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1
EFFICIENCY FOR ALL
The Business Man’s Manual and Salesman’s Guide
By
HERBERT N. CASSON
(Late Editor of Efficiency Magazine)
A Cedar Book No.12
THE WORLD’S WORK (1913) LTD KINGSWOOD SURREY
Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay and Company Ltd., Bungay, Suffolk
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………………………3
OPPORTUNITIES ..………………………………………………………………………………….5
BUSINESS ...………………………………………………………………………………..31
EFFICIENCY …………………………………………………………………………………..61
MANAGEMENT …..………………………………………………………………………………84
ADVERTISING .………………………………………………………………………………….91
MIXED GEMS ...………………………………………………………………………………. 96
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INTRODUCTION
Efficiency For All is a choice selection of the now famous Business, Efficiency and
friendship writings of Herbert N. Casson, the man who made Great Britain Efficiency-
conscious.
Month after month, for more than thirty years, Casson’s Efficiency Magazine, owned
and ediphoned by himself, appeared like a beaming torch exposing and dispelling the
miserable gloom and darkness of ignorance, inefficiency, apathy and poverty.
Like every other progressive idea, Efficiency was at first opposed and ridiculed. Even
business men who should, in their own interests, be open-minded toward every new
idea and method, needed to be “sold”. But Casson wasn’t daunted.
He was a master Salesman and had courage as well as knowledge and skill. He
challenged the leaders of business and industry to adapt Efficiency methods to their
own particular trades and interests, with the guarantee that it would solve their
business problems and add greatly to their profits.
The idea caught on. Efficiency was successful. So was Casson. Big business began to
follow him. Efficiency could be applied to every individual, and to the whole field of
human endeavour. And Herbert N. Casson became its greatest exponent.
His teaching made many thousands happy and successful. No other man set so many
British hearts alight and thumping with ambition and the genuine desire to succeed.
He taught the art of money-making in a big way by practical methods, and then there
are other things to be considered.
Money is power, and if used rightly can bring happiness and self-development. In the
three essentials of our civilized life, namely, food, clothing, and shelter, the difference
in quality is amazing. A man may have bread and dripping and call it a meal, or sit
down to a sumptuous feast with a bottle of delicious wine.
A man may wear somebody’s cast-off clothing or enjoy the pleasure of new and
expensive well-fitting apparel. He may sleep in an attic of a bedroom, or he may have a
large country residence with an attractive garden and grounds.
Even after satisfying his necessary requirements in the best possible manner, a man
needs many other things that money can give him. He can have the pleasure of
travelling the world, and chasing the sun, if so desired. He can buy costly and
beautiful things for his home.
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But best of all, a man with plenty of money can mould and determine his own life. He
can shape his own development and have the nobler joys of helping institutions,
hospitals, colleges and other deserving causes.
Such are the fruits of making much money, and they are very sweet. But Casson also
reminded us that money isn’t always everything. Human happiness must come first.
‘If I had o choose between the heart and the pocket, the heart would win every time,”
he told us. And rightly so.
To be both RICH and HAPPY, that is one of life’s big problems. It is the pinnacle of
SUCCESS, the height of glorious achievement. To live well and to laugh heartily is one
of the joys of human existence.
Besides the bags of money and golden opportunities to be found in Casson’s writings,
love, life, and laughter, is there in full measure. Every page of this book is a ‘sparkler”.
There is not a dull sentence in it.
Whether rich or poor, duke or dustman, ace or jack, parson or postman, employer or
employee, shopper or “shoppie”, man or woman, married or single, this is YOUR book.
There are no chapters, but for convenience and reference the items are classified in
sections, some long, some short. Each one will be found branded with the genuine
stamp of Casson Efficiency, namely, the month and year, and also the page it
appeared in the world-famous Efficiency magazine.
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OPPORTUNITIES
WHEREVER you see a man in a high position in the business world, you may be sure
he did not reach that position by accident or luck.
He reached it by CLIMBING. The secret of his success was effort, not chance. He
started for the top and kept on. (Nov 1938/34)
Every week numbers of young men go to our cities in search of a career. They think
the great city will give them something they could not get in the small town or village
where they were bore.
To these young men, I would say: - ‘Your career is inside you. It depends on what you
are, what you know, and what you can do.
“If you were not efficient in your small town, you will probably slip into a small job in
the city and stay there” (Nov. 1938/36)
A young man should refuse any job that gives him nothing but wages. He wants a
chance to learn and climb up. To any dead-end job he should say “No”.
The one best way to find the right job is to make a list of at last five or six firms,
efficient firms, and then to PERSIST in asking these firms for a position. Sooner or
later there will b e an opening. (Oct 1941/8)
No man is so wise that he can afford to despise other men. (May 1934/44)
Put Your Brain to Work. Millions of men earn a poor living by putting their bodies and
about ten percent of their brains to work. What a man earns by body work is not
much. (Nov 1936/5)
Any job will seem hard to a man who has not mastered it. The main purpose of every
man should be to become a little larger than his job. (Nov.1936/31)
If a young man wants to pile up a fortune, as he should do, he must be in earnest
about it. He must first work for the fortune. Then eventually, the happy day will come
when the fortune will work for him. But the first thing to do, is---SAVE. (Oct.
1928/29)
When a man makes a big success everybody notices it. But they did not see the long,
hard slogging work that he did before he became famous. So the point is----if you
want to do something big you must first do plenty of small things. Nobody reaches the
top of the hill at one jump. (Oct.1928/24)
Think Big. Five years ago Jones had a big idea, bigger than his shop. To-day, he has a
big shop. (Oct.1928/57)
6
A young man who sets out to learn all he can will very likely climb to the top in any
line of work, or company. (Oct 1928/48)
Many an ambitious young man wonders- “What are great men really like? Have they
powers that other men do not possess?”
So far as I have seen, and I have made it a point all my life to know and study great
men, they are different in only one thing—they have a big task that they set out to do,
and they keep on in spite of everything.
They are unbeatable. This seems to be the one quality that they all have in common.
(Oct 1928/34)
The Qualities of a Leader. He observes. He reads. He listens. He thinks. He compares.
His mind is alert. He is always on the look-out for knowledge he can use.
He is not the Robot of his memory as so many men are. He makes use of new ideas
and methods. (Oct 1941/11)
Always ask yourself, WHY? It is more important to know WHY than HOW. Any man
who knows HOW will find a job, but a man who knows WHY, will be his boss.
(Nov 1938/28)
The most personal and Interesting thing that any young man can think about is HIS
OWN FUTURE. He should shape a PURPOSE in his mind, and take thought as to
HIMSELF as to what good use he will make of his life. There will always be millions of
jobs in the world for CREATIVE MEN, for men who have skill and specialized
knowledge (Oct 1941/13)
Do it well. The way any man does a small job is a very good test of his efficiency, and of
his character too.
Watch a small boy clean windows. If he rubs them in the middle and neglects the
corners, he is not likely to go far.
Watch a maid clean a room. If she scampers through the job and just gives a flick here
and there, she is not likely to become a competent housewife for the man she marries.
Watch a garage helper clean a car. You can soon tell whether he is likely to be
promoted or not.
Every man’s finished work is like the man himself. A muddling, lazy-minded man will
do even the simplest job badly. Little jobs well done usually lead to big jobs.
(May 1934/23)
Most of us are bothered by weak shoe-laces. They are a nuisance.
7
Why doesn’t some firm make really strong and durable shoe-laces, put a brand name
on them, advertise, and sell them at a higher price? (June 1935/17)
Do you WANT Responsibility? Very few people seem to be born with a desire to
shoulder responsibility. These few eventually climb high in their trades and
industries. They are leaders by nature. But the desire for responsibility can be
developed.
As all self-made men have discovered, the most useful education is education by
responsibility (Feb 1837/18)
It strikes me that a lot of money could be made by an energetic man who would buy
up a number of those century-old limpet businesses and make them grow.
(Sept. 1933/9)
Thank God when you get up in the morning that you have something to do that must
be done whether you like it or not.
(Feb 1937/28)
When a young man sets out to learn something of his own free, he marks himself out
as an exceptional man. And he begins to rise in the world.
(Sept. 1933/38)
Men of Influence. What manner of men are they? Almost without exception they are
men who possess these few qualities:-SINCERITY-JUDGEMNET-SYMPATHY-
INDEPENDENCE.
They are almost always men who have made a success of their own affairs, and who
take a keen interest in the welfare of their town.
(Aug. 1933/15)
The money lost by carelessness and indifference is enormous, but the loss to character
is greater still.
The way a person works has an effect upon himself. No one can persistently do bad
work without paying the penalty in his own nature.
The man who is keen and careful has his feet on the ladder that leads to a higher
position (Aug.1933/16)
Many a young man needs a good friend who dares to say to him:--“Look here, Tom,
you’re making a bad job of yourself.”
There are young men of good ability who are not making any headway. They are
wasting years that they will regret.
(Aug 1933/50)
New ideas are where you find them. They may be picked up in conversation.
8
The rule for thinking is Notice-Compare-Invent.
(Aug 1933/28)
If you want to have money to invest during the last third of your life, you must invest
money in yourself during the first third of your life.
(Jan.1938/46)
One of the commonest tragedies of life is when a young man, who might have been a
leader in his trade or industry, remains in the rank and file all his life.
(Feb 1938/14)
Continuous Luck. The mass of the rank and file believe in luck because it offers them
their only chance of getting a sum of money for nothing.
They forget that when they bet they pay for their chance. In the long run, most of them
pay more than they ever get.
No man ever wins continuously in betting or gambling. He wins only now and then, or
not at all. But there is such a thing as continuous luck in the business world.
Those people have it who develops their abilities. (Jan. 1938/36)
Hobbies. Quite a few large businesses have been started from hobbies. What a man
does in his spare time may become more profitable than what he does when he is at
work.
The man who invented Meccano designed it as a toy for his own children.
One of the most eminent financiers of London first brought notice to himself by means
of hobby. He was a stamp collector. His collection enabled him to see men of wealth
and influence.
So give a thought to the money-making possibilities of your hobby. (Jan 1938/37)
There is a golden opportunity for an Organiser to go into food-producing on a big
scale, and to begin with fifty thousand acres of land.
(Aug 1938/39)
Learn to speak well. When a man becomes prominent in his trade, sooner or later he
will be called upon to make a speech.
Then, unless he has studied the art of public speaking, he will probably let himself
down. He will do himself more harm than good.
(Feb 1938/34)
One reason why men fail is that they take a small view of life. They don’t see farther
than their own little businesses.
9
The man who climbs to the top, is the man who takes a large view of life. He sees
behind the scenes.
He makes use of the great tides of business life. (Nov 1928/65)
The men who will make the biggest successes in the next generation will be the men
who are internationally-minded- who have got rid of national prejudices.
(Aug.1938/34)
No doubt many a man thinks: - I were in London, I would have a chance to build up a
big business. What can I do in this small community where I am?
Right in your small community there are advantages and opportunities. You are not
isolated. You can begin at once to prepare for any career that you have in mind.
(Aug. 1938/11)
Many a young man has a wish to become a Manager. But his wish alone won’t do him
any good.
First, he must manage his leisure.
If he does not use any of his spare time to prepare himself for promotion, he will
probably remain in the rank and file all his life.
(Aug 1938/44)
What to do with £500. The first thing to do is to hold it tightly against relatives and
outsiders. There is always a group of grabbers around everyone who has little capital.
Protect it from the cadgers and schemers-that is the first thing. Say “No” to every
suggestion.
Don’t answer any advertisement that says: - “Wanted, a partner with £500.”
In nine cases out of ten such an advertisement only means that somebody wants your
money.
In most cases, the wisest thing to do is to buy a house with it. The best first
investment, always is a HOME.
(July 1933/10)
One of the first efforts of every ambitious young man should be to buy a bit of
property. As soon as he owns a small tract of land or a house or a shop, he will have a
wonderful feeling of satisfaction.
A fat bunch of shares is all well enough, but it won’t give you the satisfaction nor the
sense of ownership that you get from a piece of property.
(Sept.1938/20)
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Here is a fact that should encourage every ambitious young man. There is a high
position ready for him as soon as he is fit for it.
There are always more big positions than there are big men to fill them.
(April 1938/14)
There is a fine future for any ambitious Accountant who studies behind the figures.
There are now a few eminent Accountants in Britain. Who have developed themselves
into Efficiency Experts.
There are quite a few Managing Directors who started as Accountants. They studied
management and efficiency and rose to the top in their firms.
(April 1938/40)
Your future – where you will be at forty or fifty- depends mainly on what you do in
your spare time.
(April 1938/44)
If you use your spare-time hours as though they were not worth three pence each,
then you will not likely increase your pay for your working hours.
Every young man, if he has any ambition in him, has two jobs. One is to earn his
present pay, and the other is to fit himself for higher pay.
This second job, on which his future depends, must be done in his spare time.
(Oct 1938/49)
My advice to any man in any position is---study salesmanship. For lack of knowledge
of salesmanship, many a clever man has made only a small success.
(Oct 1938/5)
The Main thing for any clever young man is to get his experience QUICKLY. During all
his earlier years he must be learning.
Many an older man, now well-to-do, will tell you that he wasted seven or eight years of
his life, when he first started, doing simple work that taught him little or nothing.
The best job is one where he will receive personal attention from a competent
employer, or a well-managed firm.
When a young man has a good start, he can be well on his way when he is thirty. He
can have a managerial position.
(Sept 1938/7)
The young man who dislikes and neglects his present job, and waits for a fairy-
godmother to come and pick him up- he will likely stay where he is and have no career
at all. (Sept. 1938/7)
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The slow and listless worker is the first one to be laid off. And the quick and alert
worker is the first one to be given a higher position.
Two-third of “Promotion” consists of “Motion”. (Oct 1938/55)
To many a young man of twenty I would say: - “Spend at least a year in DIRECT
SELLING.”
Go from door to door selling vacuum cleaners, or refrigerators, silk stockings or
something else. You will make some money but, better still, you will secure very
valuable experience.
Direct Selling is like digging for buried treasure. It is a job full of excitement,
disappointments and successes.
No two days are alike. There are “57 varieties” of rebuffs. And there is a wonderful
chance to acquire skill in the art of handling people.
Many a man who is now a Managing Director was a Direct Salesman in his younger
days (June 1936/9)
Don’t buy your experience with your own money. Get it from books and from working
for others. If you buy your experience with your own money, you’ll find that by the
time you have got it, your money will be gone.
The men who have made the biggest successes have been men who stuck to what they
knew.
Carnegie stuck, Rockefeller stuck to oil, lever-hulme stuck to soap, and Ellerman to
ships. (June 1936/14)
When a man moves ahead of the crowd he is in, he will always have a few jeers thrown
at him. (Oct 1938/32)
There is a great chance for someone to start a “Drink More Coffee”. Campaign in Great
Britain.
As coffee-drinkers we are at the bottom of the list. This is mainly because our women
simply do not know how to make good coffee. They are the best tea-makers in the
world, but as coffee-makers they do not shine.
It is certain that in the near future someone in Great Britain will make a big coffee
fortune. (June 1936/44)
Many a young man looks forward to doing big things “some day”. So he should. But
often he forgets that the road to “Some Day” starts from where he is.
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His main object, at the moment, should be to do his present job better than anyone
else has done it before him. (June 1936/45)
Here is a law of self development- no man can grow unless his takes are larger than
his experience.
When a man does precisely what he has done before, he has gained nothing, except
perhaps a bit of money.
As soon as he refuses to attempt anything that he has not done before, he is done.
(Feb 1934/16)
Keep learning. Not many men “drink deeply” of knowledge. They take a few sips. The
greatest harm than any man can do himself is to STOP LEARNING. From that moment
he begins to slip behind.
(Feb 1934/25)
Money invested in good books pays a higher dividend than money invested in anything
else. Sometimes it pays one thousand percent and more.
If a man must economise, he should cut down his expenditure on twenty other things
before he cuts down his book money. (Feb 1934/33)
As soon as Andrew Carnegie made his first bit of money, he invested a large part of it
in HIMSELF.
He set a good example to any ambitious young man. He spent his first money on
acquiring knowledge, then he spent money on travel. And finally he spent it on
libraries, gifts to his native town in Scotland, and on scientific research.
A man needs to learn the art of Money-making in order to enrich his own life. His
money can enable him to become wise and efficient and generous. (June 1937/23)
No one should be content with “near enough” That is a deadly mistake. It prevents a
man from learning and improving and climbing up to a higher position.
(June 1937/25)
Andrew Carnegie, who was certainly able, once said that he owed his success to
engaging others who were abler than himself in their own lines. (Feb 1936/20)
Ideas are where you find them. A motor car manufacturer once picked up one of his
best sales ideas when he went with his wife to a millinery shop.
Patterson first got his idea of the necessity of cash registers when he was selling coal
A clever letter-writer wrote a letter to sell radio sets. This letter was adapted by a piano
firm to sell pianos. And later it was adapted to sell life insurance.
13
Most inventors have been adapters. Eleven men tried to make reapers and failed. Then
McCormick adapted the eleven ideas, added a few of his own, and made the first
practical reaper.
We must in fact, “ADOPT, ADAPT, IMPROVE” (Feb 1936/18)
Antonio Stradivari had one ability and he developed it. He made the most perfect
violins that had ever been known. He aimed for quality and has never been forgotten
(Feb 1936/34)
Many young men seem to have a wrong idea to what a “chance” is. They expect the
Managing Director to come and dig them out of their dead-end-jobs.
Now a chance is nothing more than a toe-hold. And a toe-hold is all that an ambitious
competent young man should ask for.
His promotion depends wholly upon himself (Feb 1936/42)
It is not enough for a man to find out how to do a big job. He must DARE to do it as
well.
As soon as he starts to push his way up in the world, he will find, very likely to his
surprise, that a lot of people stand in his way. The crowd always takes it s revenge on
any man who dares to be different.
John Bunyan told his story in his Pilgrim’s Progress. And it is as true to-day as it was
in Bunyan’s day.
A successful man pays a high price for his success. He does not pick up fame in a
bargain basement. (Feb 1932/10)
Millionaires are great readers. Ask almost any rich or famous man and he will tell you
that reading was one of the causes of his success. (Feb1932/19)
There are two ways to learn – from the winners and from the losers. The winners teach
us what to do and the losers teach us what NOT to do. (Jan 1933/48)
No matter what a ma’s trade or profession is, his success will never begin until he
takes a keen interest in what he is doing. (May 1933/5)
Many a career has been started by a good letter. If you look back over your experience,
you will find that you owe much to letters.
If a book were written on what letters have accomplished, it would be as big as an
encyclopedia.
14
Letter-writing is one of the few subjects that everyone should study. An unemployed
person may secure a job by writing an effective letter; and a financier may succeed in
carrying out a big scheme by writing the right letter to someone who is standing in the
way. (Aug 1934/36)
A Fertiliser salesman arrived at a farm when the farmer and all his people were in a
hurry to get the hay in. A storm could be seen approaching on the horizon.
The salesman threw his coat off, grabbed a fork, ran out in the field and lent a hand.
An hour later the storm came up, but the hay was in. Then the farmer and sales man
sat down together and a good order was booked for fertilizer.
Another salesman, selling machines, arrived at a factory just as a bad breakdown
happened. At once he said: - “Give me a suit overalls, and I’ll lend you a hand’
He did. He worked for more than an hour. Then when the repair work was finished, he
took off his overalls and sold three machines.
These were two instances of Golden rule salesmanship. (Aug 1934/37)
Even if a man has reached the age of forty and has not been successful, he should not
lose self-confidence.
If we consider the body alone, a man is at his best between twenty and thirty. After
thirty, the body begins to stiffen.
But the brain is not fully developed at thirty or at forty. As the body begins to stiffen,
the brain may grow stronger and quicker.
Many a man does not start to do his best work until he is past forty. We cannot
prevent old age of the body, but it is quite possible to prevent old age of the brain.
(Aug 1934/42)
A manufacturer was asked by a friend:--‘Why did you make Smith your General
Manager?”
“Well”, said the manufacturer, ‘I suppose it is because Smith always acts a though he
owns the business”
As you can see Smith is on his way to become a partner. He takes a partner’s interest.
He puts the interest of the business first. That is why he was promoted.
(Aug 1934/43)
The Sales manager of a manufacturing company died. In his place, the Managing
Director appointed a young salesman called Jones, who had been only five years with
the company.
15
The other salesmen-there were thirty of them-objected. They sent in a protest to the
Managing Director So he called them together and said: “I know how you older men
feel,” he said, “and I want to give you my reasons for appointing Jones.
‘Since Jones has been with us, he has spent £20 of his own money on books about
salesmanship and courses of study. He has prepared himself for Sales manager.
‘Also, last year, twenty-three suggestions were sent in by our salesmen, and eighteen
of them came from Jones. One of his suggestions has brought us in nearly £10000
worth of new business.
“When it comes to thinking of the welfare of the company as a whole, and to efforts of
self-development, Jones is miles ahead of any of you. There was nothing else to be
done except to make him Sales Manager.” (Sept 1934/38)
Last month a young man in London remarked: - “I have a hard job. I am costing clerk
at Blank’s.”
His job seems big, you see, because he is small. He is like an ant pushing a beam.
Whenever any man’s job is too big for him, he should set to work to develop himself.
He must buy some books and learn.
To grow bigger than the job-that is the secret of promotion. (Aug 1934/40)
The young man of twenty has one peculiar advantage-he has, probably, fifty years in
the bank of Time.
The older man of sixty would give all that he is worth in exchange for what the young
man possesses. Why don’t young men think of that?
Any young man can get into a big organization. He can get in at the tail end. That is all
he has a right to expect. Then he must climb up. He can’t get to the top in a lift.
When a man says that he is in a “dead-end” job the truth is usually, that it is the
young man who is the “dead end”.
If a young man finds he is misplaced he can move. He is not a tree. He can find
someplace where he will get as much as he deserves.
In my opinion, never before has a young man of twenty had such a chance to win fame
and fortune as he has today. (Mar 1935/ 6)
16
When a competent man is out of a job he should select the one company to which he
can be of most service. Then he should write to his company and put in his letter
some facts and ideas that will be useful to that company.
He should begin to serve it BEFORE he gets a job that is the point to remember.
(Mar 1935/42)
Perhaps You can. Many a young man has a dream of what he wants to do. But it
seems incredible to him that he should ever make his dream come true.
He should remember this fact- all manner of improbable things DO happen. Ever so
many so-called impossible things do come to pass.
Life is the oddest thing in the world. It is not safe to say that anything is impossible.
Many a fifty-to-one horse wins.
So, if the thing that the young man wants is worthwhile, he should strike out for it, no
matter how impossible it may seem to be at the moment. (Jan 1935/42)
It is a strange fact that new inventions usually come from people who are outsiders.
This would seem to prove that our brains are least active when we are thinking about
our jobs.
For instances, last year: - A ship’s draughtsman invented a baby-walker.
A doctor invented an alarm-clock.
An actress invented a weather proof deck-chair
A bus-driver invented a dry smoking pipe.
A travelling sales man invented a wool-winder.
