expense" or "sundry expense." This department is a catchall for a lot of items, and it hides a lot of leaks and wastes in business.
You can't divide your expense items too minutely. The finer the divisions, the easier you can detect a waste of money.
The business man who has a statement of both receipts and expenses is in the position of the first engineer of an ocean steamer; he does not seem to be doing much and does not worry unless something goes wrong, then he shows his training and ability to mend breaks and repair weak places.
If the business man analyzes his sources of income into several divisions the same as he does his items of expense, he will find it an easy matter to correct errors that creep in the business. He does not have to worry about those items of expense which show minus, nor about those items of receipts which show plus.
With a finely divided sheet of both expenses and receipts you can quickly determine where the profit is coming from and where the leaks appear.
If an expense item shows plus, you can run down that item and see reasons for it and endeavor to bring down that expense. If a receipt item shows minus, you can run down that item and endeavor to increase the receipts.
The writer has a little printed card on his check book and it reads "Drive the axe into expenses." It is a constant reminder to stop the wastes.
The only real success that comes to the business man is the profits at the end of the year, that is, the amount of money he makes net.
It is easier to increase profits by cutting the expenses in many cases than it is to increase profits by increasing sales. And here let us remark that on this subject, as well as all the other subjects we are writing about in this series of articles, we have in mind the matter of common sense, temperate action. Extremes carry things too far. You must not cut the expenses beyond the point where it seriously interferes with the sales.
If you are interested in this matter of expense, and you certainly should be, take up your items of expense for last month or last year, go over the cost of help, the cost of raw material and the cost of manufacturing; go over each branch of your expenses, analyze the items carefully, look into every point thoroughly, and we will guarantee that at the end of your analysis you will see where you can save a respectable sum in the operation of your business. In going into this matter of expense, do not take all the items at once, but take each item up separately and go through it thoroughly.
Do not assume that you are paying too much for everything, but use good sense and good judgment and see that you get your money's worth. Take the item of wages. Look over the individuals in your employ, and you will see a place, for instance, where two persons can do the work three are now doing. Remember, it is generally true that where two persons are engaged in handling a certain department and they are overworked, the tendency is to give them additional help. When this is done you will find thenceforth all three are busy. In other words, each of the two persons who were formerly overworked ease up and do less work the moment the third person is given as assistant. You have noticed that where you put three employes to do the work formerly done by two, it is almost impossible—if you take the employe's word—to get two employes to do the work after three have been doing it.
The work should push the employe. The employer should get full capacity of his employes.
Look over your pay roll and make up your mind that here and there you are going to employes and ask them to help you save money, and at the same time you will let them earn more money for themselves. You will find that this plan works admirably.
For instance, if you have three employes getting $10.00 a week each; go to the two who do the most work and say to them: "If you can do the work of this department with one less employe I will give you each $3.00 a week more." In this way you will pay two employes $13.00 a week instead of three employes $10.00 a week each. This will save you $4.00 on that particular part of your payroll. If you save proportionately all through your payroll it will make a decided profit in itself.
Saving can also be made in the payroll by taking one of the heads of the department into your confidence and letting out the work to him by contract, offering to give him one-half, or one-third or one-quarter of the amount he can save in his department.
It is surprising to see how different his argument will be when his pocket is affected. For instance, in the past he explained to you that his department is behind in its work because he has not enough help.
He has been asking for more help right along, but never asked that some of the help be laid off.
If, on the other hand, you say to him you will give him one-third of what he can save in the matter of wages in his department, you will instantly notice that his whole argument and attitude change. He discovers that he has ability to pick out employes who do the most work, and lets out the four-flushers and idlers.
Remember, that as a rule the best paid employes are the cheapest. You can well afford to pay the heads of your departments more wages if they can save you more money.
A manufacturer should divide the number of completed articles done per day or per week by the amount of wages paid, and find out what the wage item is in each department per article.
Suppose that under your present system it costs you eighty cents in wages per article in Department A, sixty cents per article in Department B, etc. Explain to the foreman of Department A that it is now costing you eighty cents per article for wages in his department, and to the foreman of Department B that wages are costing you sixty cents per article in his department. Tell these employes you will give them one-third or one-half of whatever they can save in their departments. You will find Department A will cost you from seventy to seventy-five cents per article thereafter, and Department B from fifty to fifty-five cents per article, and in the meantime the foreman of the department is making more money for you, and likewise making more money for himself, than under the old system.
