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The Bell Of Public Opinion Is Today Making The Morgan-rockefeller-vanderbilt Class Jump. Nor Are The Strongest Of Our Corporations Immune. The Railroads Have Had To Jump Pretty Lively, And Certain Gigantic Industrial Combinations Are Also Being Put Through Their Paces.

-B. C. Forbes

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The Bell Of Public

B. C. Forbes

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The Bell Of Public Opinion Is Today Making The Morgan-rockefeller-vanderbilt Class Jump. Nor Are The Strongest Of Our Corporations Immune. The Railroads Have Had To Jump Pretty Lively, And Certain Gigantic Industrial Combinations Are Also Being Put Through Their Paces.

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Honesty Pays Dividends Both In Dollars And In Peace Of Mind.

A Price Has To Be Paid For Success. Almost Invariably Those Who Have Reached The Summits Worked Harder And Longer, Studied And Planned More Assiduously, Practiced More Self- Denial, Overcame More Difficulties Than Those Of Us Who Have Not Risen So Far.

He Is A Wise Man Who Seeks By Every Legitimate Means To Make All The Money He Can Honestly, For Money Can Do So Many Worthwhile Things In This World, Not Merely For One's Self But For Others. But He Is An Unmitigated Fool Who Imagines For A Moment That It Is More Important To Make The Money Than To Make It Honestly. One Of The Advantages Of Possessing Money Is That It Facilitates One's Independence And Mental Attitude. The Man Head Over Heels In Debt Is More Slave Than Independent.

Bragging Often Precedes Begging.

Anything That Inspires Unselfishness Makes For Our Ennoblement. Christmas Does That. I Am All For Christmas.

Talking Things Over Has Its Place In An Organization [but] So-called Conferences Are Being Grossly Overdone. One Executive Stops At The Desk Of Another To Tell Him, Perhaps, About The Wonderful Score He Made At Golf On Saturday Afternoon. This Chin-chin Immediately Becomes A Conference, And Neither The Office Boy Nor The Telephone Operator Must Disturb Either Gentleman. More Idle Gossip Is Indulged In At Many Business Conferences These Days Than An Old Wives' Sewing Circle Would Be Guilty Of.

A Business Like An Automobile, Has To Be Driven, In Order To Get Results.

The Man Who Has Won Millions At The Cost Of His Conscience Is A Failure.

Are Your Desires Purely Selfish? Do Your Tastes Run To A Grand Home, Automobiles, Fine Clothes, An Abundance Of Amusements, And So Forth? If So, Look Around You At People Who Have Such Things In Superabundance. Are They Any Happier, Do You Think, Than You Are? Are They Any Better Morally? Are They Any Stronger Physically? Are They Better Liked By Their Friends Than You Are By Your Friends? ... Carnegie Said, Millionaires Rarely Smile. This Is Substantially True.

The Things That Are Most Worthwhile In Life Are Really Those Within The Reach Of Almost Every Normal Human Being Who Cares To Seek Them Out.

It Is When Things Go Hardest, When Life Becomes Most Trying, That There Is Greatest Need For Having A Fixed Goal.

I Have Never Seen People Who Could Do Real Work Except Under The Stimulus Of Encouragement And Enthusiasm And The Approval Of The People For Whom They Are Working.

The Real Friend Is He Or She Who Can Share All Our Sorrow And Double Our Joys.

Life Is Just An Endless Chain Of Judgements. . . . The More Imperfect Our Judgement, The Less Perfect Our Success.

I Have Known Not A Few Men Who, After Reaching The Summits Of Business Success, Found Themselves Miserable On Attaining Retirement Age. They Were So Exclusively Engrossed In Their Day To Day Affairs That They Had No Time For Friend Making.

A Nation's Economic Salvation Does Not Lie In The Amount Of Money Its Rich Inhabitants Can Squander Recklessly. A Nation's Economic Salvation Lies In The Amount Of Money Its Inhabitants Can Save And Invest After Providing Themselves With All The Necessaries And All The Reasonable Comforts Of Life.

The Human Being Who Lives Only For Himself Finally Reaps Nothing But Unhappiness. Selfishness Corrodes. Unselfishness Ennobles, Satisfies.

Which Is More Worthwhile Earning: A Large Fortune Or The Esteem And Gratitude Of The Nation? This Question Is Prompted Anew By The Death Of Ex-secretary Of The Interior [franklin K.] Lane. He Remained In Public Service, Doing Most Noble Work, Until His Means Became Absolutely Exhausted, And He Died Before Having Had The Opportunity To Reaccumulate Any Bank Account.... He Died Leaving No Estate Whatsoever. Is What He Did Leave More To Be Desired, More To Be Coveted, Than A Fortune Reaching Into Six Or Seven Figures?

Courtesy Is Doing That Which Nothing Under The Sun Makes You Do But Human Kindness. Courtesy Springs From The Heart; If The Mind Prompts The Action, There Is A Reason; If There Be A Reason, It Is Not Courtesy, For Courtesy Has No Reason. Courtesy Is Good Will, And Good Will Is Prompted By The Heart Full Of Love To Be Kind. Only The Generous Man Is Truly Courteous. He Gives Freely Without A Thought Of Receiving Anything In Return.