Anyone who has keen eyes and who thinks about what he sees may become an
inventor. (Jan 1935/43)
An ambitious young man was given a job as assistant in a buying agents’ office. He
had to see salesmen.
He made a habit of asking the salesmen questions. He pumped every salesmen dry
and wrote down what they told him in notebooks.
He soon became purchasing agent. He kept on asking questions. Today, he is at the
head of that company. (Jan 1935/63)
The point to notice is that any small job is big enough for a lad at first. It really does
not matter much where or how a lad starts. What does matter is that he should keep
on growing.
17
There are many young lads in small jobs at the moment. In thirty years’ time, they will
be in a high position. They are little oak trees growing in the flower-pots.
(Jan 1935/64)
The young man that sets out to KNOW all he can and DO all he can, is certain to rise
to a position of leadership. Ignorance and inertness-they keep most men down. To
succeed a young man must first make himself in-valuable, and then set out to create a
business or a profession. (Feb 1935/16)
A young man writes: - “I want to start a business of my own. I do not want to work
under anyone else.”
That is a bad reason for starting a business. In the business world, everyone of us is
under anyone else.”
That is a bad reason for starting a business. In the business world, everyone of us is
under someone.
The Managing Director is under his shareholders and his customers. No one, not even
if he is a genius, is entirely independent. Business means working for others.
(April 1935/43)
To any young man, I would say:-There are at least two things that you must do, if you
want to climb up in the world. You must READ and SAVE. The two things you need
most are Knowledge and Money. And you can have both by reading and saving.
If you want success, you must prepare for it-show yourself fit for it. get knowledge in
your head and money in the bank.
There must of course, be a certain percentage of pleasure, but the main thing that a
young man must think of is his LIFE (Jan 1934/23)
If money-making were easy, there would be plenty of well-to-do- people. But it is not
easy.
It requires knowledge and skill and energy and ambition. A man must think more of
his week than he does of his week-end, if he wants to climb up as a money-maker.
First, he must learn how to give a better service. Then he must learn how to make his
service known. He must deserve more, and see that he gets it. (June 1934/13)
Mr. H.J.Heinz who founded the world – wide Heinz business, with its”57” varieties,
started with one variety. He started by selling horse-radish.
18
He went around with it himself and sold it to grocers. And he was a good salesman. He
would suggest window displays and counter displays. He always took a personal
interest in the welfare of every grocer.
This was one of the secrets of his quick success. The grocers like him. And his
business at once began to grow. (June 1934/34)
Make a better food and you will soon be having people running to you with money.
In every good cookery book there are recopies that would make fortunes for anyone
who will use them and advertise.
Many fortunes has begun in the kitchen. First the kitchen and then the factory. The
one thing that everyone wants is good food. (May 1933/36)
There is no more tasty or nutritious food than honey. Why do we see it so seldom in
our hotels and restaurants? Someday, a keen man will rise up and do for honey what
Kraft did for cheese. He will put a brand name on it, advertise it, and make a honey
fortune. (Feb 1936/45)
Isn’t it true that by the time a man gets sense enough to wear shoes that don’t pinch
he has probably got a job sitting down?
To speak seriously, isn’t true that to many man knowledge comes too late. When he
has young, he didn’t care a pin for knowledge. Then, when he sees the value of
knowledge he has lost his chance.
A young man who has a bit of common sense thinks of his life as a whole. He doesn’t
throw away the valuable years that should be spent in climbing up the ladder of
promotion.
He gets the knowledge quickly and makes a good use of it. Then he has a good time
ALL his life, and not merely for a few years at the beginning of it.
(Aug 1934/22)
It is not true that anybody can, even by the greatest possible effort, become a
Leverhulme or a Rockefeller.
It does not do any good to make such statements the truth is always more helpful
than wild exaggeration.
The truth is that every man has his own limitations, but he does not know what they
are until he develops his powers and does his best.
And little lad in a school playground MAY become a Leverhulme or Rockefeller, but to
say than any lad CAN become a millionaire Business-Builder is non-sense.
19
Any lad can make the most of himself-that is the common-sense fact about ambition.
What he finally becomes depends upon his abilities and his chances and his
determination. (Aug 1934/25)
Now and then, we meet a man who is a “rolling stone”. He is always changing from one
business to another. And he is gathering no “moss”
He hasn’t the stuff in him to be a business-builder. He is a quitter. He gives up before
he learns to do the job. (July 1934/38)
The Cause of Quick Success. Most men learn from their own personal experience only.
This would be a good enough way if they lived to be two hundred years old.
Then when they were one hundred years old, they might be very wise, and they would
begin to make money.
But no one lives to be two hundred. Only about three in a hundred live to be eighty.
Life is short. The length of the average life is fifty-seven.
So if a man wants to have a quick success, here is the secret of it-learn from the
experience of others. Cash in on facts and ideas learned from successful men.
(May 1935/29)
To many a young man of twenty five who is engaged to be married, I would say: -
“Don’t wait too long. In all the world there is nothing better than a home of your own”
It is not true that two can live cheaply as one, unless one is a horse and the other a
sparrow. But the economies in a new home are not unpleasant. A home makes up for
many things that have to be given up.
Also it is true that the terms of builders and the Building Societies make it much more
possible to have a home than it was thirty years ago.
And many a young man never settles down and does his best-never puts his earnings
up to where they ought to be-until he has a home of his own. (May 1935/48)
Many people, especially professional people and wage earners, have a delusion that a
business is a sure way to make money.
The fact is, and this ought to be generally known, that a business is just a CHANCE-a
chance to make money or lose it.
No one should go into a business until he has first prepared himself. He must LEARN
HOW, just as much as though he were going to be a lawyer or a dentist.
BUSINESS REQUIRES KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL. That is the important fact.
(Aug 1935/6)
20
It is amazing how many retail shops, otherwise spick and span, have shabby awnings,
often torn, of dirty grey sail-cloth, such as a fisherman might put up in front of his
shack.
The general idea seems to be that anything will do for an awning, although it is the
most conspicuous thing in front of a shop.
Why not awnings that match the colour of the shop? Why not have a distinctive
awning that attracts the favorable attention of the passer-by on the opposite side of
the street?
Surely there can be some selling-power in an attractive awning, just as there is in a
good window display. If I were half my age, and wanted to have a go as a salesman, I
think I would go out and sell awnings. (Aug 1935/20)
The man who has no ambition has a brain full of cinders. His fires have died out.
The young man in Great Britain who is not ambitious has only himself to blame. If he
is not ambitious he is not worthy of the land of his birth. (Sept 1935/8)
Butcher-boy to meat king. About fifty years ago there was a butcher-boy name William
Angliss in a small village in Kent. In that small village he developed a big ambition.
At nineteen he saves enough to buy a passage to Australia. When he landed in
Melbourne he had only a few shillings in his pocket.
In a few years he had a small butcher shop of his own, Soon he had a second shop,
and then a third shop, and so on.
Then he bought cattle stations and built canning factories and freezing works. He
became the Meat King of Australia.
A year ago, he sold out, and last April he came back to London with a fortune-
£3,000,000 or more. (Sept 1935/9)
A certain Advertising Manager lost his job, as his firm was taken over by another firm.
He did not want to be idle.
He went to a national magazine and said:” I can get a number of new advertisers for
you,” He was given a chance.
He secured nearly £500 worth of advertising the first month, on which he received
fifteen per cent. He made his job. (Jan 1936/37)
A small shop is a sink-hole for capital unless you know how to run it.Dont bet on
yourself until you first get knowledge. (Sept 1935/14)
21
Keep clear of schemes, unless you have a scheme that you thought of yourself, and
which you have the ability to carry out yourself. (Sept.1935/14)
When I sent my sixteen-year-old son to Switzerland, I gave him a card on which I had
written the following three rules.
1. Learn something every day- then you’ll have KNOWLEDGE
2. Create Something every day-then you’ll have VALUE
3. Show deference to everyone-then you’ll have GOODWILL
Changes mean OPPORTUNITIES for keen-eyed men who notice the trend of things.
Foresight makes fortunes. And to the men who produce or distribute food a little
foresight may prove to be very profitable.
Many a new fortunes will be made by the sale of soya beans. They mean a new, cheap,
nourishing and palatable food.
The first British company that ventures to market and advertise soya beans efficiently,
will build up a new great business. (Jan 1936/16)
Wishes Without Will-power. Almost everybody has wishes, but very few people
resolutely set out to get what they want.
Many a young person sits in a small bedroom and thinks: - “Why Cannot I have the
pleasures that others have? Why cannot I, too, have money to spend, not merely a few
shillings a week? Why do some people have all the luck?”
Now it’s a good thing for people to have such questions in their minds. Wishes are like
seeds. Every successful career started with wishes.
But you cannot take the wishes to the bank and cash them. Nothing as easy as that.
Seeds are no good till you plant them, and wishes are no good till you form a strong
purpose in your mind to get what you want.
First come wishes. Then comes will-power. Most people lack will-power. I must say
that it is hard thing to get.
The way to get it is to set out to do something, or study something, or improve
something. There you have, in a sentence, the secret of every permanent success.
By doing, studying and improving, every worthwhile result has been obtained. This
hold true for the young man of twenty in a small job, as for the millionaire of sixty as
well.
22
As soon as a young man has set out to do half a dozen things, and has done them,
then he has made his will power strong. And a feeling of self confidence springs up in
his mind.
This drives out the feelings of self pity and depression. He becomes ambitious. He
finds he can do more than he thought he could do.
He begins to appreciate his own abilities. He sets himself harder tasks. He begins to
get the things he wants. But the point is that wishes alone will not bring either
success or happiness. They only bring misery to those who have no pluck
It is will power and perseverance that make the dreams come true-not always, but
often.
Few men get all they want, but any one of us can, at least get quite a few things we
can, if we have the courage to pay the price. (Jan 1936/30)
Learning from People. Most of us, I dare say, when we have a talk with a man, are
more intent on telling him something than on learning from him.
I have found that something can be learned from almost anyone. Many a bus
conductor or a hotel porter has given me a suggestion for an article.
One of the main reasons why most men slow down at fifty and lose the best
opportunities of their lives is that they stop gathering knowledge.
As long as we live we should be on the quest for new facts and ideas. Life is short and
we should never stop learning.
Every conversation is a little opportunity. (March 1936/31)
A man must try and learn. All his life he should be trying and learning.
The quickest and the cheapest way to learn is to read the experiments of others. But
we should try out many experiments ourselves. (March 1936/37)
If you were to receive a new suit from a tailor, and if you found that the buttons had
not been sewn on, or if there were no pockets in the trousers, you would be amazed
that such an incomplete suit had been sent out. And you would never go to that tailor
again.
Yet people who are just as incomplete as that suit go about every day asking for the
positions.
To be fit for any position a man requires a certain amount of knowledge or skill. If he
does not possess this knowledge or skill he should regard himself as incomplete.
23
Self development that is the first thing of every young person. No man is, of course,
ever one hundred per cent complete, but everyone should first make himself fit for the
job asks for. (March 1936/43)
Parking Station Opportunities. There is a Golden Opportunity right now for a man in
every large town to give a real PARKING SERVICE, with high-grade, well trained
attendants, who know how to sell whatever motorists may need. (Aug 1936/10)
Every man who dislikes his job says to himself now and then:-“I wish I lived in Easy
Street”
Also, to tell the truth, almost every one of us, after a period of hard work or business
troubles, has the same wish.
In “Easy Street”, so we imaging, the people have no work to do they have all they want.
They are idle and happy and care-free.
I don’t know myself what it is like. I have never lived in it, although at times, after a
long hard day, I confess, I wish I did. I have always lived in “Action Street”, quite a
different place.
But I know that “Easy Street” is a delusion. It is not as happy a street to live in as
people think it is.
No doubt we may say that the South Sea Islanders live in “Easy Street”. They live in a
land of sunshine and their food grows on trees.
But not many a man in Great Britain would seriously wish to be a South Sea Islander.
The idle children of rich may be said to live in “Easy Street”, but as a rule they are not
happy, usually, their faces were a look of discontent.
The people who are most bored with life are those who spend their time going from one
amusement to another.
The fact is that high-quality happiness is only found by having useful work to do, and
by having a purpose that is worth achieving. The “Easy Street” idea is a myth.
(March 1936/11)
As most of us have learned, the first £100 is hardest to get. Sometimes it has to be
saved in shillings and pence. It is the reward of will-power and self-denial.
As someone has said, it is easier to multiply £300000 by ten, than it is to double
£300.
As soon as you have capital, it begins to work for you. This cheering thought for any
young man who is adding to his savings. The Path of Acquisition becomes easier, not
harder, as you push forward.
24
(Aug 1936/6)
Usually, it is only at the end of our lives that we appreciate the value of the
opportunities we have had.
Most young men are blind to the possibilities of their own brains and the opportunities
given them by their jobs.
When it is too late, they see the chances they missed. They see what they might have
been, and what they have done. The few who do see their chances --they are the ones
who climb to the top in their trades and industries. (Aug 1936/14)
Many a man who is doing badly thinks he could do well if he were somewhere else.
Perhaps he could. But this is clear-he will not do well anywhere, unless he is doing his
best where he is
There is gold in many a man’s back garden if he will rouse himself and dig for it.
(Aug 1936/40)
In itself, time is nothing. It is what use we make of it that counts.
A young man who studies hard for two years will know more than an old man of eighty
who has merely drifted along like a reptile all his life. (Sept 1936/42)
A few years ago the building of a huge bridge was begun between San Francisco and
Oakland Bay.
This bridge, now completed, is four and a half miles long.
Also, about five years ago, the Sales Manager of a big paint company had a bright
thought.
“I want to sell the paint for that bridge,” he said to himself. “How can I prove that our
paint is the best for the job?”
He soon decided on a plan. He had several steel plates put up on an old fort near
where the bridge was to be erected. He had each plate painted with a different kind of
paint.
Then, a few months ago, when the bridge was nearly ready to be painted, he took the
buyer of the Bridge Contract to see those painted plates.
The test convinced the buyer. He selected the paint that had best endured the weather
conditions, and he gave the order to the Sales Manager.
25
It was an order for £167,000 worth of paint. Not often does any Sales manager have a
£167,000 idea. He had foresight. He made a plan. And his plan brought in the biggest
single order his company ever had. (Jan 1937/25)
A hard job is always a fine opportunity. It is an opportunity for self-development and d
for making more money. Every man’s pay depends upon how hard his job is. If a
thousand people can be found to take his place, then there is not much in his pay
envelope. (Jan 1937/39)
No one can buy a career in a Bargain Basement. A career is costly. It costs energy,
thought courage and persistence.
Often, the daily papers make a splash about some man’s big fortune. Then several
million people who have very little money say, “Lucky Beggar”.
Most of us are apt to forget the first ten years of that rich man’s life. We don’t think of
his long struggle to climb up of all the obstacles that he had to overcome.
(Jan 1937/44)
Thousands of young men are good starters, but poor finishers. As soon as the novelty
of a job has worn off they lose interest, slow down and stop.
They float from job to job. During the first month they are interested, but they soon
tell their friends that they are “fed up”/. And they either drop out or get laid off.
One young man tells me that he has tried many things in the past six years, but was
not interested in any of them. What chance has he to succeed? Absolutely none .
How many young people stick to their hobbies? Very few. Some have started dozen
hobbies, and become expert in none.
A young man buys a guitar, strums away for a few weeks, gets his finger sore and
loses interest. Another starts with enthusiasm to collect stamps, gets “fed up” with the
task of pasting them in his book and throws the book aside.
This sort of thing is a serious matter. If a man never finishes what he sets out to do,
he will stay in the rank and file all his life. There is a wonderful satisfaction in
finishing. Drake was proudest when he said: - “And all that he said we would do, we
have done.”
When I am writing a book, the two words that give me the most pleasure are these-
THE END.
When a man sets out to save £500, he has a keen satisfaction in saving the last £5.
He has finished what he said he would do.
When a salesman aims to sell £300 worth of goods in a week, he has a keen
satisfaction when he reaches the mark on Saturday morning. The power to finish a job
26
is a proof of character and stamina. It proves that a man is not a childish dabbler. It
proves that he is making himself fit for promotion and higher pay.
A man must have some self control. He must have a bit of self-mastery. When he
starts a thing, he must hold himself at it until it is done.
The quitters are never heard of. They never attain either success or happiness. They
want to be amused.
No one can help any young man until he takes a job as a thing that must be finished.
Even if his job does not suit him at all, he should not quit as a failure. He should do it
as well as he can and then quit. To go through life leaving a trail of unfinished jobs
what can that possibly lead to, but failure? If you have started something, get on with
it. Reach the satisfaction of FINISHING. (March 1937/10)
To anyone who is thinking of starting a small manufacturing business, I would say: -
“Start its SELLING end first.”
First go out and get some customers, before you invest money in materials equipment.
Either do this, or find a competent agent.
A new factory should be given a running start. It should have orders on the first day it
opens.
The safe way to begin is to first make a few samples and go around, or send salesmen
around, to test the market.
Perhaps the new product, for some reason or other, will not sell at all. It is best to
know this before good money has been invested in materials and machinery.
First make sure of orders, and then begin to manufacture. (March 1937/7)
A small factory succeeds best when it makes only one thing. If it tries to make too
many things, it becomes a mere workshop, and the productive costs are too high. As
far as possible it should become a mass-production factory.
A small factory, with less than one hundred workers can become a little gold –mine if
it is run on the right lines. (March 1837/8)
A piano---a shop---a factory---a farm. All four of these are alike. What they produce
depends, not on them, but on the skill and specialized knowledge of the man who
operates them. (March 1937/46)
Men of long experience have often been mistaken. They have allowed their experience
to make them unteachable When Robert Ingersoll, who was not a watch-maker,
invented a new kind of watch, he was laughed at by all the experienced watch-makers.
But he proceeded to sell tens of millions of his watches.
27
When King C.Gillette, who was not a razor-maker, invented a new kind of a razor, he
was laughed at by all the experienced razor-makers. But he proceeded to sell tens of
millions of his razors.
Too much experience consists in knowing what “can’t be done” While we are saying
that a certain thing is “impossible” some outsider comes along and does it.
(March 1937/31)
The “Miracle of little Plusses”. Many of these little “plusses” have made fortunes for
those who thought them first.
The hairpin plus the crinkle. The hook and eye plus the hump. The fountain pen plus
the clip. The soft collar plus the tabs. The book plus the printed jacket.
There is literally no end to the little improvements that can be made in ordinary
things. It is worth any man’s while to pay attention to the ‘miracles of little plusses’.
(April 1937/8)
Of all the many techniques in business, not one is more profitable than the technique
of handling people. We learn this technique when we study salesmanship and
management. It is taught every month in the Efficiency magazine.
Rockefeller once said: - ‘The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity
as sugar or coffee; and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the
sun”
Listen. The sure way to become regarded as a good conversationalist is to be a good
listener-to ask questions that the other person is pleased to answer, and to show a
keen interest in everything that he tells you about himself. (March 1937/16)
Started with £10. Two years ago, two travelling salesmen in Melbourne met in a hotel
writing–room. Both were readers of Casson Books. They were congenial. Ambitious
too. They had only £ 10 between them, but they decided to become partners and start
a selling agency.
Today they have a prosperous business handling ten lines of goods. They go on the
road themselves and employ two salesmen.
A young man went to a London Advertising Agency and applied for a position. He was
asked this question:-“If we were to take you on, what could you do to earn twice your
wages-the wage we would pay you and your contribution to the expenses and profits of
the business?”
To this question the young man had no answer. He had never thought of it. And he
faded out.
28
Surely, is a young man wants an employer to pay him £3 a week, he should think of
some way whereby he can increase his employer’s income by £6 a week.
An employer is not a Government. He wants to pay wages, not doles. And a wage is a
percentage of what an employee is worth to his firm. (April 1939/14)
Years ago a young man of twenty-two was a clerk in a bank in a small American town.
When the time for his two weeks’ holiday came, he said to his manager:-“Instead of
taking a holiday, I intend to spend the time in making study of the farmers in this
country.”
His report was so valuable that he was at once promoted. At thirty-nine, he became
President of a large bank in New York.
Ten years ago, a young lad of nineteen was working in a colliery near Gloucester. His
hobby was reading. He began to read business books. Also, he learned to play musical
instruments and joined a band. By books and music he escaped from the colliery.
Seven years ago he started a shop in a side street to sell musical instruments. In a few
years he owned a large shop in the centre of the city.
Today he has many interests and activities. He organizes dances and concerts. No
doubt, eventually, he will have a dance band of his own. (May 1939/18)
Courage is scarce; sometimes I think it is almost as scarce as radium, which is worth
about £2000, 000 a pound. Without courage, a man is afraid to take risks, to try
experiments, to make full use of his own powers and assets. Never before was courage
more needed than it is today. (June 1939/48)
House Repairing Work. Now that there are more houses needed in Great Britain, there
will be much more work for small contractors and house repairers.
The most efficient house repairer in any town or district will now have a chance to
build up a large and profitable business.
He should have some cards, not circulars, printed, and have one in every letter-box
within a mile of his hop. The cards should have a message something like this: “KEEP
THIS CARD”
If you have any jobs of house-repairing, telephone SMITH’S, 24, George Street. Your
work will be quickly done by skilled workmen. Phone MAIN 2478.
This wording, with the headline:- ‘HOUSE REPAIRING,” should appear as
advertisement in the best local paper.
Then Mr. Smith, or whatever his name is, should prepare to make good on this card.
He should search for quick, reliable, skilled workmen.
29
What a house-repairer wants is permanent customers. Any house can give him at
least a couple of jobs a year.
Consequently, he must aim to give satisfaction. (June 1939/28)
About six or seven years ago, there was a young man who was keenly interested in
foreign trade. He tried to enter the Consular Services, but failed to secure a position.
So he became a salesman for large firm manufacturing ironmongery.
After he had been on the road several months, he went in to see his managing Director
and asked: - ‘Do you mind if I make an effort to sell our good abroad?”
The Managing Director replied:-“We have never tried to do that.”
The young man said: - “It will only take two hours of my time daily. It means writing
letters that’s all.”
“Oh, very well,” said the Managing Director grudgingly. “You may go ahead. It can’t do
us any harm”
The young man started his letter-writing campaign. Every day he sent off a batch of
letters to buyers abroad. As a result, his firm last year sold £200000 worth of
ironmongery to foreign customers. That young man made himself the best profit-
maker in the firm, and he now holds a high position. (June 1939/33)
I have advised quite a few young men who wanted to be salesmen, to start by selling
direct for a year.
One of the most useful assets in the business world is knowledge of women as buyers.
Women buy about eighty percent of the goods in the stores.
A man who has learned how to deal with women-how to please women-has a great
advantage in the business world.
Now, if I may say so, a direct salesman sees women at their worst – sees them when
they are busy at home.
He has a hard job, but that is why it is good for him. There is a lot of hidden gold in it.