This matter of expense is most important, and should have the most serious attention of the proprietor.
Advice
One of the things most frequently asked for and yet one seldom made use of, is advice. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred the man who comes to you for advice as a matter of fact really wants to have his own opinion confirmed.
Do not go around with a pocket full of advice offering it to everyone. If you advise a man to change his habits or manner of life he will resent your proffered aid. The best way to give advice is to take another fellow for example and hit your friend through the illustration of the other fellow. Let him discover the point himself rather than let it appear that you are telling him the thing.
The matter of advice is a very hard thing to properly understand. You advise another to do a certain thing, forgetting in the meanwhile, that if you were in his position your view-point would be his and not your own. You play your strong qualities against his weak ones.
It is easy enough for you to advise a drunkard not to drink, but difficult for you to understand his view point on the subject if you are not a drinking man yourself.
Giving advice usually comes about because we see a weakness in others. The opposite of this weakness is a feature in our own make-up.
The business man who is constantly asking advice is advertising the fact of his uncertainty of his own actions. Your great problems must be decided by yourself.
The one thing that separates the sheep from the goats, and success from failure, is the ability to analyze, study and weigh problems for yourself, and to make decisions for yourself.
The law of compensation comes in here again, for in proportion as you have self-reliance and good judgment your success will be measured.
You may rely upon it that if you go about seeking advice, you will get two kinds of advice—First: the advice that concurs with your own preference or decision; and, second, the kind that is in opposition to your views. You accept the first kind because it tickles your vanity, and you throw aside the second, saying the advice is prejudiced.
Don't ask advice. Size up and weigh the problem yourself and use your own best judgment.
Reading
The business man who goes along day by day without taking on any responsibilities or without tackling more difficult problems, finds he does not progress.
The man who gets into a rut and reads light, frothy literature all the time—the kind that is pleasing to the imagination, the kind that leaves no permanent impression—does not progress mentally.
Reading should be like eating, we should have the dessert as well as the substantials. It would be a great mistake to eat dessert alone, and it is certainly a mistake to read light, frothy reading matter alone.
One of the prime requisites to a successful career is concentration of thought. Few things will dissipate thought as much as over-reading of newspapers.
The newspaper starts in with the first page, and by the time you have finished the last column oh the last page you may have read a hundred articles, each one of these articles touching on a different line of thought. The daily newspaper contains climaxes of all kinds. Each article is a distinct change of thought. The daily newspaper gives us statistics, sorrow, laughter, crime, passion, death, lies, humor, and so on all through the gamut of the scale of human experience.
The man who craves the newspaper soon finds his line of thought frequently interrupted, side-stepped, drawn, cut off and dispersed.
Abundant evidences are at hand where the book reader acquired the daily newspaper habit and reads the daily to such an extent that it is impossible for him to read books thereafter. He has broken his continuity of thought, and when this happens book reading is impossible.
Everyone should read two or three or more books at a time. One should be an interesting book, whether history, story or comedy, so long as it is well written and along lines that will hold one's interest. One should read one book after another of this sort as a dessert for his dinner, as it were, but along with it he should eat substantial food in the nature of substantial reading.
Do not read yourself to sleep at night over a light novel. Read your novel for an hour or so; then take up your old philosopher or scientist and read a page, or as much as necessary to find some thought clearly expressed so that it will be burned into your mind. That thought will remain and will be of service to you in years to come.
Read daily newspapers scantily. Read items concerning the business you are engaged in. Read the doings of Congress and the important events of the day. Go over the head-lines, if need be, and eliminate all those shocking stories of crime and sordid influence. Do not let yourself get into the habit of reading the details of horrible crimes and bad impulses and criminal acts. Skip over all the details of hangings and murders. They are weeds in the mind that choke up the beautiful flowers of thought.
Remember, everything you read depresses or elevates, and in proportion as you accustom yourself to read substantial matter so in proportion you will progress in this world, and have a flood of thoughts at your command when requirements come upon you calling for clean-cut expressions.
You will write better letters, you will converse better, you will enjoy social intercourse better if you read helpful reading matter from books and read newspapers very sparingly.