A man in London has recently been made a managing Director by being a direct
salesman for five years. (June 1939/34)
30
In the business world, wisdom is knowing what to do NEXT; skill is knowing HOW to
do it; and profit is the result of DOING it. (June 1939/34)
It is not where you are that matters, but what you do (July 1939/14)
There is no Harley Street for sick business. Perhaps someday there may be, when
business men have a higher appreciation of skilled advice.
There is a Carey Street in London that deals with bankruptcies, and it has plenty of
cases. But there is no Harley Street to prevent men from going to Carey Street.
There might be such a thing as a “Business Clinic”. For years I have had such a thing
in mind.
On its staff there would be an accountant, an efficiency expert, an engineer, an
advertising man and a sales manager.
The advice of such a staff would be well worth the high fees. Many a declining man
and a sales manager.
The advice of such a staff would be well worth the high fees. Many a declining
business could be restored to health.
But this suggestion is a bit too far in advance of the present generation. Our
grandsons, very likely, will make a good use of “Business Clinics” (July 1939/20)
This thought slipped into the mind of a young man one morning while he was
dressing: - “Supposing another young man had my job, what could he do that I’m not
doing?”
This thought stuck in his mind. It made him notice what he was doing. He began to
study his job. And to do his work more efficiently.
In two months he was promoted to a higher position, with ten shillings a week more
wages. That thought was worth £26 to him the first year. (July 1939/42)
31
BUSINESS
Next to Love, BUSINESS is the greatest and the best thing in the world. It is the
creator and preserver of civilization. Business men have built up every great nation,
and they never yet destroyed one.
This is a fact for those shallow scribblers to think about who sneer and gibe in books
and the daily Press at Trade and commerce.
There were no business men among monkeys. That is why they remained monkeys.
But there were plenty of chatterers. (April 1928/58)
We can make business a little more palatable by serving it up with a little fun sauce.
(April 1928/25)
If you would have MAGIC KNOWLEDGE- learn Salesmanship. (Feb 1928/34)
To sell on price –that is not salesmanship at all. Nobody needs to learn salesmanship
to sell a guinea for twenty shillings. (Oct 1935/7)
No salesman knows it all. That is the glorious thing about salesmanship –there is
never an end to it. Every week we can learn something new or acquire some new
ability. (Oct 1935/14)
There are few hard-headed old-fashioned business men who are indifferent to a blunt
£ s.d.talk. So push your machine as a profit-maker. (Oct 1935/14)
One of the pleasures in life is collecting things. Some people collect stamps, books,
antiques, cards, and so on.
We can have this pleasure in business life too, and COLLECT CUSTOMERS.
This is really what the game of business consists of, collecting customers. That is why
advertising and salesmanship are of such value to us. (Oct 1935/25)
Every salesman ought to have a sense of humour. The salesman who has none is like
a bird without feathers. (Feb 1927/38)
Fair Customer: “Of course, I want my shoes to be plenty large enough, but at the same
time they must look smart and neat, you know.”
Salesman: - ‘I understand perfectly, madam. You want them large inside and small
outside. I have just what you require. (Oct 1935/66)
Salesmanship is the art of getting in touch with a possible customer and helping him
to buy what he needs. (Oct 1935/36)
32
During the next ten years a score of men will very likely make their fortunes selling
electrical devices to the public. (Sept 1927/52)
Anyone would think that life insurance is the easiest thing in the world to sell. Yet the
fact remains that nothing else is as HARD to sell as life insurance.
Have you ever seen a queue of buyers at the door of a life insurance office?
(May 1932/39)
The test of a sales man is the way in which he meets sales resistance. If there were no
sales resistance, salesmen would not be needed. (Sept 1927/28)
The steady job of an ambitious salesman is to beat his yesterdays. Concentrate on
Today, and there will surely be a good week. (Oct 1935/30)
Business goes where it is invited. How to attract the favorable attention of people who
have money to spend that is what a business man must think about every day of his
life.
Business comes or goes. To all efficient firms and shops it COMES. (Nov 1936/34)
The telephone may be a means of either getting business or losing it. As no firm knows
how much it is losing careless telephoning, the whole matter is likely to be neglected.
(Nov 1936/45)
During the last few centuries many a beneficent reform or improvement has been
started by a BOOK. Yet some business men are still so stupid as to say: - “I don’t read
books” (Nov 1936/42)
An immediate sale is a temporary advantage, but a satisfied customer is a permanent
asset. (Oct 1928/11)
Price is a pendulum. If you push it, it swings back. (Oct 1928/12)
Profit is the bull’s eye of any business. It is what every man must aim at. Business
does not mean making goods, nor selling goods, nor transporting goods. It means
making a net profit. (April 1928/56)
If there is a loss of two shillings in the cash, we make a fuss about it, but in many
business, two shillings is wasted every half hour, and nobody pays attention to it.
(Nov1936/16)
No goods are sold until they are paid for. The efficiency of a credit salesman is decided
by the percentage of bad debts he makes, as well as by the amount of his sales.
(May 1930/50)
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Sales people should be told the WHY of every high price. They must be sold on their
own goods, or they will put their own doubts into the minds of customers.
(Oct 1928/13)
Every business man would do well to think (not worry) about competition for a least
one hour a day. Competition can never be ignored, not even by the largest firms. It is
opposition. The best way to meet competition is to use the new methods FIRST. Don’t
be a trailer. Beat your competitors in initiative. Make them take your dust once in a
while (May 1930/62)
Almost all poets and artists and professional religionists point to money as a “root of
all evil”. This is silly MONEY ISNO MORE EVIL THAN SUNSHINE. Must be abolish the
sun because, now and then, some person is sunstruck?
(Feb 1927/39)
Nothing counts but ACTION. Talk is only a tool. There is no purpose in talk, in the
business world, unless it leads to things being done.
(Sept 1927/16)
In business life, most of the small men are indifferent to the big men, or they sneer at
them and say it was a matter of luck. But the wise ones study the big ones and
determine that someday they, too, will be big. (Sept 1927/18)
The man with the most nerve makes the most money. We will have too much caution.
We play safe and lose by it. (Sept 1927/16)
Keep Trying. The greater part of every business man’s life is made up of trying things,
to see whether they will work or not. Perhaps nine out of ten fail, but the tenth may
make him rich and famous. (Sept 1927/33)
Don’t Hesitate. Hesitation may be a virtue among philosophers, but it is a dangerous
thing in business (Oct 1928/30)
How can a man who hasn’t the courage to look a sheep in the face be a successful
salesman?
The answer is- he can’t. He should keep out of the selling game. As well might a
cripple try and play football.
(Oct 1928/57)
There is plenty of money to be made in a small shop. I know of small shops making a
£1000 a year. But they are run by skilled men, not amateurs.
34
If an unskilled retailer has £600, he had better put it into a Building Society and get
£30 a year for the rest of his life, rather than start a small shop.
(Oct 1928/13)
Bespoke Insurance. There are as many kinds of insurance as there are kinds of
clothes, and every man ought to be fitted.
(Oct 1928/45)
Anything is cheaper than losing good customers (Oct 1928/58)
In business the main thing is not SIZE, but EFFICIENCY. No small independent
retailer need to be afraid of his big competitors, if he and his assistants give pleasing
efficient service to their customers.
(Nov 1938/11)
Business is the most important of all our activities. It is the foundation of civilization.
There is nothing more moral and beneficial and creative and uplifting than good
business. This fact for statesmen to think about.
(May 1934/24)
When people are hostile to business, it is because they do not understand it. They are
ignorant.
Even in Britain, with its greatness founded on its trades and industries, there are still
many literary people and government officials who think there is something sinister
and sordid in business.
(Oct 1941/29)
Many a business man is “working like a slave” when, if he would only stop and learn
and plan, he could spend half as much energy, and make more money.
(June 1935/12)
If there is any man who should study Efficiency and read books on Salesmanship and
Window Display, it is the small shopkeeper. (June 1935/12)
Every husband can testify to the almost-irresistible power of window displays. Few
husbands can predict what their wives will bring home from a shopping expedition.
(May 1934/13)
There are some men going around as salesmen, who can expose themselves to
business all day long, and never catch it.
They are salesmen who can’t close a sale. (May 1934/25)
35
Why is it that ironmongers are slow to take up any new thing in their line? Why have
they allowed themselves to lose so much trade to department stores, specialty shops
and direct selling?
As everyone knows, they showed no interest in vacuum cleaners, washing machines,
and refrigerators. They should have sold all three. They lost these three chances to
make good profits. (May 1934/31)
No business man has a creative brain that he can think everything out for himself. If
he thinks he can, then he is simply deceiving himself. (June 1935/24)
You may have white hair yourself, or no hair at all, but your business need not be
white –haired nor bald headed. (June 1935/10)
Almost all ironmongers’ windows look alike. They need new things to live them up and
attract the attention of passers –by. (May 1934/31)
Is there not a Grand Opera class of men in business life men who have studied and
developed their abilities, and learned the many techniques that a business should
know? To learn how to create a good voice is a much simpler matter than to learn how
to make good steady profits, but, as yet, this fact is not generally recognized.
(June 1935/28)
Listening to a possible customer is profitable. There is no doubt about that. Use more
ear and less tongue, and there will be more orders. (June 1935/7)
Right selling is a continuous process, every sale is a link in a long chain. One
pleasant sale leads to another. When a sale is made rudely and indifferently, then a
link in the chain is broken. Next time that customer buys elsewhere.
(June 1935/6)
Always in buying shares, the first thing to look at is the “Yield”, because it shows
whether the men in control of the company are EFFICIENT or not. When a man bets
by means of the Stock Exchange, he should put his money on the profit-makers.
(June 1935/38)
Many a son comes back from a University quite unfitted to enter business life.
Everyone knows that. A wise business man prevents this by taking a hand in the
education of his son. (June 1935/33)
Every business man should be on the look-out for ideas from other trades. He should
have his own business in mind when he reads his newspaper, and when he is
travelling or walking on the streets.
A keen business man is always looking for ideas that he can adopt and use to improve
his own methods. (Aug 1933/28)
36
In business it usually pays best to be the biggest toad in a small puddle than to be one
of many toads in a big puddle. (Jan 1938/29)
Many a man thinks he has a business, when the truth is that all he has got is a
headache. To make net profits, he needs specialized knowledge, not aspirins.
(Jan 1938/39)
If you want to win the goodwill of a man- if you want to sell him goods or services – cut
out your autobiographical talk and encourages him to talk about HIMSELF.
(Feb 1938/40)
When a salesman does his best and fails to get an order, he should bring the interview
to close to quickly, on a note of good humour and friendliness. He should act in such
a way that he will be welcome when he comes again. (Feb1938/41)
The amount of profitless activity that goes on in the business world is beyond belief.
No one knows how much it is. Better spend a day or two looking into your Profitless
Activities. (Feb 1937/21)
The net profit of every retailer depends, upon EFFICIENT BUYING and EFFICIENT
SELLING. (Sept 1933/13)
There are thousands of untrained salesmen- legs without heads- sales-preventers,
bungling up and down with samples, and making less money than bus-drivers.
(Sept 1933/16)
In business life there have always been obstacles. There are obstacles today. And there
always will be obstacles. Business me have always been robbed by every sort of
Government that has ever been invented. Formerly they were robbed by Kings and
Generals but a way was found to stop it. Eventually, a way will be found to stop the
present method of robbery. Business has always been an obstacle race. There have
always been risks and dangers.
That is why the strong men have always risen to the top in business and why the
weaklings have faded out. (Sept 1933/33)
HUMOUR is the lubricating oil of business. It prevents friction. It wins goodwill.
(Sept1933/34)
If I were flour salesmen, I think I would try to sell MYSELF, rather than my flour.
Bakers think they know all about flour, so I would not try to teach them. Instructing a
baker is like trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs.
(Sept 1933/48)
Many a man could overcome his business troubles if he could see the difference
between worrying and thinking. I would not say that every trouble can be overcome by
37
thinking, but I would say this-every trouble is made worse by worrying and most
troubles can be made less, or got rid of, by THINKING.
(Aug 1933/8)
Window Displays. It doesn’t pay to pinch pennies on your window displays. They
advertise the goods at the point-of-sale.
People passing the window are out to buy. The problem is to stop them and to bring
them into the shop.
(Aug. 1933/12)
Women are better WANTERS than men. A salesman selling to women should take it
for granted that they want to buy. (Aug 1933/17)
No firm is safe to-day unless it is teachable – unless it is constantly on the quest for
new ideas and methods-unless its persistent purpose is to IMPROVE.
(Aug 1933/13)
Always Sell Your Company. Salesmen and shop assistants may often fail to sell their
goods, but they should always sell their Company.
By this I mean, they should be so friendly and courteous that a favorable impression
will be created in the minds of the people they meet. (Aug 1933/17)
What every business needs is more enthusiasm. There are too many men with hard
“business faces” at the top, and too many employees who are “fed up” in the rank and
file. (Aug 1933/29)
Most retailers are only half-awake as to the money making possibilities of window
display. They do not put their windows to work. (Aug 1933/35)
There are two things hard to secure from bank managers- the other is information.
(Aug 1933/49)
The earliest thing in business is to lose your money. (Aug 1933/45)
When a man loses his money he has to set out to make more. Sitting still and biting
his nails will do him no good. (Aug 1933/49)
Any man who thinks he knows everything about his business is living in a Fool’s
paradise. He may be totally blind to many obvious defects, wastes, and loses in his
business. (Jan 1938/5)
A skilled expert costs nothing. He comes in, increases the profits and gets about ten
percent of what he makes for his client. (Jan 1938/8)
38
“I”, “Me”, and “My” .Practically every man enjoys talking about himself. This is very
important fact for salesmen to remember.
It is as true of Prime Ministers and all other rich or famous people as it is of the rank
and file. Two Cabinet Ministers sitting in a taxi are probably talking about themselves,
and so are two labourers sitting in a pub.
We are all self–centered, far more than we know. (Jan 1938/12)
Get more nearby customers. The nearby trade is a bit more profitable than the far-
away trade. (Jan1938/17)
Take all the men over fifty out of the business world and our industrial and
commercial activities would stagger to a standstill. (Jan1938/ 23)
Trying to fool people is a mug’s game. It does success for a time, but sooner or later it
brings more losses than gains. (Jan 1938/21)
It is a strange fact that business men are so slow to appreciate Science. It is a still
stranger fact that the mass of wage-workers do not appreciate it. (Nov 1928/5)
I know some of our old Companies, and so do you, that ought to be rebuilt from
basement to chimney-pot. (Nov 1928/15)
There may be a man somewhere who is sure he could not have made more money if he
had gone into some other business. There may be such a man, but I have never met
him. Most men belong to the “If-Only-I-Had” Club. (Nov 1928/24)
There are too many anchored sales Managers. Anchored to a comfy chair at a big
desk. Half of the things that many Sales Managers do could be done by girls or clerks.
Real Sales Manager dashes out every now and then and get orders. He runs to the
help of a traveler doing badly. He is here, there, and everywhere. He is dynamic, not
static. (Nov 1928/25)
It strikes me that many of the business men I meet need to have their faces lifted.
They cannot go to a beauty parlour, but they can take a brighter view of life.
(Nov 1928/28)
In selling we are compelled to think of the Many, not the Few. (Nov 1928/44)
When a shop praises the institutions of its town, it educates people in good citizenship
and makes new friends. (Nov 1928/45)
The man who worships before the shrine of price is merely cutting his own profits and
helping to demoralize his trade. (Nov 1928/51)
39
Business men must learn to do their own jobs. Why should we squawk to the
Government whenever a big job needs to be done? (Nov 1928/55)
The really great men learn from business books. The small one says: - “I have no time
to read.” (Nov 1928/59)
There is no salesmanship in selling at a loss (Nov 1928/66)
There is not one firm in Britain that sends its travellers around on horseback, in the
manner of one hundred years ago. But there are thousands of firms that still send out
business letters written in the old formal style that was originated in stage-coach days.
Stage-coach letters. We all receive them every week written in legalistic jargon.
(Aug 1938/15)
The only people who really appreciate the value of paint are the ship owners. No ship
ever suffers from a lack of paint. (Aug 1938/16)
I have found that most designers are too modest and self-effacing. They plod away in
the working-rooms producing designs, and seldom meet the Directors of their firms.
This is true of industrial chemists too.
A designer has a right to do a bit to advertiser himself to call attention to the
profitableness of his work. (Aug 1938/30)
The tendency of private ownership is not to make a few rich at the expense of the mass
of people, but widely to distribute ownership (Aug 38/30)
Now that we have so many specialists, it should not be forgotten that the all-round
man is still the most useful of all in the business world.
The man who can see the job as a whole- his opinion is likely to be more valuable than
the opinion of the specialist. (Aug 1938/31)
In its percentage of book-readers, Great Britain is far behind a few Countries. And in
its percentage of book BUYERS, it is still further behind.
As a guess, I would say that only about ten percent of the business men in Britain
own more than a score of books. (Aug 1938/32)
Scores-hundreds-of manufacturers are trying to sell high-grade goods by means of
low-grade dealers – dealers who know little about salesmanship, advertising, a and
window display. (Aug 1938/32)
How to increase the SELLING POWER of window displays- that is what every keen
retailer will study in the near future. (July 1933/8)
40
A salesman reaches the highest point of efficiency when his customers regard him as
an adviser and an authority. When he becomes the Consultant of his customers, he
will have no lack of orders. (July 1933/30)
The one sure way to get new capital is to make a good profit with the capital you have.
An efficient firm can always get more capital than it can use. The banks are bursting
with capital for profit-makers. (July 1933/37)
A customer who doesn’t pay his debts to retailers is practically a thief. He has taken
away things that do not belong to him. It is time that this was clearly understood.
(Dec 1933/20)
Everything depends on the likability of the little shopkeeper. If a friendly, smiling man
or woman is standing in the doorway of the little shop, it will be attractive.
But if a dead duck is sitting in the back of the shop thousands of people may pass the
door and not one go in. (Dec 1933/29)
Why don’t the fruit people educate the public as to the value of lemons? The sale of
lemons could be doubled if people only knew how necessary they are to keep us in
good health. (Dec 1933/49)
Sometimes a firm’s heaviest loss is when it loses one young man-a young man who
afterwards becomes a competent Business-Builder. (Sept 1938/8)
There is no standardized amount of capital required to start any line of business. But
there is this general rule the more efficient a man is, the less capital he needs.
(Sept 1938/9)
Seeing the other fellow gets his money’s worth – that is a shrewd business policy.
(Sept 1938/14)
There is no truth in the old saying:” Speech is silver and silence is golden.” It is
effective talk that increases the profits (Aug 1938/44)
No business man should undervalue the arts of conversation and public speaking. A
great part of business depends on talk. (Sept 1938/31)
No salesman ever got rich by selling discounts. (July 1933/8)
A man must read books on his business, not only to learn the new ideas and methods,
but to remind him of what he has forgotten and of knowledge that he has never used.
(June1936/ 10)
The body needs three meals a day in order to keep up its health and strength. Well,
then, what does the brain need?
41
There is a brain –twister for those stuck-in-the-rut men who say they don’t need
business books and magazines. The fact is that the brain needs information and
stimulation just as much as the body needs food. (June 1936/10)
When a man is building a business, he must remember that at the same time he is
building HIMSELF. He should be a home-maker and a friend-maker as well as a
money-maker. He must think of the human values, as well as of the £ s.d. Then he
will enjoy his money. (June 1936/35)
The most important truth that this generation is learning, at a staggering cost, is this:
- There are no Substitutes for Business Men.
What a Professor knows about business could be written on a post- card.
(June 1936/39)
It is the CREATIVE work that makes a business grow. (Feb 1938/7)
Even in a business letter there can be a personal touch. There can be little P.S. of
friendship. (Aug 1938/42)
The most harmful idea that can come into the mind of a shop assistant is that a
customer is a nuisance. (April 1938/8)
The longer I live, the more it seems to me that carelessness is one of the most costly
bad habits in the business world.
Carelessness is not a crime, bit it often has a bad results as a crime. None of us
should forget this. (April 1938/9)
The shop assistant is, as a rule, the weakest link in the long chain of production and
distribution. (April 1938/11)
Every man who earns his living must study how to sell either his goods or his services.
The stockbroker and the architect must do this as well as the retailer and
manufacturer. (Oct 1938/5)
A salesman should show his high – priced goods with confidence. A higher-priced
article is usually worth more than the price, this can seldom be said of a low –quality
article. (Oct 1938/10)
Many a man says that his business is in trouble, when the fact is that the trouble is in
the man’s mind.
No matter how bad a plight a business may be in, there is always something that can
be done AT ONCE. (Oct 1938/11)
42
Many of the successful salesmen talk very little. They let the customer do more than
half of the talking but they steer the interview straight towards an order.
(Oct 1938/11)
A salesman’s talk should never be a ready-made talk. It should be a made-to-measure
talk.
During the interview he should mention at least one fact or idea or news item that his
customer can use. (Oct 1938/36)
The right way to regard customers is to capitalise them. Then we can see clearly what
a serious matter it is to lose a regular customer. (Oct 1938/61)
We might say that in every business man’s brain there are three lights-red, amber,
and green-stop, get ready, go. And in many a brain the green light is not working.
There seems to be many too many “Stop” brains in the business world. (Feb 1934/24)
Little rudenesses and stupidities. They explain why so many customers are lost.
(Feb 1938/28)
A depressed anxious–looking man met a cheerful friend. “What the matter with
you?”asked the friend. ‘My business is worrying me “. said Doleful Dick. “You’re quiet
wrong,” replied the cheerful one. ‘It is you that is worrying the business.”
Cheerfulness and good humour will add a lot to the profits of any business.
(Feb 1934/29)
Whenever you lose a good customer, hold as INQUEST. (Feb 1934/34)
One of the most costly wastes in the business world is when a hard job is planned and
carried out by an amateur instead of by an expert.
Is this done often? Yes, it is. It is as common as a cold in the head.
Even the largest firms make this mistake. And the silly side of it is that it is done on
the grounds of economy. (June 1937/7)
The first thing a small retailer should aim at is to make enough net profit to pay him
for his work.
The second thing he should aim at is to have little surplus of capital in the bank. What
does most to make any business safe is RESERVES. (June 1937/10)
The matter of this inside display is very important to all retailers. The modern idea of a
shop is that it is an Exhibition, not a warehouse.
It will pay almost every retailer to spend a couple of hours walking through his shop
and figuring out what percentage of his goods is invisible. (Feb 1936/6)
43
Most businesses, small as well as large, are run to a more or less degree in the dark.
The work of the people in the office is to turn on the light- to gather the figures and
turn them into percentage.
Many a business has come to a sticky end because the people in the office did not
turn on the light (Feb 1936/7)
A tip that anyone, in or out of the business world will find useful is-WHEN BUYING,
CONSIDER RESALE. (Feb 1936/16)
Many a man has climber to the top in the business world just because of this one
thing- he was AGREEABLE.
It is also true that many a man, with much more knowledge and ability, has failed
mainly because people classified him as disagreeable man.
To be even-tempered and friendly – that is a big asset to any business man. It wins
him goodwill. (Feb 1936/34)
I would advise every radio dealer to look into the efficiency of his repair department.
(Feb 1936/42)
Whenever any of us who have businesses are inclined to be self-satisfied, that word
“percentage” will soon take the complacency out of us.
It is always profitable to think of the customers we HAVEN’T got. That spurs us on to a
new campaign of customer-finding. (Feb 1936/43)
The buyer’s mind is the raw material out of which sales are manufactured.
(Feb 1936/43)
It is still true that the shop assistant is the bottle-neck of retailing. Efficient buying
and effective advertising are not enough. The sales people must know their goods and
how to sell them. (Feb 1936/44)
Any business man, who reads no books except “thrillers” to pass the time away,
should start the habit of reading biographies. Some of these are thrilling enough.
To read the biography of a strongman who overcame his difficulties gives us a push
forward and puts iron into our blood. (June 1937/36)
There is no sex in life insurance. The wonder is that there are not more women
salesmen, when you think what insurance means to women and children.
(June 1937/36)
There are two kinds of trifles- those we cannot afford to overlook, and those we cannot
afford to notice.
44
When we say a man is “fussy” we mean that he wastes time on the small things that
don’t matter.
A “fussy” man usually neglects the important matters. He worries because some
employee has broken a window, but he does not notice how many customers he lost
last year.
A thing is important according to its consequences. A small discourtesy to a regular
customer is not a small matter. (June 1937/44)
A “trailer” is a poor vehicle that has no engine. It is dragged behind a superior vehicle.
Many people in the business world are ‘trailers”. They have no initiative. They make no
suggestions. They only do what they are told and as little as possible usually.
When a depression comes along, they are the first to be laid off. The poor “trailers”.
Everyone at the top of a business must think ahead. He must make plans or else the
whirligig of time will often put him in a mess. (Feb 1932/47)
It is a curios fact that when business is bad in a trade, the salesmen seem to shrivel
up. They become pygmies. They lack the nerve to go after a big order, and they become
penny –chasers. They concentrate on the small orders they believe they can get. This
is a weak mistake, they would be wiser to go after big orders. (Feb 1932/45)
Business is not the whole of civilization. But it is the solid foundation upon which a
civilization can be built. Business takes in all the useful people of a country. It does
not include manufacturers and retailers only.
Farmers are business men, though few of them are aware of it. So are the architects
and doctors and dentists and bankers and commercial artists.
The whole structure of our civilization is upheld by the profits made by the business
men. (Jan 1933/13)
The basis of FINANCE is the ability of business men to make NET PROFIT on capital
(Jan 1933/25)
A multiple-shop company pays close attention to many things that the average
independent shopkeeper neglects. But there is no good reason why an independent
shopkeeper cannot hold his own against the competition of multiple shops.
It is a matter of efficiency not size. (Jan 1933/32)
When a Company fails to make a net profit, it has come to an end as a business. It is,
strictly speaking, something else for which we have no name.
45
It is neither a business nor a bankruptcy. It fits in between the two, and is moving
towards bankruptcy.
A business is as enterprise, dealing in goods or services, carried on for net profit.
(Jan 1933/42)
Get the “Inside Profits”. By “inside profits “we mean the extra money that can be made
by economy, better equipment, and good management. It means hammering down the
costs.
These “inside profits” are net, not gross. They go to make the dividends larger.
(Jan 1933/43)
No matter what your business is, you make more profits this year if you can improve
the human element in it.
In every business it is the human element that is defective. (May 1933/11)
Sometimes a business that is being run badly requires a surgical operation. Someone
must be cut out of it. (May 1933/24)
Is it not true that in most multiple-shop Companies there is too much centralization?
It is not true that most branch shop managers are compelled to pester the Head Office
with petty matters that they should attend to themselves?
A hundred shops cannot be run in the same way as a one-man shop.
What most multiple-shop Companies lack is the encouragement of initiative. If you
doubt this, ask any branch shop manager. (May 1933/36)
We have formed the habit of using the word “cheap” to express low prices.
Strictly speaking, a Rolls-Royce is cheap. It is said that no Rolls-Royce has ever yet
worn out.
If we divide the price of a motor-car by the number of years of its service, we find out
its real cost.
An eight-guinea suit of clothes may cost less per year than a low-price suit. Everyone
knows that.
The word “cheapness” is a good word misused. It ought to mean value. But in most
cases to-day it means price only. (May 1933/38)
Sticking it. In a quarter-mile, a runner runs the first 220 yards on his wind and the
last 220 yards on his nerve and grit. It is the last half of the race that decides the
winner.
46
So it is in business life. Many a man has lost his wind, but is carrying on with his
nerve and grit. He is sticking it (May 1933/50)
If I were to make a three-word speech to commercial travelers and specialty salesmen,
I would say:-“MAKE MORE CALLS.”
Every salesman is put on his honour to make the best use of his time. He is not
supervised. (Jan 1934/7)
At present, the business world is a jumble of amateurs and professionals, but the
amateurs are being weed out. So, if we see the crudities and deceptions and big-drum
methods in business, that only means that we have not yet got clear of amateurism.
Already the men who are at the top of their companies to-day are, almost without
exception, men who are STUDENTS of business. They have acquired skill and
knowledge. They have become professionals. (Jan1934/8)
Never before was there as much fair dealing in business life as there is to0day. Never
before were there as few “tricks of the trade”. Never before was business on as high a
level.
As to wages there is no comparison between the “good old times” and to-day. A
resurrected Victorian would be stunned to see our play-rolls. (Jan 1934/9)
Plenty of electric light is not an expense. It is a profit maker. It is darkness that costs
money. (Jan 1934/36)
Plenty of men come to me write to me concerning their business troubles. And the
more I learn about these troubles, the more it seems to me that a man’s main causes
of trouble are under his hat.
They do not know that difficulties are the joy of life that is what a man’s life is for-to
overcome difficulties.
That is how all good profits are made –by tacking difficulties and mastering them.
(Jan 1934/16)
It goes without saying that every business man should carry a good watch. There is as
much difference in watches as there is in motor-cars.
Watches are being sold in Great Britain by retailers who know nothing about watches.
Naturally, this doesn’t help the sale of the best watches. (Jan 1934/28)
What with the Co-ops and the pedlars and the church sales and the door-to-door
salesmen, a retailer trader has his fill of competition.
There is no such thing, in my opinion, as perfect buying. Every buyer make mistakes.
47
Good buying depends upon some things that the buyer can’t control-outside
influences, price movements etc. But at the same time, the buyer must remember that
there are many things that he CAN control. (Jan 1934/44)
Likability doesn’t cost a penny, and a small shop can have plenty of it. people go
where they like to go. That is the big fact for every small shopkeeper to remember.
Many of the most successful retailers in Great Britain started in very small shops. But
they learned how to run them. (Mar. 1934/7)
The man who sells life insurance is called a salesman, but the fact is that he is really
an investment broker. He is not selling goods. He does not take a penny from his
customers. He sells money for future delivery. (Mar 1934/17)
It is better to concentrate on profit-making than on small economies. Penny-pinching
doesn’t pay. It doesn’t pay to buy cheap suits, or to walk two miles to save bus-fares,
on to have an n old dingy board for sign, or to use worn-out typewriters, or to hire the
cheapest boys in town.
Once a man concentrates on profit-making, he can afford to buy what he needs.
(Mar 1934/34)
Every eminent man should protect his name. He should not accept a position as
Director of any company that is not sound and well-established, or under his control.
Many men of title, who need money, have allowed their names to be used by unreliable
company promoters. And some of the proudest names in England have been dragged
in the dirt. (Mar 1934/38)
British business men should give a better support to the daily or weekly papers of
their own towns. In America they do. They do not take the New York dailies. They read
their own papers and support them by advertising. This is a wise policy.
(Mar 1934/42)
Everyman is a buyer. We know that. It is also true that every man is a seller. He sells
either goods or services.
The point that I want to make is that every man, no matter what his job is, should
study buying and selling.
How to win the favourable attention of others –how to persuade them to take the
action you desire-this is a most useful knowledge to anyone. (April 1934/21)
Imagination Creates Fortunes.There is many a competent business man who lacks just
one ingredient. He lacks imagination.
For lack of it, he remains a small business man all his life. He can see only what is in
front of his eyes. He cannot see the possibilities of his business. (April 1934/30)
48
There is many business man who has a big bump of caution. Really, it so big it ought
to be hammered in.
Caution, if I may say so, is a good virtue when a man is going too fast; but is it not a
virtue at all when he is stuck. (April 1934/45)
The only sure way to make a shop pay is to learn the new ideas and methods, and
study efficiency.
Most shops are run by men who don’t know how to run them. It is as easy to beat
them as to take toffee from a baby.
The worst of it is-they are UNTEACHABLE. They won’t buy any business book or
magazine. They wouldn’t read one if it was given them.
Any shopkeeper who learns the new ideas and methods of efficiency can make his
shop pay, even if he has a dozen such competitors in his street. (June 1934/14)
In most firms, I dare say, the highest cost is the cost of NOT doing business.
This is never figured out. It is intangible. No firm knows how much it is, but in most
cases if it were known, it would be staggering. (June 1934/29)
Many a gold miner has dug to within two or three feet of the gold and then stopped
digging. And many a scheme or a business has failed for lack of the last little push.
Better give one more push and see what happens. Nothing is really tried until you try
it with all the knowledge, energy and persistence that you possess. Have one more go
and you may succeed. (June 1934/37)
Every man in either business or professional life should take a keen interest in the
wants and opinions of the people from whom he gets his money.
This is a simple definition of “Market Research”. Every man, whether he is a parson or
an engineer, must cater to his market. (July 1934/6)
In Great Britain, we have silly literary writers and playwrights who attack profit as
though it were a kind of robbery
The simple plain truth is that profits are well-earned by efficiency and hard work.
Would anyone say that a shopkeeper does not work for his profit? Or a manufacturer?
Also, those who take pay in profits take risks that men do not take who get wages and
salaries. They may work hard for a year and get nothing. (July 1934/35)
The main object of a shopkeeper in a small town should be to give his customers a
PERSONAL INTEREST in his shop. (Aug 1934/7)
49
No retail shop knows how much it loses because of this one rudeness-the Indifferent
Stare. When a possible customer approaches a shop assistant and is met by an
Indifferent Stare, that is a bad beginning.
Every day tens of thousands of women who are not well-dressed are insulted in this
way in shops. That is an inexcusable fact and retailers should put an end to it.
The correct first step in the making of a sale is a friendly welcome to the customer.
Shop assistants who will not learn this should get jobs in factories.
It is a Business-Destroyer-the Indifferent Stare. (Aug 1934/35)
Many salesmen are like ninepins. They are bowled over by the first “No”. They stand
up bravely until they get hit. Then down they go.
The fact is there must be an element of persistence in a salesman who sells goods that
are not self-selling.
No matter how pleasant an interview has been, to go out without an order means
FAILURE. (Sept 1934/8)
It is said that a tortoise, which has practically no brain at all, will walk against a hot
poker over and over again and never learn to avoid it.
There are men in the business world who are like tortoises. They will persist in
following the wrong policy year after year, until their businesses come to an end.
(Sept 1934/12)
All manner of people set out to give advice or service to us in the business world. And
a good many of them are like the pedlar who sells a book on ‘A Hundred Ways to
Money”. (Sept 1934/12)
There are quite a few good old businesses in England, so it seems, waiting for a
grandson. (Sept 1934/32)
It is amazing how many small shops there are still that have less than HALF enough
light. There are hundreds of the older factories and mills, too, that are as dim as
caves.
People are attracted by light just as moths are. They simply do not see a badly lit
shop. (Sept 1934/45)
A motor-car skidded and ran into a shop window, completely shattering it. Several
minutes later the shopkeeper put up a big sign in the window-‘Use the door, please.”
(Sept 1934/50)
Just as a neglected garden is soon full of weeds so is a neglected company soon full of
slackers and parasites. (Mar 1935/6)
50
When a store uses price-tickets only, it tells passers-by what they are going to lose,
but when it uses talk-cards it tells them what they are going GET. Why don’t retailers
see the point? (Jan 1935/16)
A sales talk is like a wedge. It ought to be thin-end first, not thick –end first. The thick
end means getting the order. (Jan 1936/22)
Most shop assistants know that it takes longer to sell to two people than to one
person. When a wife goes shopping with her husband, she is likely to make the final
decisions.
Every shop assistant should remember this.
At first, the husband may probably do the talking, but the wife is sure to have the last
word.
When a woman comes in with a woman friend, the shop assistant should pay the
same attention to both. The friend may speak the deciding word.
If the friend is ignored, she is likely to say something that will stop the sale.
(Jan 1935/25)
We have now become so accustomed to advertisements that many of us read them
with dull eyes.
What many a business man loses by reading advertisements with dull eyes is far more
than he will ever know. Advertising is business news. There may be something new in
office equipment that will save a man £ 100 a year. He looks at the advertisement with
gazed eyes and loses £ 100 a year.
There may be a Course of Study which is exactly what a young man needs to start him
on his way up the ladder of promotion, but he looks at it with dead eyes and remains
in the rank and file.
There may be new services, chances to reduce costs, chances to acquire money-
making machinery. To read advertisements is the quickest, easiest way to find out
what is new in goods and services, and that is something that every business man
should know. (Jan 1935/33)
A Research man says that the average man remembers only one-tenth of what he
hears, and three-tenths of what he sees. It is therefore three times more effective to
sell to the eye. (Jan 1935/49)
A customer is a GUEST, not a “gate–crasher”. Every customer is an INVITED GUEST.
No shop assistant should ever forget that. (Jan 1935/54)
51
When a business man is helped and cheered on by his wife, he goes out into the
business world as strong as a lion. And when he is nagged and worried, he goes out
like a rabbit.
To keep a husband in the right humour to make the most of himself and his business-
that is a large part of the technique of wifehood. A good wife earns her full share of the
family fortune. (Jan 1935/59)
Chemist:-“Yes, sir, this one bottle of lotion will cure your rheumatism.”
Customer: - “You speak very definitely. How can you be sure?”
Chemist: - ‘Well, I’ve noticed that people who buy it never come back for a second
bottle.” (March 1935/29)
A shopkeeper should have a correct idea as to his shop. He should know if it is in first
place or tenth place in his street, or town. He should not fool himself.
If there are ten shops competing with his, he should go and have a look at those
shops. It will pay him to go in and buy something in every competing shop.
He should fairly COMPARE his shop with the other shops that compare with him
(Feb 1935/7)
Here is a fact that should be sent by radio into the homes of business men: - WHEN
THE MAN AT THE HEAD OF A BUSINESS DOES NOT HIMSELF GROW, HIS
BUSINESS IS IN DANGER.
How often do we see a business go up like a rocket and come down like a stick. Why
did it come down?
It came down because the man at the top was not big enough to handle it when it
grew.
Big jobs require big men. At least, in the business world they do. A small man may
remain in a high position in politics, but in business he will go down.
No matter whether you are making little money or much, the most important thing in
the world to you is YOURSELF. (Feb 1935/10
Every salesman of equipment should remember that often a sale is made after a dozen
“Noes”. (Feb 1935/19)
Ever since I entered business life, I have had my pals – people whom I have helped and
who have helped me.
The man who has no pals, no matter how strong he is adds to his difficulties and
subtracts from his happiness.
52
A little group of five or six men, in any town, can help one another along the road to
success. Six brains are better than one.
Success and happiness, both, depend more upon having pals than upon any other one
thing. No man-hater goes far in the hurly-burly of life.
One of the greatest of all Business-Building forces is Friendship. And friendship
means helping one another. The man who wants to make money happily must have
his PALS. (Feb 1935/23)
Success doesn’t happen. It is CAUSED. Back of every good Balance Sheet you will find
a good man or a group of good men.
It is safe to say that not in one case out case out of fifty is success accidental. If
success is caused by luck, it will almost certainly be followed by failure.
Why? Because there is no such thing as STEADY good luck. Luck changes. Every one
of the gamblers at Monte Carlo has discovered that. A keen business man spends
much of his time creating CAUSES of success. He knows that success has to be built
up, just as house has to be built up. A house doesn’t happen. It is designed and
constructed. And so is the success of business. (Feb 1935/24)
The fact is that no other salesman is more useful to the public than the furniture
salesman. His work is to make homes more comfortable and attractive.
It is amazing how many well-dresses women go back to shabby homes. It is amazing
how many well-to-do men never give a thought to the worn-out stuff that fills their
homes.
A man will trade in his motor-car every two years to get the latest model, and then go
home and sit obliviously on a 1910 couch. (Feb 1935/39)
It is very likely that there are three hundred thousand men and women in Great
Britain who once had shops and who could not make them pay.
No shopkeeper can make his shop pay and keep going unless he knows his business.
And he does not know his business unless he has learned it from someone who was
successful, or from books and magazines (April 1935/12)
A shopkeeper begins to take control of himself and his business when he sets a value
on his time; and when he begins to put his least important jobs on others.
(April 1935/18)
Fashion is one of the most effective influences in maintaining prices. Every retailer
should know that. (April 1935/22)
53
A business man might very well spend a whole year studying self-development; a
second year studying salesmanship; a third studying advertisement and window
display; and a fourth year studying management.
This idea will probably be generally accepted in the next century. (April 1935/23)
Proprietor: - “You know how to serve customers?”
Applicant: - “Yes, sir, I can serve ‘em either way.”
Proprietor: - “What do you mean- either way”
Applicant: - ‘So’s they’ll come back, or so’s they won’t (April 1935/50)
It is a wise rule in business to pay special attention to those from whom we receive the
most money.
Many a customer is worth £40 a year in profit to a business. That is the interest at five
percent on £800.
Certainly, we should make some special effort to keep our £800 customers. To lose
one of them is a heavy loss. Many a business makes fifty percent of its net profit from
ten to fifteen percent of its customers. That is a vital point that should never be
forgotten. (May 1935/9)
Every salesman meets objections from possible customers. Some are easy to answer
and some are not. It is a big part of a salesman’s work to answer objections. And
salesmen should bear in mind that if there were no objections, salesman would not be
needed at all. (May 1935/14)
As far as our own businesses are concerned, we can MAKE good news. The good news
we make will not be printed in the daily press, but it will be made known in the
Balance Sheets. (May 1935/23)
Why do so many otherwise sensible business men keep on dictating their letters in an
obsolete, semi-legal jargon?
They talk naturally. They telephone naturally. But whey write letters, they write like
an aged Professor of Jurisprudence.
It is only by putting gains and losses into percentage that a man can have a distinct
and correct idea of his business.
Efficiency means a higher percentage of results. (May 1935/30)
We have hundreds of firms that are just like a hen sitting on a china egg. They are
trying to hatch profits out of old methods and equipment. (May 1935/33)
54
Tens of thousands of business men spend practically nothing on books. When we
consider what books mean to a man’s intelligence and success, this is truly a strange
fact. (May 1935/44)
Business Service-it is the most important subject that any business man can study.
(May 1935/44)
The Power of Show-cards. It a retailer could make just five percent more people stop
and look at his windows, it is likely that he would have a nice increase in his sales.
In fact, the increase in his sales might be enough to give him twenty percent more net
profit, as a little more volume of sales often means a big increase in the net.
Many a retailer has six thousand people a day going past his shop. If he can stop three
hundreds more of them, that will surely be a push to his business.
A show-card with twenty words on it cannot be read at a glance. It compels many
people to stop. (May 1935/41)
Writing for many serious, purposeful men, may I venture to say that one of the best
profit-makers in the world is FUN.
Many a man goes through all day without a laugh. He may have become so serious
that he does not even laugh at home.
This costs him more than he knows. When a man loses his sense of humour, he loses
money too. There is no mistake about that.
What a wonderful increase there would be in our factories if it were not for the fact
that nine out of ten foremen have lost their sense of humour.
Who ever heard of a pub called “The Jolly Foreman”? (Aug 1935/2)
Pick your Boys. Too often, boys are carelessly selected. There is a tremendous
difference between boys. The right boy is a joy, and the wrong boy is a costly nuisance.
(May 1935/48)
There are plenty of small traders who are penny chasers. They are economy mad.
At some time in their lives they have learned that old proverb: - ‘Watch the pennies
and the pounds will take care of themselves.” And that seems to be all they have
learned.
It is better to be a pound-chaser than a penny-chaser. The right policy is to give every
matter the attention it deserves.
55
I know one successful trader who has a supreme disregard of pennies. He always
keeps a stock of new pennies on hand and whenever a child comes in with a two-
shilling order, he gives the child a bright new penny.
All the children in the neighborhood have come to know these new pennies, and he
has a joyful lot of child customers.
In a word, economy and looking after pennies is all well enough, but it is not the main
thing in business life. It is always wise to use a sprat to catch a mackerel. Every
successful trader knows that. (Aug 1935/11)
A really trained salesman stands out in a mob of five hundred ordinary salesman like
a tree in a patch of berry bushes. (Aug 1935/28)
Before a business man says “Yes”, or ‘No” on any important matter, he should ask
himself: - ‘What is the CAUSE of my decision?”
Even in the business world, men take action on whims, gossip, prejudices and so
forth. They would do just as well, perhaps better, if they flipped a penny:-“Heads I do,
tails, I don’t.”
In that case, at least half of their decisions would be right. And when a man’s
decisions are influenced merely by prejudices or careless talk, most of them are likely
to be wrong. (Aug 1935/29)
It is a penny-wise, pound-foolish policy for any shoe dealer to give his customers
trashy shoe laces. (Aug 1935/33)
There is a certain practice which is perfectly legal and yet morally dishonest. We might
call it “customer-stealing”.
This kind of thing happens frequently and in my opinion it is dishonorable and
morally dishonest.
When a man starts a business of his own by robbing his employer of customers, he
has made a bad start.
He starts his business on inexcusable disloyalty, and that is not a good basis for any
business. It seems to me that a word should be said about this. (Aug 1935/34)
It is extraordinary that the retailers in the same street do not cooperate to make the
street more attractive- to raise its status amoung the shopping streets of the town.
A word to the wise is sufficient. (Aug 1935/35)
One simple way to describe business is to say that it is a matter of IN – OUT. We take
money in. We pay money out.
56
The problem is, to have more IN than OUT. (Aug 1935/36)
When a business man goes on holiday, the main thing he should do is to RELAX. He
should leave his business face behind.
He should leave behind most of his dignity and his desire for deference and his air of
authority and all that. On every cruise and every summer resort, you will see hard-
faced men acting as wet blankets to their wives and children.
It is amazing how many of these joyless men there are among the successful men of
our trades and industries.
They have made money, but they seem to have lost the power to enjoy life.
They have acquired a business manner they cannot shake off. And it greatly decreases
their happiness, and the happiness of their families.
A man is not a better man for being hard and silent. Even in the struggle of life, it
helps us to keep human. (Aug 1935/40)
A two-weeks’ holiday gives a man a chance to train his eyes. Our eyes grow dull when
we see the same things every day.
Better take a notebook on your holiday trip and jot down what you notice. This is a
helpful habit. (Aug1935/43)
There are always a few, and never more than a few FORWARD-THINKING MEN in a
trade or industry.
They are not content to be up-to-date. They get ahead of the calendar. They are the
leaders- the creators of all progress.
They study the trend of business. They have developed a power of foresight. They see
what the next step will be.
When a new equipment is invented they are the first to use it. Many other firms wait
for ten years before they use. And still more firms never use it all.
These forward-looking men study the wishes and opinions of customers, and invent
new services and courtesies. They attract favorable attention by doing what their
competitors never think of doing. They hold the notice of the public by doing
exceptional things.
In a word, they are CREATIVE men- the THINKERS. They are not ruled by experience.
They are ready to do today what they have never done before. (Sept 1935/6)
57
Always in every line of business, you will find that the Fact-finders and Idea learners
are the ablest Profit-makers. (Sept 1935/7)
It would be useful to know how many times a day the incorrect change is given to the
customers.
Those who give change should not be engaged carelessly. They must be accurate as
well as quick. If too much money is given the customer is annoyed and may be
suspicious.
It is not a small matter-giving the correct change. (Sept 1935/25)
It seems to me that a grocer should carry on a campaign of propaganda, to remind
people of the important part that food plays in the home life.
In the literature of all countries there are passages about the joys of eating. Should
not the grocers make a good use of these references to food? (Sept 1935/40)
Florists could increase their sales of cut flowers if they would teach people how to
make the flowers last longer. The one sure way to make cut flowers last longer is to
cut off the ends of the stems and change the water every day.
The reason why cut flowers wilt is that the stems do not take up enough water to
make up for evaporation from the petals and leaves.
The ends of the stems soon harden and take up less water. That is why they should be
cut every day. (Sept 1935/42)
No doubt, you have noticed what bright-minded chaps most reporters are. The reason
for this is probably because they deal with so many sides of life and because it is their
job to ask questions.
New facts and ideas and odds and ends are constantly pouring into their minds. There
is no routine in their jobs. Every day provides a new adventure. I am sure that in the
business world most of us do not ask enough questions.
Certainly, salesmen should ask more questions than they do. It is always more
effective to ask a customer questions than to try and talk his head off. (Nov 1935/25)
There is a vast difference between a Business –Builder and a Boss.
A Boss is a jerry-builder. The business that he creates falls to pieces when he dies.
The man who wants to build up a permanent business should not do his utmost to be
indispensable, as so many men do.
If you can’t leave your business and go on a trip around the world, what will happen to
your business when you die?
58
A well-organised business is like a motor-car. Certainly, it is not like a wheel barrow.
(Nov 1935/43)
In spite of all obstacles our motor industry “goes rolling along” like Old Man River.
(Nov 1935/45)
When a salesman is showing a new house to a man and wife, he will be wise to show a
little more attention to the wife than to the husband.
If the wife does not like the house the odds are ten to one that it will not be bought.
(Dec 1935/37)
Many a man builds a business by means of mortgage loans, overdrafts, etc., and in
the end he finds that he has not been a Business-Builder. He has only been a debt
Builder.
Sooner or later some creditor pulls a prop under his structure and down it falls. Then
the man is amazed to find that he has got, in the end, little or nothing for all his hard
work.
If this man had not over-traded-if he had kept his business smaller and safe-he might
have built up a solid business that would not have been at the mercy of any
inconsiderate creditor.
Before any man sets out to pay interest he must concentrate his attention on net
profits. The amount that he can safely spend or borrow depends wholly on the net.
Debt may be either a Business-Builder or a Business-Breaker. The vital point to
consider is the net profit of a Business.
Almost anyways, at the head of every trade or industry you will find a man who is a
quick DECIDER. Never will you find a man who dillies and dallies, and postpones a
man who has a split personality. (Dec 1935/41)
I would say that the value of a site for a shop is decided by the number of passerby
and their buying-power.
A man who proposes to start or buy a shop should first spend a whole week, to do the
job properly, counting and noticing the passers-by.
The passers-by are to him what the soil is to the farmer. It is an important matter,
selecting the best place for a shop.
There are now professional site-choosers employed by the multiple –shop companies.
(March 1936/46)
A woman feels that she is getting personal attention when the sales people remember
what she likes. (March 1936/9)
59
Almost every purchase is followed by a HOME CONVERSATION. That is a fact that
every retailer must bear in mind.
If shop assistants only knew how much they are talked about in family circles, they
would be- most of them-much more attentive to customers than they are.
When a woman goes home from a shopping expedition she generally gives a full hour
to telling the story of what she did and what happened to her.
She talks about goods and prices and services. She expresses opinions. And these
opinions are of the highest importance to retailers. (Jan 1937/1)
There is many a letter-head that is not good enough for the firm that is using it.
A letter-head is like a sign. It is of no value unless it attracts favorable attention.
(Jan 1937/43)
One salesman to another at the end of the day :-: I made many friends for my firm t-
day.”
The other salesman:-“I didn’t sell a thing either.” (Feb 1939/6)
Keep out of your office as much a you can. That is the place you write cheques and
lose money. (Feb 1939/12)
It is not true that the most valuable asset of any shop, large or small, is the number of
its unpaid representatives – its satisfied customers who tell others about the pleasant
services they have received? (Feb 1939/18)
If I were the owner of a department store, I would spend whole day thinking about this
one thing-the money that walks out of my store.
It has been said that at least a third of the people who walk into a big store walk out
without buying. (Feb 1939/34)
Many a man has been spurred on to do his best and to build up a solid business by
having a few clever competitors. (Feb 1939/39)
Here is a Tip for any retailer in a small town in farming district-make a trip through
your country.
Why stick in your shop like a badger in his hole? Jump in your motor-car and go and
see your possible customers.
The losers of capital are more numerous than the profit-makers. The Bureaucrats who
keep on increasing the taxes and the restrictions should remember this.
(March 1939/29)
60
Every high-income business man works mainly for the Government. (March 1939/32)
Retailer to shop assistant :-“now, then. I heard you say to the customer, ‘No, we
haven’t had any for a long time’. You should never say anything like that. You should
say, “We will get it for you.” What was it that lady wanted?”
Shop assistant:-“Sunshine” (March 1939/40)
A coupe, of youngsters, who are not experienced in knowing what can’t be done, will
do much to stimulate anybody of older salesmen. (April 1939/25)
In some small towns of Great Britain there is not one distinctive shop. The shops are
all as much alike as clothes-pegs and just interesting. (June 1939/22)
We might say that there are three kinds of property. 1) Private property. 2) Public
Property. 3) Company’s Property.
A wrist-watch, that is private. A pillar-box is public and a machine in a factory is
company.
In general, private property is very well cared for. It belongs always to one person or
family. A protective spirit is shown to all private property. One owner will protect the
property of another owner.
But in most companies it must be said that there is not a protective spirit. The
property of company is never as well protected as the property of a home.
In general, the people in a company are indifferent to the waste and breakage of the
company’s property. They need a bit of special instruction. Certainly they should be
told that all property and merchandise and materials are MONEY.
We can never hope to have company property protected like private property, but we
can at least do something to make employees more careful and conscientious.
(June 1939/11)
Don’t interrupt a customer. Only a convict likes to be stopped in the middle of a
sentence. (June 1939/47)
Almost every business man takes his “L” Sign down too soon. He stops being a learner
when he has much more to learn about his business. (June 1939/50)
61
EFFICIENCY
EFFICIENCY means success is itself a profession. No matter what a man makes
business is, there are certain things he must do to make it a success.
There is an art in money-making and it is the same in all trades, industries and
professions.
A firm succeeds by concentrating its attention upon the making of net profits plus
goodwill, and this is no easy matter.
It must apply the Scientific method o its business by studying employees, equipments,
methods and its products. It must study the buying public too.
The principles of Efficiency can be learned. Most business men do not know them. It is
quite true to say, therefore, that success is a profession. (May 1932/14)
This country is kept going by firms that show their balances in black ink-those that
know how to make a net profit. The welfare and future of the British people depend on
their ability to increase their NET PROFITS. (May 1932/39)
What the average man needs most is the –ONE MOMENT OF PLUCK. Every successful
man’s career began with a sudden resolve-a resolve to take a risk, or attempt a hard
job. (May 1932/46)
No man can live an organized life unless he has a PURPOSE. (Aug 1930/15)
Some people specialize in looking for something for nothing. There was a run on an
American bank thought to be shaky. An old Negro woman tried to push in, but was
ordered by a policeman to take her turn in the long queue.
After waiting for two hours in a drizzle of rain, she got inside the bank.
“Your bank book?” replied the woman. “Ah thought you’s giving away calendars”
(May 1932/45)
Efficiency begins with observation, just as astronomy did-just as all the sciences did.
It begins with thoughtful observations.
First notice what is now being done. Then improve it. That is the formula of
EFFICIENCY. (Aug 1930/6)
A store is not merely a building full of goods, with mechanical shop assistants. It is a
building full of FEELINGS-loves, hates, jealousies, ambitions, fears and grief’s.
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Every wise merchant should know that the feelings in his hop are as important as
figures. (Aug 1930/12)
Some silly writers say that a big Company has no heart. Some big Companies have a
heart and a soul, both. (Aug 1930/20).
No amount of efficiency will prevent trouble. It comes to the ablest as well as to
slackers.
Every day there are accidents, diseases, losses, deaths. The river of tears never runs
dry. This should make us a kinder people. (Aug 1930/7)
The Scots like to be thought dour and miserly. The fact is they are neither.
The English like to be thought slow. The fact is, they are the SPPED KINGS of the
world. (Aug1930/14)
Where there is a lack of enterprise is a country, much money lies idle in the banks, or
is invested abroad.
The main thing is to keep money active. Money isn’t money until it moves. A pound
mote may pay three or four people in a day. (Aug 1930/19)
It is one of the strangest facts that people do not notice the obvious things about their
own bodies, their homes, their businesses and their own abilities.
Most great improvements in all trades have been made by outsiders, who came in with
sharp eyes and noticed what the people in the trades had never observed.
(Aug 1930/19)
Our system of law was intended to punish wrongdoers, not to endanger honest
citizens. (May 30/8)
There are still too many people in Great Britain who dislike everything merely because
it is new. Consequently they are opposed to it.
It is an amazing fact that even the simplest new improvements are almost always
opposed at first. Even bath –tubs were opposed for years. We may laugh, but this
proves we ought to be more open-minded. (Aug 1930/20)
After a war, a nation usually relaxes and becomes soft and easy-going. It looks on to
Government to be a fairy godfather. It is all for pleasure. Almost everyone wants a
good time. This is a national danger. (Aug 1930/22)
This is a THOUGHT world, as we shall someday find out. Once we learn brain-control
we shall develop powers that we do not even dream of today. (Aug 1930/32)
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No man need have nerve troubles nor brain trouble if only he learns how to relax and
sleep eight hours every night. (Aug 1930/28)
A rare gift is sympathetic imagination. You can always get on with people if you can
only understand their point of view. (Aug 1930/30)
There is as much difference in the quality of people as there is in the quality of things.
Some people are like radium and some like sand. (May 1930/60)
We should not try to make our rich people poor. How can that help us as a nation?
(May 1930/60)
The Civil Service has a language of its own. Its ways are not as our way, nor its
thoughts as our thoughts. A Civil Service brain, in fact, is not a brain at all. It is
something different, for which I hesitate to use a name. (Feb 1927/43)
Nothing counts but ACTION. Talk is only a tool. There is no purpose in talk in the
business world, unless it leads to things being done. (Sept 1927/16)
The one aim of all Trades Unions ought to be to increase profits, so that the ward debt
could be paid, and so that wages could be increased. (Sep 1927/17)
On tens of thousands of gravestones, there ought to be this epitaph:-“KILLED BY A
DAMP HOUSE.” Most of our British houses are as a damp as a bath sponge.
The one right way to heat a house is by a central heating system which saves nearly
all the heat, and heats all the house. (Sept 1927/41)
I have seen plenty of businesses that were haunted by ghosts. Many a time they stood
at the door and kept me out
These ghosts are in every town in Great Britain. The names of some of them are: - “We
have always done it this way.” ‘Advertising doesn’t pay.” “Efficiency is all hot air.” “It
can’t be done.” “No time to read”and“Good things sell themselves.” (May 1930/11)
Parsons should be spiritually efficient. Their main purpose should be to take our
minds off money, and make us think of higher things. (May 1930/26)
What we want is the “It-can-be-done” spirit, and not the ‘What’s- the- use” spirit. “The
doleful dicks”- we have far too many of them in every trade. (May 1930/37)
Some day, when our Trades Unions are wiser, they will put up a monument to
MACHINERY, and this will be the inscription:-
“This monument has been erected in appreciation of MACHINERY, the greatest job-
maker in the world.” (Aug 1930/34)
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In our homes, like our factories, we need plenty of light. Never mind if it fades
wallpaper. Pull back the curtain. It is better to fade your wallpaper and your carpet
than to fade yourself and your children.
Let the SUNLIGHT in. (Aug 1930/40)
We older man are always telling young men to go slow. We are quite wrong. Young
men know more than we think they do. They often have energy, and an enthusiasm,
and an efficiency that we lost long ago. (Feb 1928/17)
The more a man learns the less stupid he is. All our success in life depends on our
getting rid of stupidity. Yet scores of men spend whole days and weeks without
learning anything.
Efficiency means getting the work done at the lowest cost of time, energy and money.
It is a matter of percentage. (Feb 1928/46)
The greatest need of the moment is the will to grapple with the difficulties and
discouragements. We have never before had so many of both. (Mar 1928/5)
No one’s life is so dark that there is not a little candle of light burning somewhere.
(Feb 1928/56)
A garden is a vast world in itself to the man who takes the trouble to understand it.
(Mar 1928/12)
Many people, more rich than poor, and more young than old, are bored stiff with life.
From the point of view of Efficiency, being “fed up’ with life is a serious matter.
The first principle of EFFICIENCY is that we must be interested on our work and our
self-development.
The secret of both success and happiness is to be entertained by what we are doing,
and not by shows and thrillers, cruises and motor-trips. (Oct 1935/41)
Almost every young man has at least a little spark of originality in him. He should do
all he can to develop this spark, and not allow himself to become a robot.
That man who follows the crowd gets the dust and little else. (Oct 1935/43)
If a lad wants to start right, he should obey theses three “MUSTS”-I must be interested
in my job. I must increase my earning power. I must save a bit out of my wages.
This is A.B.C of EFFICIENCY (Oct 1935/44)
When a man has sunk so low he says: - “What’s the use? I don’t care,” there is a very
little hope for him, He has become one of the unburied dead, of whom there are too
many. (Oct 1935/51)
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He learns who learns before doing and while doing. The more we learn before
accepting a job the better, as it enables us to start higher up and save many long
years of waiting for promotion.
To learn by books, lectures, magazines and by personal experience, that is the correct
way. (Oct 1935/64)
If you have something disagreeable to do, do it at once. The longer you put it off the
more disagreeable it seems.
Besides, it is generally much more profitable to do a disagreeable job than to do one
that is pleasant. (April 1928/36)
Here is a new way of looking at an old subject- the main task of every young man who
is on his own, in any trade, industry, or profession, is to GET HIS PUBLIC.
A parson has to secure a congregation, a doctor has to secure patients, a lawyer has to
get clients, and so on
The man who has a small public makes a bare living in most cases, while the man
with a large public makes his fortune. Hence the importance of doing good work of
giving good service. (Oct 1935/23)
We in Great Britain have a prejudice against talking Business during lunch. It is
foolish prejudice and costs us an hour a day. (Nov 1928/51)
I believe I am right in saying that an Englishman is the only man in the world who will
not shoot a sitting bird, and who applauds a well-meant failure on the sports field.
It is one of the QUALITY-POINTS of a highly developed people-this spirit of fair play.
(April 1928/39)
Efficiency is spreading. The sneers against it are dying down. All over Great Britain the
EFFICIENT FEW are climbing steadily to the top. There will be an EFFICIENT
GOVERNMENT some day, make no mistake about that. (April 1928/41)
Answering Letters. I would say that every letter deserves a reply that contains
information, or asks a practical question, or in any way offers friendship. But no letter
deserves a reply that is abusive, frivolous, begging or pestering. Many letters deserve
to remain unanswered. (Oct 1928/44)
A great man is always creative, whether he creating book, or a science, or a factory, or
a railway, or a philosophy of life. He is never a routine man. (Oct 1928/34)
If you want to keep well and live long, keep your brain ACTIVE. Notice, Read, Think.
Take a keen interest in other people as well as your own affairs.
A man has begun to sag when he has dull eyes. (Oct 1941/30)
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No matter how little a man knows about a subject, you may have noticed that he
always has an n option on it, sometimes a very strong opinion.
Ignorance creates more opinions than knowledge. That is a big fact to remember. The
emptiest brain can be an opinion-factory. Unlike any other product, an opinion can be
created out of nothing. (Nov 1938/9)
None of us will ever know how much we have lost, in money or in happiness, by
neglecting to write letters that we knew should have been written.
Many a profit has been made by a letter. Many a quarrel has been ended. Many a
career has been started. So, write that letter. (Oct 1941/33)
Kindness is a language that the blind man can read and the deaf can hear and the
stupid can understand. (Oct 1941/15)
A farm or a shop is only an opportunity to make or lose money. The thing that makes
the difference is EFFICIENCY. (Oct 1935/42)
There is a big difference between a fresh fact and a stale fact. What was a fact thirty
years ago may be a delusion to-day. (Oct 1935/32)
Efficiency deals with technics and ethics, both. That is why it is the hope of the world.
It does not mean getting more work out of people. It means getting the spirit of work
INTO them, so that they will be teachable and satisfied. It considers happiness as well
as money-making (May 1934/5)
Getting a fact into the brain is no easy matter. A man may read or hear a thing. But it
may not get into his brain in such a way as to make him act on it.
Things have to be repeated over and over again and told in a new way before they
really get into the brain and lead to ACTION. (May 1934/12)
The first thing a competent father must do is study his son. Sons must be taken
seriously. To call them silly does not help matters.
It is a matter that requires much tolerance, and tact, and common sense-this matter
of helping one’s son. (May 1934/35)
We should not fool ourselves by putting the Truth-Mark on an opinion that is wholly
worthless.
If we knew what some of our pet Opinions have cost is we would be amazed.
(June 1935/17)
OLD Opinion always stands in the way of Truth. (June 1935/26)
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Letters are an indispensable part of the business of life, and the joy of life too. We
cannot do without the pillar-box and the postman. (May 1934/43)
The more we learn the more conscious we are of the vastness of knowledge- of the
many things we do not know. That is why a man should keep on studying as long as
he lives. (June 1935/43)
Beyond every hill there is always a higher hill. Not many men keep on climbing. Most
of them scramble up on a little hillock and remain there for the rest of their lives.
(Feb 1937/8)
It is certain that our sons will do many things that we think are impossible. And our
grandsons will do still more. (Feb 1937/8)
Keep a Level Head. There are two occasions when we need advice-when we make big
success, and when we make a bad failure. (Feb 1937/28)
There is no battle more severe, and no victory more honourable, than when a man
fights with himself and wins the victory. (Feb 1937/50)
Efficiency is not money-making only, bit it includes money-making. No one can study
efficiency without improving himself as a money-maker. (Aug 1933/32)
In many books and in the daily Press we often see the charge made that efficiency
decreases happiness.
It is a silly idea, but thousands of people believe it and are thus prejudiced against
efficiency methods and against modern machinery.
But it is in efficiency that does more than anything else to decrease happiness. Is not
inefficiency the main cause of poverty? Is not poverty the most universal of all evils? Is
it not the greatest destroyer of happiness?
There is QUALITY in happiness. And the greatest happiness comes when we
accomplish something worthwhile and share our success with our families and
friends. (Aug 1933/11)
Thinking is creative. It is like building. First you get your materials, and then you put
them together.
The first thing is to know, and this usually means finding out. By observation, by
asking other people and by reading, a man can find out the facts.
Then he studies his facts. He finds out what is useful and what is not. He goes over
his facts until he comes to a decision. He then knows what to DO. (Aug 1933/8)
The only thing that comes to an inert man is a hearse. (Aug 1933/42)
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The betting habit destroys the spirit of self-help in a man, and that is a serious matter.
He comes to depend and on chance to help him. He stakes his money on luck, and
neglects the self-development that is SURE to bring more money.
If a man must bet, why can he not bet on HIMSELF? (Aug 1933/22)
In these days of ten thousand entertainments and spectacles and excitements, nobody
will listen to you nor read what you write if you are DULL.
It is not enough to have something to say. You must know how to say it. (Aug
1933/21)
Many a man would be much richer to-day if he had written a certain letter several
years ago. (Aug 1933/45)
What every nation needs is more and more men with specialized knowledge.
(Jan 1938/14)
There has never been a time when the study of efficiency has been more necessary, for
brain and pocket, than it is today.
It will help to keep business men out of nursing-homes and worse places. It will
promote their mental health. It will keep them sane and sensible, and give them a bit
of joy of life as well. (Jan1938/33)
Every man who succeeds by efficiency benefits his towns and his nation as well as
himself. The results of his efficiency are shared by many other people. (Feb 1938/8)
The whole structure of civilization is based upon successes. There is no more useful
occupation in this world than that of teaching people to be efficient and successful.
(Feb 1938/8)
Attacks on money-making are seldom sincere. The art of money –making should be
taught to as many people as possible. (Feb 1938/8)
There is a lazy streak in most of us, not as much in women as in men. For hundreds
of centuries women did the work, while men did the hunting and fighting.
As all women know, most men need to be prodded or rewarded in order to make them
keep on working. In civilized countries the stimulants are the wives and children the
pay-envelope. (Feb 1938/12)
Appreciate what you have. The masses of people to-day have comforts and
conveniences such as were not possessed by the Royalties of ancient times.
Wouldn’t old Julius Caesar have been proud if someone had given him second-hand
Ford? Wouldn’t he? (Jan 1938/6)
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Doubt yourself if you like, but don’t make the silly mistake of doubting the steady
progress of the British people. (Feb 1938/48)
It is a wrong policy for a man of fifty to associate only with people who are as old as he
is, or older. Old age is catching. So is youth. (Feb 1938/14)
Any business man who has sons shouldn’t leave their education wholly to teachers
and professors. He should make sure that his sons are being taught to THINK.
(Feb 1938/31)
Every man who is in a position of authority should look to it to see what effect power
is having on him.
There are many men who are not fit to have employees and many women who are not
fit to have maids. (Feb 1938/33)
When dull-minded people sneer to-day at the Efficiency Movement, it is not easy to
answer them. But the sneerers of to-day will be answered by the future.
They will be answered when there is a great University of Business Efficiency in
London. Our children will live to see it. (Feb 1938 /42)
It is actually true that a man can accomplish twice as much with less energy if he
plans. It is the very essence of efficiency to do this. (June 1935/5)
All through life, in spite of old Father Time, I have done my best to remain a boy in
facing the risks and duties of life.
To take work as a game-to look upon life as an adventure, this is one of the secrets of
both success and happiness. (Oct 1935/6)
Much silly nonsense is written favour of poverty. None of it is sincere. I have yet to
meet a man who preferred to be poor.
Show me one man who has been spoiled by money, and I will show you a hundred
who have been spoiled by poverty.
Money means a better home, more comforts, more books, more music, more travel,
larger ideas, wider sympathies and a higher quality of character. (Nov 1928/14)
A man can’t live on last year’s breath, nor on the last generation’s ideas, either.
(Nov 1928/15)
No doubt many a man with a brain-power equal to Darwin’s has made a failure of his
life because of poverty and home troubles. (Nov 1928/18)
Two Things We British Can Do. (1) Get into muddles. (2) Get out. (Nov 1928/24)
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A town is a living thing. It can be healthy or it can sicken and die. We have scores of
towns that are ready for the Coroner.
Ten competent men pulling together can save any town. (Nov 1928/26)
Every now and then a man climbs to the highest position in his country and has no
thought for his own pocket. But such men are rare. (Nov 1928/30)
Few of our rich men leave anything to prosperity. By this mean that I mean that they
seldom leave any money to Research, or Efficiency, or Invention, or Science- the things
that make a nation prosperous. Why not? (Nov 1928/57)
We have nothing to boast of as a nation, when we look at what we spend on books,
tobacco and drinks. As book buyers we are not in the front rank.
In our present stage of development we would sooner fuddle our brains than develop
them. (Nov 1928/55)
No man has so much brains and skill that he only needs to use ten percent of it.
(Nov 1928/60)
Doctors oppose new ideas. I can never remember a time when doctors were not
fighting some new idea which they afterwards adopted. (Nov 1928/60)
There are millions of men in Great Britain who lack the power to make an effort. All
through their lives they remain as common as clothes-pegs. (Aug 1938/6)
There are still not enough thinkers in Britain. Most people are only newspaper
readers. They only use the warehouse of their brain, and not the workshop.
(May 1930/24)
Efficiency Among Birds. Whenever I put food out for birds on cold wintry days, the
fattest birds are the first to arrive.
Later, when the food is nearly all gone, the thin birds come.
These thin birds, very likely, are the pessimists. They sit and shiver in the trees, while
the optimists make a dash for the food. (Feb 1928/39)
There is no fortune so big that it cannot be wasted. In fact, as most rich men know, it
is quite as hard to hold a fortune, as to make it. (Feb 1928/45)
Always and everywhere, the man who can speak well is the man who has the power
(Feb 1928/29)
This is, perhaps, our greatest waste- the lack of a definite daily for the task of thinking
(Mar 1928/7)
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A man who fishes with a net has a better chance than a man who fishes with a pole.
The man with the net will very likely catch a hundredweight of fish, while the other
will only catch two or three.
In the same way a man with a wide-awake brain will take in ideas from all directions.
Everything that happens around him will make him wiser. (Mar 1928/11)
The less a man knows, the less he wants to learn and the more he wants to swank.
This is a law of human nature, and it applies equally to the Reg-Pickers’ Union and
the London Chamber of Commerce. (Mar 1928/13)
Life It is one wealth above all wealths. Every day we live we should be full of
amazement and interest at the astounding drama of life, in which, for a few brief
years, we are privileged to play a part. (Mar1928/35)
Moneylenders would not prosper if there were not so many money fools.
If bankers did their full duty to the public, there would be very little money-lending.
And if parents did their full duty to their children, there would not be so many money
fools. (Mar1928/47)
Not even the richest of the most efficient man can escape a bit of drudgery now and
then. There will always be bits of wholly uninteresting work that a man must continue
to do himself.
However, I think it does any man good to have a drudgery job now and then. Men need
discipline as much as boys do. (Aug 1938/18)
There seems no good reason why most machines should be black. A machine is black
so that it won’t show the dirt.
A light-colored machine is an incentive to cleanliness. And cleanliness in many a
factory is of the highest importance. (Aug 1938/45)
I would go as far as to say that honesty is the first principle of efficiency. It is the
foundation- stone of efficiency as well as of character. (July 1933/36)
When the right work-habits are discovered in a factory, the result is less energy, less
fatigue, more output, more wages, more profits, and more pride of workmanship.
(Dec 1933/9)
We place too much emphasis on seniority and too little on energy, new ideas and
enthusiasm.
Surely a competent young man should not be held back and told to wait for thirty
years for a pair of “dead man’s shoes”. (Dec 1933/16)
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How can a man teach swimming who has never been in the water, and how can a man
teach business who has never been successful in business life?
An efficient business man is never a money-grabber. He does not need to tell lies and
play tricks.
When Walpole said:-“Every man has his price,” he was not referring to business men.
He was speaking of politicians. (Dec 1933/46)
Everyman must live with the man he makes of himself. (Dec 1933/41)
The greatness of any nation depends, not on its army and navy and government. It
depends upon the number of fully developed men that it possesses. (Oct 1938/4)
As soon as any teachable man begins to study Efficiency, he goes and sees his
business for the first time. He may then learn the secret of success- to aim constantly,
all along the line, at a higher percentage of result.
He really sees the facts and figures, and they stimulate and guide him to take action.
(June 1936/6)
When success comes to a man he must learn how to keep up with it. He may have to
change many of his habits of work. (June 1936/18)
Professional men, as a rule, are not at all interested in Efficiency. They know little or
nothing about it. And when a man knows nothing of any subject, he does not want to
learn it. (June 1936/30)
It is just as necessary to learn home to SPEND money as to learn how to make it. A
man must not be a money fool. (June 1936/34)
Is it not true that the happy man is the one who looks with keen interest at the world
he lives in, not the man whose dead eyes notice nothing? (May 1933/47)
In most occupation the best workers are three or four times as competent as the
worst. In every firm there are quarter-size workers and they always cost more than
their wages. (May 1933/48)
The men who are the Robots of habit invent nothing, create nothing, improve nothing.
Every move forwards has been started by Creative Thinkers who conceive of something
new and better. (Feb 1934/10)
A school teacher has a hard job. He stands between the Curriculum and a body of
children. He is a go-between.
His job is to make the children interested in the Curriculum- to put it in their heads.
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The Curriculum was not approved by children. It was prepared, I believe, by old
scholastic people, who seemed to have been wholly out of touch with children.
Someday, let us hope, we shall have courses of study that do link on the lives
children. And that will be a joyful day for the teachers. (Feb 1934/18)
A man’s job has a strong influence on him. It may push him forward or hold him back.
(Feb1936/10)
No town grows and prospers unless it has a few strong enterprising men in it. For lack
of a leader, a town goes down, just as a firm does that has a weakling at the top. In a
dead town, the man who ought to take action is the editor of the local papers. He is, at
least, not a politician. And he is in touch with the most of the better class people.
He should call a meeting to decide what can be done. If there are ten thousand people
in the dead town, there will be a dozen at the meeting. And that dozen can SAVE the
town. (Feb 1934/22)
Efficiency does more to put value into shares than labour or machinery. This is a fact
not generally understood.
If ever there was a magic wand that could double or treble one’s capital, it is
EFFICIENCY. (June 1937/6)
If a man is not teachable, his experience is of no value to him. He retains his conceit
in spite of his blunders.
Every wise man is humbled as well as instructed by his experience. He is not as
cocksure at fifty as he was at twenty five. (April 1934/8)
In the matter of health and money-making, both, it is a wise policy to LIVE DAILY – to
make the day the unit, not the week, month or year.
Every day should be made a stand on its own legs and not lean on some other day.
(April 1934/11)
A failure does not hurt a man if he learns from his failure and tries again. It does not
hurt him unless it stops him.
Also, it is true that the failure of one man may give an idea to another man. We notice
this in the history of inventions. Edison spent most of his time on taking the failures
of other inventors and turning them into successes.
In a word, a failure is an OPPORTUNITY, either for the man who made the failure or
some other man. (Jan 1935/8)
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The secret of the success of scientists is that they were the first really TEACHABLE
people who were not held back by opinions and traditions.
They were the first to develop the rare power of observation. And they were the first to
see the value of experiments. (Jan 1935/10)
Often, in conversation, we wonder why one man has failed and why another has got
on. Sometimes we say that luck made the difference, but that is shallow talk. There
were always causes.
The causes of business success are very definitely known. They are told in business
books. Lumped together, we call them EFFICIENCY.
Nothing happens without a cause in the business world any more than it does in the
world of Nature. Scientists study causes. So do keen business men. (Jan 1935/12)
One way to get more work done is to write down any idea or tip calls for action. If
merely left to memory, it may be forgotten. (June 1935/29)
No creative, purposeful man can wholly avoid mistakes. No one can always do the
right thing at once. Mistakes should be taken for granted, like measles and bad
weather.
Every business man, now and then, hires the wrong man, buys securities that make
him lose money, adopts the wrong business policy and so on. No man is infallible. And
anyone is liable to be deceived.
By studying the ideas and methods of successful men, we can avoid many mistakes. It
is quicker and cheaper to learn from others than to learn by personal experience
alone.
LEARN, PREPARE, AND TRY AGAIN-that is the right policy. It is the unbeatable man
who climbs to the top of every trade, industry and profession. (Jan 1935/37)
Everyone in the business world is either climbing or slipping. Those who think they
are standing still are really slipping, as they are growing older and less ambitious.
A man, who knows precisely as much today as he knew a year ago, and no more, is
slipping behind. In fact, any man who is learning less than his competitors are will
find himself slipping behind. (Jan 1935/53)
There is one right way and score of wrong ways to do almost everything. But there
must be in a man’s mind the ingredient of Common Sense, to prevent him from being
a learned fool.
There are plenty of artists, actors, film stars, musicians and great singers who have no
Common Sense, and in their jobs they are none the worse for the lack of it.
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But when a man is in the give and take business world, he MUST have Common
Sense or he will not do far. (June 1934/8)
A balanced life is one devoted partly to serving others and partly to serving one’s self.
“Service, not self” is a silly slogan. (July 1934/6)
A man must actively promote his own interests. He must not sit down like a pavement
artist. He must make sure that he GETS HIS SHARE. (July 1934/7)
We might say that doing favours is a principle of efficiency as well as of morality. It is,
at any rate, a powerful business-building influence.
No matter how busy a man is, he must spend some time on doing favours for other
people. It is true that some people are unworthy of favours. They may be selfish or
parasitical.
We must know when to say “Yes” and when to say “No” We must not throw money into
every tin cup that is held out to us. But this great fact remains true- it is a wise policy
to go through life DOING FAVOURS. (Aug 1934/13)
When a man gets a fear in his mind it weakens him. It is like a rotten spot in his
brain.
When a man has been unemployed for three months, there springs up in his mind a
fear that he will never get a job again. It weakens him and makes him less likely to get
a position.
When a man has had a bad year and has made a loss he is likely to think-two more
years and my business will be bankrupt. And this fear weakens him.
This big fact remains true-that most of the things we are afraid of do not happen. The
success and stability of Lloyd’s prove it. (Aug 1934/40)
No matter how unbearable a man’s trouble maybe he should stick it and hope for a
better tomorrow. After the darkest hour there may come a glint of dawn.
(Aug 1934/40)
How to put value into himself-how to get the highest market price for his services and
how to get full value for all he spends-that is the problem that a man should set out to
solve. (Sept 1934/25)
There are 400000 words in the English language, and many a business man knows
only about 10,000. A farm laborer may know only 400. Many a man is handicapped
because he knows so few words. (Sept 1934/45)
Good old Common Sense. It saves us from many a folly. It is certainly one of the
principles of Efficiency. (Mar 1935/21)
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A sense of perspective the ability to separate the small things from the big things will
help anyone to make money happily. (Jan 1935/64)
A man’s success, usually, is not due to some big brilliant Idea or Scheme, but to
thousands of little practical acts. Every big business has been built up by a vast
number of small and large improvements.
Many men have their heads filled with big ideas, but they neglect the little practical
things. If you go into a village pub any evening, you will hear the villagers tell what
ought to be done with the world. But you will never hear them talking about any
improvements in their jobs.
All books on Efficiency teach us to begin where we are.
They are exact opposite of books by theorists, which tell us to begin with the things we
know nothing about.
Efficiency teaches a man to begin with his own job. If he cannot find any way to do his
work better, he is not likely to know how to solve national problems.
We begin to learn technique by finding out how to do small jobs in the one right way.
No man is fit to tackle a big job until he has tackled and mastered a lot of small jobs.
No matter what ladder you are trying to climb, you will find that the name of every
rung is IMPROVEMENT. (Feb 1935/12)
Why do so few succeed? One reason, I think, is because most young men drift and
have a good time until they are thirty.
By that time they are married and have obligations. They carry a burden they have not
made themselves wise enough to carry it. Consequently, they plod along in the rank
and file. (Feb 1935/16)
It is true that hard work is necessary for success. So is patience. So is endurance. But
these alone are not enough.
There are millions of men who are hard workers and who are patient and enduring
and they are still working for small wages.
A real efficiency man, when he looks at a job, tries to find some way to do the work
more easily and quickly.
This is not because he is lazy, but because he has sense and because he wants to
raise his pay or his profits.
Hard work plus efficiency - that is the right policy. It is the secret of success in any
line of business. (Feb 1935/25)
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The one most inexcusable fault in any man is, in my opinion, INERTIA. The men who
do nothing to better themselves-they are not worth a penny a dozen.
Tens of thousands of men, with good enough heads and bodies, remain passive as
though they were paralysed. They have been slowed down to a standstill.
They are of no use in this world except as prospects to the undertaker. When a man
stops trying, his life comes to an end. (Feb 1935/31)
Economy is not how little one can spend, but how wisely one can spend it.
(Mar 1935/24)
Don’t neglect yourself. It is said that none out of ten people have some kind of foot
trouble. Most of us do more walking than we realize. The average person walks at least
eight miles a day.
We should be more careful in selecting shoes. We should go to chiropodists and other
foot experts. Foot trouble is no small matter.
Abraham Lincoln once said: - “I can’t think when my feet hurt.” (Mar 1935/25)
No one should ever sneer at a young man because he is ambitious- because he builds
“castles in the air”.
Perhaps, who knows, the young man may be able to put solid foundations under his
castles. He may be able to make his dreams come true.
As Emerson once said, it is far better to build castles in the air than dungeons, as so
many discouraged grumbling people do. (Mar 1935/36)
An efficient man simply has nothing to do with averages. His aim should be as high
above the average as possible. (April 1935/24)
For all the ills that are caused by a lack of money, the only remedy Is EFFICIENCY.
The only exception to this rule is in the case of the aged and helpless, who must be
helped by the generosity of others.
To give able-bodied people money or credit that they do not deserve, that is nothing
but robbery in the long run. It means putting the inefficient on the backs of the
efficient.
The only honest money that any man can get is what he EARNS. His personal problem
is how to earn more. And nothing else but Efficiency can solve the problem. There is
no Promised Land for the incompetent, the unteachable, the lazy and the dishonest.
There never was and there never will be.
Efficiency is not as popular as a ‘money-for-nothing” scheme. It is not a vote-catcher.
No stupid audience ever cheers it. Why? Because it means THINKING and WORKING.
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It is only by thinking and more efficient working that any man can solve his money
troubles without putting them on others.
This is not an opinion. It is an economic law. Also, it is a moral law. And it cannot be
broken by any man or any Government without causing Disastrous results.
(May 1935/6)
To see and to think- these are the two important things in the practical world. Use the
senses to bring facts and ideas into the brain, and then shape them by the power of
thought. (Sept 1935/7)
Very few people either learn or move forward of their own accord. They learn to take
action only when they MUST or when some outside influence pushes them. It is better
and more profitable to think and learn and act than to wait and be pushed into action.
(Nov 1935/12)
A great deal of friction is created by the habit of looking for annoyance. And a great
deal of happiness is prevented.
The right way –the way to go through life smoothly and effectively is to give a word of
praise when praise is deserved and to make useful suggestions when there is a need
for correction. (Nov 1935/39)
Anger has its value. There are occasions on which it should be used. A man must not
be a rabbit.
But a man harms himself greatly when he becomes angry at trifles. When any small
annoyance crops up him should say to himself, “Not worth it,” and remain serene.
Certainly a man should not walk about like a bunch of shavings that anyone can put
a match to. Many men do. (Dec 1935/44)
Self-Discipline Discipline is not a popular word in this country. No doubt, most of us
got so much of it at school that we have disliked it ever since.
Many lads of sixteen, and probably more girls, have this idea fixed in their minds:-“I
am going to do what I like”
Now this idea won’t hurt them if they discipline themselves. But they will come to grief
if they throw self-discipline to the winds.
Discipline from outside may be carried too far. It may turn people into robots. But self-
imposed discipline has never yet hurt anyone. And it has helped thousands on the
way to success.
It is necessary not only for boxers and runners, for jockeys and tennis players. It is
necessary for every one of us in the business world. (Dec 1935/31)
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It is very valuable to acquire the art of working QUICKLY. Many people allow
themselves to be slow. They make no effort to speed up.
Literally, thousands of people in the business world are as slow as farm labourers.
Many of them try to justify their slowness. They babble that misused proverb: - “More
Haste, less Speed”.
In their case it is not true, as they take a whole day to do half a day’s work.
The fact is that it is more tiring to work slowly than quickly at most jobs. A quick
worker acquires a momentum that carries him along.
The art of working quickly can be acquired. I learned it in a newspaper office.
The quickest workers in London are the people who prepare and print a big newspaper
every day. They work o minutes, not hours.
The best way to speed up in working is to set a time limit to a job. Even when you set
out to do a Crossword Puzzle, you can say:-“I’ll see if I can do it in twenty minutes.”
It is not true that speed causes more errors. It is the dull slow mind that causes more
errors. To work more quickly sharpens up the mind and makes the work more
interesting. There is no doubt about that. (Dec 1935/18)
It is a wise policy for even the busiest man to have a hobby of some kind. Many a
business man realizes this fact when he finds himself in a nursing home.
The mind requires relaxation. A change is as good as a rest. No man should give all his
waking hours to his business alone.
The most interesting and valuable hobby, in my opinion, is a CREATIVE hobby-one
that develops some kind of skill.
It is a great pleasure to make things or to develop some ability that is not required in
business life.
So here is a suggestion that may add to the joy of many a busy man-have a CREATIVE
HOBBY. Use some of your leisure time to develop an ability that is now latent.
(Jan 1936/8)
It is a strange fact that there is very little interest in the Technique of Work. Not even
foremen, who should be keenly interested in the work habits of their people, have ever
paid much attention to the matter.
In games we pay the greatest possible attention to the technique of operations. Every
tennis player who takes part in tournaments is coached by an expert.
This is true, too, of all Soccer, Rugby and Cricket. It is true of all athletic sports.
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Why, then, when we are keen to be clever in sports, do we remain content to be
unskilled in the doing of office and factory work?
I venture to say that there is not one single job, in any factory that requires no skill at
all. (Jan 1936/21)
Knowledge, skill and common sense- these are the three things that make a person
dependable. And at least the first two can be taught to people. (Jan 1936/32)
Some men, and they are very happy men, have the knack of finding some good in
everything, or nearly everything that happens to them.
There are others who do the reverse-they find something bad in everything that
happens to them. Give them a bag of gold and they’ll grouse about the weight of it.
In almost every sort of experience there is usually a gain if we look for it.
(Jan 1936/45)
There are some men, not many, who care no more for bad news than they do for a
spatter of rain. They go straight, carry out their plans.
Bad news does not slow them down. Sometimes it even always made a spurt during a
depression. (May 1935/22)
A man always makes the best use of his money when he buys what he needs most at
the time.
Suppose a man goes home depressed and out of sorts. He will make the best use of a
pound if he picks up his wife and one of the kiddies, goes to a restaurant for dinner
and then to a jolly show him or film.
Suppose a man has a business problem that is a bit too hard for him, he will make the
best use of his pound if he buys four business books that will help him solve his
problem.
Suppose a young lad has saved his first pound out of his wages, he will make the best
use of it by starting an account at a Savings Bank. And so on.
Money is always spent wisely when we get what we need most. We may need more
customers or better equipment, life insurance or information, new clothes or a bank
account, health or happiness. There are hundreds of possible needs.
The importance of the need is hat decides whether or not the money is being spent
wisely. (Aug 1935/33)
Carelessness is not theft, but it destroys profit just as much as it if were. It is not
murder, but it often causes people to lose their lives.
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Buildings are burned down; trains are wrecked; people are killed and wounded in the
streets and roads-all because of carelessness. (Aug 1935/48)
The ablest and most creative men in any country are the men over fifty who have kept
their brains alive.
It is also true that the most obstructive men are those over fifty who have stopped
learning and who are opposed to improvements.
At fifty a man has a Golden Opportunity to do his best work. And most of the men of
this age do not see this Golden Opportunity. (Mar 1936/38)
Almost anyone can add at least ten years to his life by learning a few simple facts
about health and how to keep it, (Aug 1936/20)
We say “Practice makes Perfect”. But this is not true. One of the most striking facts in
business life is the PERSISTENCE OF ERROR.
There is one right and best way to do a job, but no one finds it out by mere repetition.
There must be the WILL to learn. (Sept 1936/7)
The one thing that would do the average English farmer most good is a trip around the
world. Then he would begin to appreciate his advantages and opportunities.
HE would see the farmer of Norway, for instances, cultivating tiny craps of land on the
sides of mountains.
He would see the farmer in the dry countries compelled to water their land with
irrigation ditches.
He would see a strange sight in America-fifty million acres of land lying idle, because
the top soil has dried up into dust and has blown away. He would see and hear of
tornadoes and droughts and floods and pests and dangers such as are wholly
unknown in England.
Also, in several countries, he would see labour-saving machines and new ideas and
methods such as he has never thought of using.
I am convinced that it would do a great deal to promote the success and happiness of
any average English farmer if he were to go on a trip around the world. (Sept 1936/39)
In one of her novels, Edith Wharton uses this striking phrase:-‘Most of her opinions
were heirlooms.”
There are plenty of heirloom opinions, especially about Efficiency. These opinions were
first created long ago, when business was looked down upon.
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A man holds fast to the opinion of his father and grandfather, just as he preserves an
old gold watch that has been in the family for three generations.
The watch doesn’t go and the opinion is absurd, but no matter. They are heirlooms.
If a man must keep his “heirloom opinions”, he should keep them apart from the
useful opinions of his working brain. (Sept 1935/41)
You can measure the Efficiency of any business man by his list of improvements. If he
has no such list on paper or in his mind, then he is not efficient.
The purpose of every man should to be to keep out of the graveyard until he dies.
While he is alive, he must act and change and do today something better than he did
yesterday.
If a wave of Efficiency-Study would sweep over the world, it would do more than any
other thing to increase prosperity and happiness. (Dec 1938/50)
One of the surest ways to waste money is to buy trash. Wise spending does not
depend on what you pay, but on what you get for your money.
A man can buy a used car for £5 and be sorry at the end of the first mile.
A cheap suit of clothes may cost two pence a day, while a suit at twice the price may
only cost a penny a day.
Also, and here is an important fact, anyone who concentrates on cheapness is likely to
set too low a price on himself and his services. He becomes too cheap.
It pays in the long run to concentrate on value up to the limit of your buying-power.
We classify ourselves by what we buy-that is a point that ought not to be forgotten.
(April 1937/10)
“I can’t understand how you manage to keep so calm whatever happens.”
“Oh, it’s just a matter of training. You see, I’ve a wife, five children, two dogs and a
cigarette-lighter.” (Feb1939/35)
It is a wise habit for any man who is middle-aged or older to go to a doctor at least
once a year and be thoroughly examined. If a man ahs a weak spot, he ought to know
it.
It is best to go to an older Doctor. No one else knows more about the human body
than a Doctor who is sixty years old or older. (March 1938/38)
One man with energy and enterprises can soon attract the attention and win the
goodwill of the people in a dead town.
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They may look at him with dull eyes, but they will speak well of him if he does
something to make the town more lively. (May 1939/42)
We, in Britain, prefer facts, clearly stated, and we do not appreciate the value of
imagination as much as we should.
Imagination makes a man inventive. It enables him to do something new and different.
It has great value in keeping man out of the rut. It prevents him from being a
clockwork figure of routine.
It enables him to predict a fashion, more or, less. He foresees what is likely to follow a
fashion of to-day.
So if a man has imagination, he should appreciate it as an asset. After all, many a
man has made a fortune by using his imagination. (May 1939/33)
We might say that there are four finesses. A man may be: - (1) Physically fit.
(2) Financially Fit (3) Emotionally fit. (4) Morally fit.
Any man who has achieved these four fitnesses may be marked down as a happy and
successful man. He has reached the heights of efficiency. (May 1939/31)
As we know EFFICIENCY teaches us that there is one best way to any job. But it
teaches, too, that the best way should not be regarded as FINAL.
A man’s ‘best” to-day should be better than his “best” five years ago. The man who
keeps on learning is steadily improving his “best”. (May 1939/50)
A vast amount of time is being wasted just now by people reading and talking about
dangers and difficulties that they cannot prevent.
It would be a wise plan for every one of us, I think, to start work on some long-
neglected job.
We are all caught fast in the organisation of our nation. We cannot escape that and we
don’t want to escape.
You and I, as individuals, cannot decide the great issues of to-day. We can only do
our little part, whatever that part may be.
The less we worry and waste our time. And the more we keep on working and thinking
about our own affairs, the better fitted we shall be to help our nation.
So my advice is-start a bit of creative work in your own business. Shift your mind from
worry to work. (June 1939/12)
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MANAGEMENT
The old “Drive” method of management has fairly well died out in Great Britain. We
have now raised employer ship and supervision to a higher level. (Oct 1935/33)
Ask employees for suggestions. When employees are quick to send in suggestions, that
is a sign of Good management. (Nov 1936/6)
Any Managing Director of a big Company, or any small shopkeeper with two
assistants, would do well to give a little thought to the matter of SUPERVISION.
From the point of view of efficiency and profit-making it is better to have higher grade
employees who need very little supervision. (Nov 1936/10)
There is one elusion in the business world that dies hard-the delusion that skilled
specialists cost too much. The fact is, they cost NOTHING. They create extra profits.
Nothing else is more profitable to buy than specialized knowledge. (Nov 1936/12)
Almost every Works needs a bigger scrap-heap. There are many obsolete machines
inside that ought to be outside. (May 1930/46)
The vital word of Tomorrow in management is personnel. (Nov 1930/12)
It is one of the duties of management to stimulate thinking amoung employees, and to
make good use of their intelligence.
The people in the rank and file are in a position to know many things that the men at
the top do not know.
In any firm, ideas can move upwards as well as downwards. (Nov 1938/45)
In these days, a Managing Director should spend some time every week in the study of
the business as a whole personnel, equipment and methods. (Oct 1941/12)
Here I a definition of a good managers-he is one who can make better use of other men
than they can make of themselves. (May 1934/29)
The vital thing is every Company is efficient management. The value of capital depends
on what is done with it.
Kreuger had plenty of assets. So had Samuel Insull. So had Hatry. But all three
crashed just the same. (May 1934/38)
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When the ladder of promotion leads all the way up from the office-boy to the Board of
Directors, it creates a wonderful spirit of loyalty and ambition in a Company.
(May 1934/44)
There is too much hiking in most of our factories. There are too many workers walking
about. And walking, in any factory, is WASTE. (May 1934/47)
It would be far safer, more sensible and more profitable to dismiss a DO-NOTHING
DIRECTOR and to put a bag of sand in his chair. Then the Company could move
forward. (Aug 1933/35)
Sometimes it pays a Managing Director to spend a whole month searching for the one
right man. (Feb 1938/6)
Management means working. The one man that does the hardest work in the whole
firm is the Managing Director.
This is a truth that Communists do not know. According to their foolish theory, the
employer is only a burden on the backs of the employees.
(Aug 1938/7)
Any Managing Director who gives most of his time to learning, thinking, planning and
promoting, is sure to be a successful Business-Builder. (Aug 1938/15)
Quite a few firms have a system of what we might call “policeman ship”, instead of
management.
This super-strictness defeats its own ends. After all, the aim of management is to
secure the goodwill and loyalty of the people who are being managed. (Aug 1938/43)
If a Manager is too hard, he will be tricked and deceived in a hundred ways and, if he
is too soft, there will be foot prints on his back.
How to be BALANCED- that is the problem for Managers to solve. (July 1933/6)
Why should the head of a Company not be sociable and approachable? Why should he
veneer himself with dignity? Why should he wear a “Keep-Off” sign as though he were
a flower garden? Why shouldn’t he be friendly with his own people?
(July 1933/7)
Wherever a Manager is doing well, he should not be plagued with a lot of “back-seat
driving”. He should be left alone and given a bit of extra pay. (Dec
1933/30)
Both men piled up huge fortunes. They engaged PROFIT-MAKERS (Dec 1933/31)
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The Managing Director of a large factory had a bright idea. “Suppose we have a
treasure hunt,” he said to his foremen, “and see how much waste and loss we can
stop.” Result was, wages were increased. A spirit of enthusiasm was created; and the
profits of the firm increased-all by a treasure hunt. (Dec1933/42)
It makes a wonderful difference to an ambitious young man when he receives a little
personal attention, and when he has been asked to do a little of his Company, It
makes him keen.
It is hard to understand the mentality of an employer or Manager who makes no effort
to use the brains of his people. (June 1936/37)
Any large firm would ass several thousands of pounds to its net profit by having am
Expense Controller. He would find plenty to do in the Advertising and Sales Promotion
Departments.
An Expense Controller would not necessarily reduce the amount of money spent, but
he would see, and make sure, that his Company is getting full value for what it
spends. (June 1936/50)
It is more profitable to train and stimulate shop assistants than to discourage them by
wage-cuts and penny-pinching.
The expenses of many a firm are too low. There is no doubt about that. (Feb 1934/21)
Isn’t it true that most of our Boards of Directors are split up into red-light Directors
and green-light Directors? And isn’t it true that what most of our Companies need is
more “GO” and less “STOP”? (Feb 1934/24)
Managers should be given a chance to grow. Then if they don’t grow, they should
cease to be managers. But if the Managing Directors surrounds himself with
GROWING men, who are doing more and more on their own without being told and
doing it well, then that firm will have net profits enough. (Jan 1933/37)
No Managing Director should lose heart if he has a bad year. But he must take quick
action, stop all losses and concentrate ALL his attention on net profits.
(March 1934/46)
The use of Incentives put into business the spirit of sport. People do not have to
drudge along for a flat wage or a fixed salary.
Once it is shown to a man that his pay, to a certain extent, depends on himself, there
is a striking difference in the way he works.
A firm that offers no Incentives has no idea how much it is losing by neglecting his
principle of good management. (July 1934/10)
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In spite of our science and enlightenment, there are still three harmful prejudices in
the business world. They are almost universal. No doubt it will take us three hundred
years to get rid them. Here they are:-
(1) The prejudice against having young people in the higher positions.
(2) The prejudice against having women in the higher positions.
(3) The prejudice against having the so-called “un educated” in the higher
positions.
These three prejudices have stopped progress in China for three thousand years. They
may be slowing down our progress in Great Britain. Better clear them out of your
brain. (July 1934/14)
The man at the top of a business must be either imitative or creative. If there is any
new way whereby he can increase his profits, he must be keen to learn it.
(July 1934/31)
There is a careful of gold in every large Company. It can be found by efficient
management. It can be found by increasing sales and output, by getting rid of waste
and obsolete equipment, by training and stimulating workers. (Sept 1934/34)
If is an amazing fact that hundreds of solvent, profit making firms shamefully neglect
their offices.
Their clerks are drudging with old-fashioned pens at bound ledgers. Their typists are
muddling with worn-out typewriters. And their desks, chairs and filing cabinets were
bought thirty years ago.
The whole work of the firm is being slowed down and made more expensive by these
obsolete offices. (Sept 1934/47)
It is a good practical rule in management to suit the language to the man. It is always
a mistake to storm at a timid man or to speak gently to a bully.
The man who roars and shouts at a girl workers is not fit to be in authority over them,
Girls are afraid of a shouting foreman and they detest him. He is sure to lose his best
girls.
Any reasonable man can be talked to in a quiet sensible way. The quiet way is the best
in the handling of most men,
But in any gang, there are likely to be one or two thick skinned, coarse-grained men
and they must be talked to in the only language they understand. (Sept 1934/42)
Many letters sent out by firms to their customers are incredibly impertinent. Every
Managing Director should make it his duty to find out how many people write letters
in his Company and what sort of letters they write. (Sept 1934/48)
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In almost all large companies many of the men at the top do too much running about.
This is a serious waste of time and should be stopped.
Many a man has the delusion that he is busy when he is travelling. The fact is-he is
not. He is busiest when being carried about like a piece of luggage.
There are men who would double their usefulness and their profits if they would get
that idea in their minds.
It is worth noting that the man who made the biggest fortune in America, Rockfeller,
has done the least travelling.
His habit has been to stay at home and THINK. He created the plans and let his people
do the work. It was a successful policy. (Mar 1935/34)
One of the most fatal of all mistakes that can be made by any company is to adopt the
policy of promotion by seniority.
It drives away the keen and ambitious young men. It destroys initiative and enterprise.
“Waiting for dead men’s shoes” Is a disheartening business.
Long service should be noticed and rewarded, but only the EFFICIENT should be
moved up. (Jan 1935/57)
MANAGEMENT BY FACTS- that is the only successful management. There must be
up-to-date knowledge before there can be wise decisions. (Feb 1935/19)
Any Manager who regards himself as “finished product”-who thinks he knows all that
he needs to know-is not likely to get the best results from his branch or department.
A business can only grow when the people in it, are growing. That is a blunt truth that
needs to be told. (April 1935/16)
Having seen many Board Meetings, I should say that not half of them are of any value
to the company, as a means of increasing the net profits.
The average Board Meeting is little more than an INQUEST. The Chairman acts as
Coroner and the Directors are the Jurymen.
They offer opinions upon the dead Past. The monthly statement does duty as the
Corpse.
Do they deal with coming month as well? Not often. They merely act as a body of
critics who deal with what has been done.
If there were a Suggestion Box in the Board Room, as perhaps there ought to be, it
would usually be found empty.
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The main duties of Directors are that of THINKING, not AUDITING. That is the vital
fact to bear in mind.
Surely, the right way ought to be to send all Directors the reports, facts, suggestions
etc., that are to be discussed, a week before the Board Meeting.
Then no time will be wasted by reading reports. And every Director will have a chance
to form his own opinions and prepare suggestions for improvements.
Directors should not be the least skilled men in a company. They should have a
technique of their own. (Jan 1937/12)
As soon as employees WANT to do their best that is a sure sign that they are being
well-managed.
The employer who releases the energies and abilities of his people is a LIBERATOR.
(June 1939/14)
As a Managing Director was walking through his factory, a bright-faced young
mechanic stepped up to him and said:-‘Mr. Blank, I have an idea.”
The M.D. was slightly amused. “That’ good,” he said. “Hang on to it. I’m busy just
now.” And he walked on. Did he send for the young mechanic later and ask about his
idea? As a matter of fact, he did not. The incident passed out of his mind. It is part of
a Managing Director’s job to be receptive and to welcome a suggestion from any of his
people. (May 1939/31)
Some employers and mangers have what we might call an ‘interferiority complex’. They
cannot refrain from interfering with the routine work of their own time doing this. And
they prevent their people from becoming self-reliant and competent. (May 1939/31)
A man should begin to learn the art of management as soon as he has one person
under him. (June 1939/32)
Every month I receive about fifty house magazines and find them interesting and
useful. A number of them have very clever and industrious editors.
But one thing I seldom see in these magazines- an article by one of the Directors of the
company.
As the main purpose of a house magazine is to link together all the people in one
organization and to create a company feeling, surely there should be articles by the
Directors now and then. (July 1939/25)
An ironmonger asked a friend: - “Can you help me to get my young son into the Civil
Service?”
The friend asked: - “Is he a competent lad?”
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“Of course not,” replied the ironmonger. “If he was competent, I’d use him in my
shop.” (July 1939/25)
Before an employer or manager goes on his holiday, he should set a task for his
employees. He should ask them to beat the record for summer sales or the output.
And he should offer incentives and rewards in case they do this. (July 1939/32)
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ADVERTISING
WHY use big words in advertisements. What is the use of these jaw-breakers? Many
readers don’t understand them.
When you advertise, write as you talk. (Oct 1928/28)
All the ablest advertising men are now trying to get their feet on the ground. They
must learn how to SELL.
If they cannot sell, what is the use of their other knowledge? (Oct 1928/45)
Advertisers should think more of net profits than of mere publicity. (Oct 1928/51)
Many an advertisement is mere boasting. It pleases the advertiser and nobody else.
(Oct 1941/26)
Advertising is no longer a job for an amateur. It has its own technique. It requires
money and skilled brains. A well-written advertisement with a striking illustration and
a good headline, placed in the right publication, pays better to-day than ever it did.
(Dec 1933/22)
Once in a while try an experiment. Write out an idea in fifty words. Then go to work,
and boil it down to twenty words. And see how much more effective it is.
(Sept 1938/36)
People are more intelligent than fish. That is why, when you are advertising, you must
have the right bait to catch them. (July 1933/38)
Here is a fact to think about-the waste of money by bad writing, in letters, booklets
and advertisements, is enough to build a Queen Mary every year. It is a waste of
millions.
Why any firm will take a bit of rotten writing and spend good money to have it printed
is a mystery that can only be solved by those doctors who study queer people. Miles of
turgid drivel are typed and printed every week. The poor art of writing – it is disgraced
by a host of scribblers.
Advertisements and selling talks should be in the simplest language, and not in the
jargon of the trade.
An ironmongery shop was having a cut-price sale. A sales man said to a customer:-
“You can have this oil stove for half the catalogue cost”
“That sounds reasonable,” replied the customer.”How much does the catalogue cost?
(Sept 1933/35)
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How to prevent advertising matter from being thrown into the waste-paper basket-
that is a problem.
No one knows what percentage is thrown away, but the correct figure would stagger
us. (Sept 1933/11)
Every business man owes it to himself and to his business to make at least one
experiment in GOOD advertising.
He should try some advertisements with catchy headlines, conversational copy,
photographs and Special Offers.
If he does this, he will not say that Advertising doesn’t pay. (Sept 1933/38)
The hardest part of an advertisement to write is the Headline. That is why there are so
few good ones.
The purpose of a Headline is to catch the eye, create interest, and persuade people to
read the whole advertisement. (Feb 1938/24)
Make your advertising simple, and interesting, and conversational, and you will be
surprised at the results. (Mar 1928/7)
Advertising-Salesmanship-Window Display. They influence people who are making up
their minds to buy. (Oct 1935/50)
The mass of people do mainly what they are told to do. They have standardized buying
habits.
How were these habits standardized? The answer- more by ADVERTISING than by any
other thing.
Keep on telling them what to buy and eventually most of them will do as they are told.
(Nov 1936/47)
Why don’t our Advertising Clubs get a working woman to speak to them now and
then? (May 1934/33)
Readers owe a debt to Advertisers they seldom think about. If it were not for
advertising, every penny newspaper would be two pence, and every shilling magazine
would be two shillings. (Nov 1928/42)
We under-value many useful things until we are taught to appreciate them. To create
appreciation of goods that are worthy of it-that is the purpose of all honest advertising.
(Mar 1928/16)
Advertisers should think of the buying-power of readers. You can’t catch big fish in
small rivers.
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The main thing to think of in advertising is not publicity, but how to reach the greatest
number of possible customers. (Oct 1935/10)
The bait that catches fishes is not the bait that suits the angler, but the bait that
suits the fishes.
Our Advertising Clubs delight in having speakers who belong to the Upper Ten. Why
don’t they, once in a while, listen to a speech from a working-man’s wife.
(Jan 1933/11)
Why don’t our hotels advertise in Canada? And why do our railways spend nearly all
their advertising money in the United States and only a few thousands in Canada?
(April 1934/18)
Salesmen should not forget that advertising makes selling easier. It does the
preparatory work.
A salesman and an advertising man were having an argument. The salesman pulled
out his order book.
“Every order in this book,” he said, “was got by salesmanship. You cannot show me
one got by advertising.”
‘Well”, replied the Advertising Man, “neither can I show you a single load of hay that
was put into the barn by the sun.” (Oct 1935/49)
The test of advertising is not the number of enquiries. It is the number of sales.
Ask any old salesman what he thinks of the “free offer” enquiries that come from the
daily Press. He will tell you in scorching words.
To get enquiries is a cheap trick. The real, profitable skill in advertising is to get them
from people who are likely to buy. (June 1936/32)
Either a product or a man can be advertised into fame by persistent advertising. This
is what the Americans call the “build-up”. (Sept 1938/38)
People buy newspapers for the news, not for the advertisements; but when an
advertisement is news, it catches the eyes of the readers.
Many a big company, spending much money on advertising would do well to have a
reporter on its advertising staff- a man who has a ‘nose for news”
He could make advertising vastly more effective. (May 1933/18)
Advertising should be as much like news as possible. Why? Because people are news-
mad. The news interests everybody.
94
People are more interested in people than in goods. They want human interest. An
Advertising Department can make its work twice as useful if it will remember this.
(April 1934/9)
What a story a bank might tell, if it would make its advertisements conversational and
interesting. There are more than “57 varieties” of financial necessities, and banking
service deals with them all. (Jan 1936/38)
Advertisers should notice that circulation means more than the number of copies sold
of any publication. It means also how many people really bad, not glance at, the
publication; and it means their buying power as well.
The vital question that an advertiser should ask is :-“How many possible buyers will
see my advertisement?” (Mar 1936/6)
How does it help any advertiser to have silly lies told in favour of his goods? Of what
use is any advertisement if people do not believe it?
Even in the advertising of cheap goods, there is usually some TRUE thing that can be
said about them. And this some TRUE that can be said about them. And this one true
thing is better than all the wild statements.
There is not one article of merchandise in the world that is the best and the cheapest.
(April 1937/47)
Money is never wasted on an advertisement that is INTERESTING to possible
customers (April 1939/46)
A recent study of results from advertising shows that the best advertisement was five
times as effective as the average advertisement and fourteen times as effective as the
poorest.
This plainly shoes that there is a marvelous difference between the service of a
competent Advertising Agency and the service of an amateur outfit.
Two advertisements, same space, same cost, can differ in the proportion of fourteen to
one. This is a most important fact for any advertiser to notice. (April 1939/18)
Advertising men have to put up with a lot of discourtesy, and worse, from novelties,
playwrights and professional men.
Perhaps the meanest thing that is said is that advertising men do not tell the truth.
Now, I will venture to say that the standard of veracity is higher in the advertising
profession than in any other.
Is there not more truth in the promises of an advertisement than in the promises of a
politician? Or in a lawyers speech to a jury? Yes, I think so.
95
Do doctors tell their patients “the truth the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”?
Ask any doctor.
If an average advertisement and an average sermon were submitted to an impartial
judge, which of the two would be found to be the most truthful. At a guess, I would
say: - ‘Not the sermon.”
So there ought to be an end to the cheap gibes against the reliability of
advertisements. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
(June 1939/24)
A woman went into a chemist’s shop and asked for a well -advertised toothpaste. It
was handed to her at once Time taken, three minutes.
Then a woman came in and asked for scented toilet soap. She had no one kind in
mind. She looked at five or six kinds and chose one. Time taken, ten minutes.
Roughly speaking, we may say it takes only a third as much time to sell a well -
advertised brand as to sell an unknown article.
Consequently, advertising is a great time-saver for customers and shop assistants.
More shop assistants would be needed if there were no advertising at all.
This is a point in favour of advertising that neither retailers nor customers, nor even
advertising men have noticed. And I think it ought to be made known.
(June 1939/38)
96
MIXED GEMS
THE Americans dearly love a boom. But they squeal when they have to pay the price
for it. (Nov 1928/45)
That slogan in common use: - “Live and Let Live”, is negative. A better slogan would
be: - “Live and Help Live”. (Aug 1938/8)
A bit of excitement every day is a grand thing for both brain and body. The “thrills ‘of
Blackpools, for instance, are curative to people who live monotonous lives.
(Aug 1938/14)
In fifty years the English language will be the standard language of the human race.
(Aug 1938/28)
The one sure way to prevent war is to abolish the herd patriotism that makes a man
hate every country but his own. (Aug 1938/34)
As yet, no bureaucrat has been able to invent a tax on flowers. We do not have to hand
over every fourth flower to the Government. So, there is a pleasant thought for August.
(Aug 1938/45)
Every man has a brain. This seems to be improbable, but surgeons assure us that it is
a fact. (July 1939/16)
Suppose you take a strong man, put a heavy burden on his back and led-irons on his
feet, how can you expect him to be a quick marcher?
This is what has happened to British business men. (July 1933/9)
Some men are brain-twisters. These human brain twisters seldom succeed in their
trades and professions. They seem to have no knack for friendship. (July 1933/29)
“I haven’t time.” To say this isn’t true. The only people who haven’t time are dead-dead
and BURIED, I mean.
Every man who is alive has time. He will not have it long. That is why he must make a
good use of it. (July 1933/42)
Years ago it took about twenty yards of goods to clothe a woman. To-day it takes about
seven yards and a pair of silk stockings. (July 1933/42)
Every right-minded should love his own family above all, but he should not dislike or
despise his neighbours.
97
In the same way, every right handed man must be loyal to his own country, but he
must not dislike or despise foreign peoples. (July 1933/48)
Our laws with regard to debtors should be amended. We are punishing only the little
debtors.
To send a man to prison and ruin him merely because he can’t or won’t pay a few
shillings a week is all wrong. It helps nobody. (Dec 1933/39)
It is an odd fact of human nature that when a man needs a thing, and can afford to
buy it, he will wait for months and sometimes for years before he buys it.
(Sept 1938/11)
Words are like chemicals. They often cause explosions. Harsh words have broken up
homes and partnerships. They have led to violence. They have started wars.
(Sept 1938/18)
The man in Britain who first conceived of the idea of allotments was one of the best
benefactors in this country. (Sept 1938/20)
Doctors have invented a new name for an old mental disease, “voluntary inertia” We
used to call it laziness.
Tens of thousands of people have it. It can be cured in a jiffy by a strong effort of will-
power. (Feb 1937/30)
It’s no use wishing you were a bird. If you were, you might have to work harder than
you do now. (Feb 1938/37)
As a class, Liberians are unnoticed people. Their names do not appear in the daily
Press. And they are never in the honours Lists.
But the most useful, really creative man or woman in many a town is a librarian. To
create a desire for knowledge, to create ambition, nothing is more useful than that.
Many a career has been started by a librarian. (Aug 1938/20)
Time is rightly measured, not by years, but by achievements. (Aug 1938/47)
Few things a man buys are more expensive than a shave, because it only lasts one
day. If a barber discovered a way to shave so that it would last a year, he could charge
£5 per shave, and he would have plenty of customers. (Mar 1928/17)
Have you ever thought of this –how many good opportunities you and I have lost-all
for the lack of two penny-worth of courage? (Mar 1928/37)
I have to buy about one hundred and fifty books a year to keep up with the ideas and
events of the time. Even then I miss many good ones. How many do you buy?
(Sept 1938/29)
98
Tell me what a young man READS, and I can predict his future much more correctly
than can any gipsy or astrologer. (Sept 1938/31)
Anyone can put a pint of meaning into a bushel of words, but it takes skill to put a
bushel of meaning into a pint of words. (Sept 1938/36)
In Great Britain it is not ‘goo form” to be interested in net profits. There is a general
pretence that a man who is keen on making money is a sordid lower-class man.
We have a good many “pretences” in Britain, and this is one of the silliest.
(April 1938/6)
Every boy of eight asks questions. His brain is a little question factory.
When the boy becomes eighteen, he does not, usually, ask so many questions. By that
time he has begun to pretend that he knows more than he does. (April 1938/14)
I have always tried to get as much money as possible without sacrificing the things
that I prize higher than money. (April 1938/32)
The waste of time and money in litigation has now become one of the greatest of all
wastes. And is PREVENTABLE. (April 1938/34)
The genuine “Liberals” of today are those who are in the Efficiency Movement. They
are the men who are interested in the new ideas and methods in business, and who
are in favour of private enterprises as against Government control. (April 1938/34)
Many a man’s epitaph ought to be: - ‘Dead at thirty, buried at sixty.” (June 1936/8)
A group of men was watching a big digging machine at work. One of them said: - “That
is the kind of thing that has put thousands of men out of work.”
Another man replied: - “Yes, and when shovels were first invented, some fool wanted
them abolished because one man could do more with a shovel than a dozen men could
do with sticks.” (June 1936/17)
A home without flowers is not much of a home. (June 1936/28)
Take care of your pence and your shillings will take care of the Government.
(June 1936/31)
Enjoy Your Money. It is an amazing fact that wealth does not necessarily increase
happiness, as it ought to do. Usually, the bigger the motor-car, the more joyless are
the faces in it. (June 1936/34)
It is a strange fact that as yet we know much more about the working of our own
minds. (June 1936/38)
99
The two great wealth-producers are ideas and machines. (Oct 1938/32)
We, who live in a civilized country with factories and shops, do not appreciate the
value of the common convenience of life. We have so many of them and never give
them a thought. (Oct 1938/38)
No man can call himself a reader unless he reads BOOKS. (Oct 1938/59)
Far-off fields look green. Better go and work on those fields for a while before you buy
them. (June 1936/14)
There are many things money cannot buy. These are priceless things and one of them
is friendship. (Dec 1933/7)
No one can prevent old age of the body, but anyone can prevent old age of the brain.
(Feb 1934/14)
To all investors I would say: “Put a certain percentage of you money into land. Land is
the only thing that cannot be destroyed. But the field that is nearest the Town Hall,
and you cannot go wrong. Buy land close to a growing town.” (Feb 1934/11)
A man does not lose his soul by becoming a money-maker. That is silly old tradition.
It is the poor devil that has no money who becomes money-mad. Most of the anti-
commercial people whom I have known have been as greedy as pigs in money matters.
(Feb 1934/18)
In this steady old Country we have no such thing as hysteria. We don’t know what it
is. We’ll not have any of it even when Gabriel blows the trumpet for the Judgment Day.
All that we’ll do on that Day is to walk up front and see if the trumpet was made in
Japan. (Feb 1934/31)
Buy more BOOKS. Good books ought to be bought, not borrowed.
I prefer reading a clean book- one that I can mark and pick up again in a year or two.
In its very nature, a good book ought to be private property, not mauled about in fifty
families. (Feb 1934/33)
If a man has a trouble he must wipe it out of his mind as soon as possible. Why?
Because he must get ready for the next trouble.
A man can deal with one trouble at a time, bet he will be crushed if he holds fast to a
lot of troubles. (Feb1934/35)
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There is a profound truth in a verse in the Old Book: - “To him that hath shall be
given.” It tells a universal fact about human nature.
You can always tell how much a man knows by noticing his attitude toward new
knowledge. The more knowledge he has, the more he wants.
“To him that hath shall be given.” (Feb 1934/37)
All through life we have our falls. The higher up a man is, the worse may be his fall.
But a man must do as he did when he was a baby-pick himself up and keep on.
(June 1937/47)
In this island we have a shortage of good speakers. It is remarkable how many men
will dare to stand up and speak without having spent one hour in the study of the art
of public speaking. (June 1937/49)
The great criminals in the business world are WASTE and INEFFICIENCY.
They rob us of millions-hundreds of millions. They cost fully as much as the
Government. (Feb 1932/6)
A Foreman has many jobs as a housewife with five children and no servant.
Sometimes he thinks he has more. (Feb 1932/9)
Hoarded money is a dead money. It does no one way good. Here in Britain we have no
hoarded money. We are not afraid of our banks. They are so safe and solid that we
seldom give them a thought. (Feb 1932/40)
A man who can keep his head and his temper and his friendliness when things are
going wrong has POISE. (Feb 1932/50)
If an advertiser is trying to sell to dentists, he should use the longest words he knows.
Dentists have long words. The name of nearly every tooth-paste is a tongue-twister.
(Jan 1933/1)
The people who live on gifts and taxation are not business men, although some of
them render useful services. They are more likely to be parasitical. (Jan 1933/13)
A quick response marks the difference between a thoroughbred horse and a donkey.
When you stimulate a thoroughbred, he gives you all the speed he has in him, but
when you stimulate a jackass, he kicks. (Jan 1933/43)
We have a mania for the latest news, no matter how trivial it is. Yesterday’s paper does
not interest us any more than last year’s calendar. (May 1933/18)
Communism has always caused universal poverty. Every man should have what he
can earn. The strong must help the weak, but they should not be robbed.
(May 1933/20)
101
Those of us who are prosperous should now and then read the stories of failure and
wastage. We should show a bit more sympathy for the people who are being broken.
There are millions of them. (May 1933/34)
Everyman has silver in his tonsils, titanium in his lungs and zinc in his liver. He has
copper, chromium and tin in his body. He is most wonderful chemical product. But
most men, in my opinion, needless tinfoil in them and more IRON. (May 1933/37)
There is no place like home, if you want to see shabby furniture. This must be true, as
it is proved by the small percentage of our incomes that we spend on furniture.
(Jan 1934/21)
A man should give the same care to himself that he gives to his moor-car. Every day,
tens of thousands of men are trying to work when their bodies are in need of repair
work.
Really, there ought to be a service station for business men who are out of order. And
the right man to run it would be a comedian. (Jan 194/42)
If the people in a home have good dispositions, it will be a happy home, even if there is
not much money coming into it.
To any young person, I would say: “Study carefully the disposition of the young man
or woman whom you are thinking of marrying. To tell the truth, there are quite a few
people who are not fit to marry. They are misery-makers. They have bad dispositions.
They have no flair for happiness. They are all for trouble.” (Mar 1934/12)
To invest money safely is no easy matter. It is as hard to keep money as it is to make
it.
There seems to be no limit to the gullibility of many investors. (Mar 1934/20)
In dealing with Nature, it is best to take all discounts. It is best to pay cash in three
days, not thirty. Nature kills her bad debtors. (April 1934/11)
We are not thin-skinned race .We do not have to be handled like a bric-a-brac. We
prefer a john Blunt to a Mr. Pussyfoot. (April 1934/11)
Many foreigners say that we have no imagination. In a way, they may be right. It may
be their way of saying that we prefer facts to delusions
The fact is that we have more imagination than we think we have, but we keep it
under control. We don’t let it make fools of us. (April 1934/31)
When people FEEL like working, ye gods, how they can work. (April 1934/31)
Money is hard to make and just as hard to keep. When a man has money, there are
snatching hands all around him.
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It takes one hand to make money and the other hand to hold on to it. (June 1934/13)
The citizen who does nothing at all to express his opinions on high taxation and
bureaucracy- he is the one who is to blame. (June 1934/30)
I would advise any man to lead a double life. Not a good life and a bad one, but TWO
GOOD LIVES.
It is not a good plan to give ALL of one’s time to money-making. Many a man makes a
fortune and then doesn’t know how to use it.
The man who thinks only from his point of view in business life is likely to fail, and the
man who has no private life of his own never knows the happiness he misses.
(July 1934/6)
Youth can last as long as we live, if we do not petrify at forty. A man can be bald and
boy-hearted. (July 1934/12)
Prejudice dies hard. It took three hundred years to overcome the prejudice against
potatoes.
There is, for instance, a silly prejudice against opals-the most beautiful of all stones.
Many people think they are unlucky. The fact is that it is unlucky NOT to possess
them. (July 1934/14)
Not many men over forty are happy. Most of them belong to the “I-Wish-I-Had” Club.
They need to be “born again”. (July 1934/13)
Some champion fool in a newspaper office invented the word “Profiteer”. This word is
likely to be flung at any competent business man who is giving good service to the
public. (July 1934/35)
The more the parents do for children, the less the children do for their parents. Many
rich fathers and mothers often reflect upon this. (July 1934/40)
It is an important quality-the ability to get on with one’s fellow workers. I once knew a
cook who had it, but that was a long time ago. (Aug 1934/30)
Even chickens knew that when worms are scarce, they must scratch harder.
(Aug 1934/34)
Life is like a game of chess that we play against Time. Time is always moving. When
Time moves and we don’t, Time wins. But when we move we win.
Whenever a man learns valuable information or does something creative in a day, he
has won that day.
103
And when you see an old man picking up cigarette stubs on the street, you may be
sure that Time has whacked him.
It adds greatly to our satisfaction and helps us wonderfully to achieve success if we
look upon life as game against Time. (Aug 1934/20)
The Egyptians cannot abolish the heat but, if they want tourists to visit their country,
they must get rid of the flies and the beggars and the touts. (Aug 1934/39)
A good gardener is all for development and improvement. And so is a good prime
Minister or employer.
Every garden proves the craziness of Communism and all Governments that restrict
and penalize private enterprise.
How to give every plant a chance to do its best-that is the aim of a good gardener. And
how to give everyone in his Company a chance to do his best- that is the aim of a good
Managing Director. (Mar 1935/7)
A Hairdresser in the Midlands has adopted this slogan: - ‘Our Business grows on you.”
All very well, but why don’t hairdressers and barbers find out how to prevent bald
spots? (Jan 1935/57)
Isn’t it true that the thing a man knows least about is his own body? The teachers in
our schools and the Professors in our universities do not know their own bodies.
This will seem a strange fact one hundred years from now, when our curriculum will
have been made more practical. (Jan 1935/11)
The business world, at present, stands half-way between the religious worlds and the
scientific world. Its so-called knowledge is a jumble of true and false, useful and
useless, fact and tradition. (Jan 1935/10)
The spirit of youth has come upon women. This is a good thing. I wish it would come
upon men.
To-day, when you talk down the street behind a woman, you can’t tell whether she is
sixteen or sixty.
There can be no doubt about it that women to-day are more ambitious than men. They
are keener for the good things of life.
In tens of thousands homes you will find a quick woman pushing a slow man. In most
cases, when you see a man climbing up in the world, it is because he is being prodded
in the back by his wife.
Women want more things and better things than men do. They have most of the
buyin0power. Please women and they will make you rich.
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Women are no longer the slow sex. They are now setting the pace. They are
stimulating the men. No use grousing. We MUST keep up with them. (Jan 1935/43)
It will do any child good, and do the father good as well, if he will give a half-hour now
and then to answering his child’s questions.
A child’s questions are often very wise and very probing. Children will say what they
think. Their questions will often prove to us that we do not know as much as we think
we do. (Jan 1935/54)
The problems of our emotional life are as the hardest to solve. Usually, when it is a
straight case of the Heart against the Pocket, I take sides with the Heart.
I am all for Success, but the older I grow, the more inclined I am to put happiness and
affection first. We must keep money in its proper place. (Jan 1935/60)
Some men, not many, wake up in the morning with a smile. Most of us, I fear, are in a
bad humour before breakfast.
It is a pleasant habit and a profitable one to begin every day with a laugh and a bit of
fun. It starts the day well. And it helps to make a happy home. (Jan 1935/66)
These four words cost us a great deal;-“It can’t be done.” When a man says these
words often, it proves that he is suffering from mental old age. (Feb 1935/24)
Some day there will come a Master Salesman and a Master Advertiser who will sell the
idea of central Heating to the British people.
Nearly every one of us gets up in the morning in a cold house in the winter season. We
think we must.
We have a prejudice against over-heated houses, but we have no prejudice against
under-heated houses. (Feb 1935/36)
Why do some of our London daily newspapers print articles written by alarmists?
I suppose it I because newspaper men believe that a small item of bad news is more
interesting than a big item of good news.
If a film actress loses her jewellery that goes on the main page with a two-column
headline.
But if a big English Company pays a 75% dividend that is tucked away on a back page
– a two-inch one column article. (Mar 1935/23)
Schools, Colleges and Universities should teach courtesy and the consideration of
others. At present, they do not teach it.
105
Too often, they send out young men who have become arrogant-so arrogant that they
are quite unsuited for the business world. (Mar 1935/32)
No doubt there are thousands of small shopkeepers who haven’t even a fountain-pen.
(April 19365/18)
If hard work made people rich, we would have half a million people in Britain with £
10,000 a year. (May 1935/33)
Here is a curious fact of human nature –we buy motor cars like spendthrifts; and we
buy books like misers. (May 1935/34)
Smiling, quick-eyed waitresses—waitresses who don’t desert you for ten minutes-help
to make a restaurant popular. (Aug 1935/22)
Scientists who have studied the human brain say that the average person uses only
one-tenth of his brain. He is like a man who buys a ten-roomed house and lives in one
room. (Sept 1935/10)
Don’t let family pressure make you lend money to relatives. Money lent to relatives is
seldom paid back. (Sept 1935/14)
We all have our dreams. They seldom come true, but they make us wake up with a
smile. And that’s something. (Sept 1935/41)
Almost every civilized country is ruled by TALKERS. That is vastly better than being
ruled by Dictators and military conquerors.
But there will come a time in the future when some nations will rise higher in the
scale and be ruled, not by TALKERS, but by BUSINESS-BUILDERS. (Aug 1936/23)
It is surely a pleasant thing when a wealthy man acts with generosity to the town or
village where he was born. (Aug 1936/31)
Writing on behalf of business men, I would say that there is far too much betting.
Money is being thrown away on betting by debtors who owe it to tradesmen or building
societies or life insurance companies.
Betting is a fool’s game. There are twenty losers to one winner. It prevents saving and
self-help. The general opinion of all business men is that it should not be favored and
stimulated. (Aug 1936/35)
Last month, I saw a tragic funeral. Following the hearse there was one cab. Inside the
cab there was only one man. And he was smiling.
It is worth a thought-this matter of funerals. The size of your funeral is the last and
most conclusive test of your popularity. We should live in such a way that we shall be
missed and mourned. (Aug 1936/37)
106
Educating Sons. He was proud of the fine sons he possessed, but found their
education expensive. This, with other financial troubles, had put him in a bad temper.
But he managed to answer a farmer civilly when asked to admire a fine litter of pigs.
When he was told how expensive it was to keep them, he again lost his temper.
“Keep them?” he roared. “Be thankful you haven’t got to educate them.” (Aug 1936/50)
It is amazing how careless many business men are when they invest their money. They
toil for years to make a thousand pounds and then they invest it in a business or
scheme of which they know little or nothing.
They pile up their money with a spoon and then chuck it away with a shovel.
(Sept 1936/28)
It is certain that most of us drive our motor-cars too fast. We are the victims of a speed
mania which is, I think, a temporary phase.
The main question is – what is the value of the time we save by speed? Many a man
tears along at a reckless pace and then, when he gets there, sits down and talks about
cricket for an hour. What is the use of that?
In driving through Britain, there is surely more pleasure to be had in looking at the
scenery than in feeling like a projectile. (Sept 1936/9)
That Stupid Phrase- “Working Class”: there is no such thing in Great Britain. Here the
rich have the most money, but the poor have the most votes. The poor are the “ruling
class”, as far as there is such a thing in Britain. Here there are some Trade Union
leaders who have bigger incomes than some titled people.
Numbers of our aristocracy open shops and work for a living-wages and salaries.
There are Baronets who have less pay some engineers and chemists.
The men who do the hardest work in Great Britain are the Managing Directors. Yet
according to the stupid Communists they are non-workers.
In Great Britain a man’s class depends upon himself. No one is nailed down. Anyone
can fall lower or rise higher. (Sept 1936/31)
Some stupid person invented the proverbs: - “Keep a thing seven years, and you’ll find
a use for it.”
As a result, there is a lot of junk in our offices and shops and factories and homes.
A much better proverb would be: - “Carry no rubbish”. If you have no use for a thing,
better get rid of it. (Jan 1937/29)
107
There are still quite a few business men with ingrowing minds who say: - “No outsider
can teach me anything about my business.”
In most cases they are probably right, as they are unteachable. (Jan 1937/30)
You can always tell the stuff that a young man is made of, by noticing his attitude
toward a hard job. (Jan 1937/39)
Today we have to put on your running shoes to keep up with the procession.
Improvements are coming so fast that we can hardly keep track of them.
So, thank God you are alive. Keep moving. Start something. Think of something
worthwhile. Do it now. THE WORLD MOVES (Mar1937/7)
When a man reaches the fifty-year post, he must do something to keep his brain alive.
If he doesn’t, then his Memory will become the Dictator of his brain. (Mar 1937/37)
If I were an employee, I think I would give a thought, now and then, to what I owed my
employer.
Instead of having the silly Bolshevistic idea that my employer was exploiting me-
making profits out of me- I would think of what he is doing for me.
Not many people can earn as much, working on their own, as they can earn by being
employees.
Usually, it is not until a man has started on his own and failed, or until he is
unemployed, that he appreciates the usefulness to him of an employer. (Mar 1937/39)
The more you think about this subject, the more important it seems - adult re-
education.
How many of us had the sort of education that fits us for the work we are now doing?
Not many. (Mar 1937/49)
Busy men who cannot give their TIME to helping others can give a bit of MONEY. They
MUST o this. It is a law of human life. (April 1937/20)
To every young man starting out to earn his own living, I have always given this
advice: First get fit. Don’t face the problems of life with a weak, half–developed body.
(April 1937/38)
“I believe in the survival of the fittest,” said the talkative passenger. “Do you?”
“No,” the stranger replied. “I don’t believe in the survival of anybody –I’m an
undertaker.” (April 1937/46)
108
We all agree that there should be laws to protect wage workers, but great care should
be taken in the drawing up of these laws. When they are drawn up as vote-catching
schemes, they are sure to throw people out of work. (Dec 1938 /42)
Life is too serious to be taken seriously. (Feb 1939/50)
We need a Duncan Hines in Great Britain, to teach us to appreciate good food and to
go to the few places where it is provided.
Who is Duncan Hines? He is a Chicago man who has become famous as the author of
a book: Adventures in Good Eating. More than fifty thousand copies have been sold.
(Feb 1939/41)
In spite of all the epidemics of savagery, I believe that the civilization of the next
century will be nobler and kindlier than the civilizations of to-day. (Mar 1939/26)
Life is worth living better than most men live it to-day. (Mar 1939/50)
Let’s all pull together. It’s an old British customer. (Mar 1939/50)
In these days no trade or profession should be run as a monastery. Any position
should be open to a woman who is competent to fill it. (April 1939/29)
Every day we read that the world is just on the verge of falling to pieces, and every
morning we get up and look out of the window, and there it is. (April 1939/50)
I noticed that the doctors in France are advertising people to wear hats, as a help in
the preservation of health. This is a Tip to British hatters – get a few doctors to protest
against harmful hatlessness. (May 1939/24)
Husband: - “Hang it all, some of these bills are a year old. Why haven’t you brought
them to me before?”
Wife: - “I’ve been waiting for one of your cheerful spasms, darling.” (May 1939/28)
I have no patience with the piffling scribblers who carp at the B.B.C in the daily press.
It gives us amusement, good entertainment and a vast amount of information.
(March 1938/20)
Every man brightens or darkens the room he is in. That is a point to remember in
these days when we need a bit more brightness. (June 1939/18)
Any M.P. who sets out to secure more freedom for business could become the most
useful M.P. in the House.
Among the six hundred and more M.P’s there are many competent business men. But
they seem to have been overwhelmed by the politicalism with which they are
surrounded.
109
Why doesn’t one of them see his golden opportunity? (May 1939/40)
Many of us who live and work in big towns often wish for “a little place in the country”.
We think we would be happier if we could get away from the noise and the traffic and
the crowds of a town.
Perhaps we would. Perhaps not. Not one, I think, ever appreciates the comfort and
pleasures of a town until he gets away from it.
Robinson Crusoe had an island all to himself, but he left as soon as he could. And he
never went back to it. (June 1939/10)
SAY IT WITH BOOKS. Quite a few business men have the habit of giving books to their
friends. It is a pleasant habit for any kindly well-to-do man.
Some men give dinners to their friends, but a dinner lasts only until the next meal,
while a book may last years – perhaps a lifetime.
There is no more appropriate gift to any intelligent person than a book. (June
1939/22)
Every man’s experience needs a “wash and brush-up” now and then. (June 1939/47)
If anyone touches a tortoise, the tortoise pulls in his head and plays dead. But if
anyone touches a frog, he jumps. And keeps on jumping until he is out of danger.
Now there are many business men who are like tortoises, and there are quite a few
who are like frogs. The men who try to hide, I am sure, are much more numerous than
the men who jump.
What one man fears as a danger, a wise man welcomes as an opportunity. Don’t be a
tortoise. (July 1939/4)
Fathers are not always right and sons are not always wrong. (July
1939/10)
There is what is called the ‘Literature of Escape”. There are novels, “thrillers”, plays
and films that make people forget their trouble for a time.
All these have their value. They give us relaxation. They enable us to escape for a while
from our worries and our work.
Every Bookstall is heaped with the magazines of Escape and you have to look
diligently to find a magazine of Achievement.
Most of us, I am sure, do far too much escaping. We would be happier, as well as
richer, if we if we gave more time to those magazines and books that show us how to
grapple with our troubles and overcome them. (July 1939/15)