A Young Financial Writer Once Brought Ridicule Upon Himself By Stating That A Certain Company Had Nothing To Commend It Except Excellent Earnings. Well, There Are Companies Whose Earnings Are Excellent But Whose Stocks I Would Never Recommend. In Selecting Investments, I Attach Prime Importance To The Men Behind Them. I'd Rather Buy Brains And Character Than Earnings. Earnings Can Be Good One Year And Poor The Next. But If You Put Your Money Into Securities Run By Men Combining Conspicuous Brains And Unimpeachable Character, The Likelihood Is That The Financial Results Will Prove Satisfactory.

Many Men Who Do Creditable Things Refuse To Let It Be Known. This Is A Mistake. While We All Admire Modesty, Nevertheless There Is A Great National Need To Do Everything Possible To Bring Home To The Rank And File Of The People That All Employers And All Wealthy Men Are Not Grinding, Mercenary, Selfish Skinflints, But That Many Of Them Take Delight In Doing Helpful Things For Others ... Shortcomings Of Employers Are Constantly Paraded. Why Not Let The Public Become Acquainted With The Better Side Which Most Present-day Employers Possess?

What One Thing Does The World Need Most Today-apart, That Is, From The All-inclusive Thing We Call Righteousness? Aren't You Inclined To Agree That What This Old World Needs Is Just The Art Of Being Kind? Every Time I Visit A Factory Or Any Other Large Business Concern, I Find Myself Trying To Diagnose Whether The Atmosphere Is One Of Kindliness Or The Reverse. And Somehow, If There Is Palpably Lacking That Spirit Of Kindness, The Owners ... Have Fallen Short Of Achieving 24-carat Success No Matter How Imposing The Financial Balance Sheet May Be.

Opportunity Rarely Knocks On Your Door. Knock Rather On Opportunity's Door If You Ardently Wish To Enter.

Golf Without Bunkers And Hazards Would Be Tame And Monotonous. So Would Life.

Are Soft-hearted People Handicapped In Business? You Have Heard A Businessman Say Of Someone Else, He's All Right, But He's Too Soft-hearted.... To Be Soft-hearted May Be Handicapping, In A Sense. But On The Whole, A Soft Heart Is To Be Preferred To A Hard Heart. Hard-hearted, Severe, Dominating Giants Sometimes Manage To Get Further And To Amass More Money. But They Get Less Genuine Joy Out Of Life.... It Is The Hard-boiled Employer, Not The Soft-hearted Species, That Incites Most Of Our Strikes And Does Most To Endanger The Harmonious Progress Of Democracy.

The Man Who Is Bigger Than His Job Keeps Cool. He Does Not Lose His Head, He Refuses To Become Rattled, To Fly Off In A Temper. The Man Who Would Control Others Must Be Able To Control Himself. There Is Something Admirable, Something Inspiring, Something Soul-stirring About A Man Who Displays Coolness And Courage Under Extremely Trying Circumstances. A Good Temper Is Not Only A Business Asset. It Is The Secret Of Health. The Longer You Live, The More You Will Learn That A Disordered Temper Breeds A Disordered Body.

Christmas Moves Us To Think Of Others Rather Than Of Ourselves & Directs Our Thoughts To Giving.

Had I Not Gone Through The Ordeal, In More Than One Country, Of Landing A Job, I Would He Tempted To Lose Patience Over The Number Of Letters Pouring In From Fellows Who Want Me Or Someone Else To Hand Them A Job On A Silver Platter With A Guarantee That They Will Receive The Wonderful Promotion Their Talents Warrant.... But A Tragic Number Of Young Men And Even Older Men Have A Notion That It Is Not Up To Them To Prosecute The Bettering Process. They Look To Someone Else To Perform The Trick For Them.

A Word Of Appreciation Often Can Accomplish What Nothing Else Could Accomplish.

If The World War [i] Demonstrated Anything It Was That Government Ownership Is Fraught With The Gravest Dangers And Usually Leads To Disaster. Take Britain. The Two Problems Which Have Caused The Greatest Trouble Since The War Ended Have Been Transportation And Coal. The Government Seized Both Industries When The War Broke Out. It Got Them Into Such A Hopeless Mess That It Does Not Know How To Turn [in] Coal; The Government Now Realizes, It Took Hold Of The Tail Of A Wild Animal And Is Afraid To Let Go.

It Is Only The Farmer Who Faithfully Plants Seeds In The Spring, Who Reaps A Harvest In The Autumn.

If The Deal Isn't Good For The Other Party, It Isn't Good For You.

Any Business Arrangement That Is Not Profitable To The Other Fellow Will In The End Prove Unprofitable For You. The Bargain That Yields Mutual Satisfaction Is The Only One That Is Apt To Be Repeated.

If A Pig Could Pray, It Would Pray For Swill. What Do You Pray For?

Opportunity Can Benefit No Man Who Has Not Fitted Himself To Seize It And Use It. Opportunity Woos The Worthy, Shuns The Unworthy. Prepare Yourself To Grasp Opportunity, And Opportunity Is Likely To Come Your Way. It Is Not So Fickle, Capricious And Unreasoning As Some Complain.

The Most Profitless Things To Manufacture Are Excuses.

Diamonds Are Only Lumps Of Coal That Stuck To Their Jobs.

Our Future And Our Fate Lie In Our Wills More Than In Our Hands, For Our Hands Are But The Instruments Of Our Wills.

Turn Resolutely To Work, To Recreation, Or In Any Case To Physical Exercise Till You Are So Tired You Can't Help Going To Sleep, And When You Wake Up You Won't Want To Worry.

It's So Much Easier To Do Good Than To Be Good.

A Certain Ultra-dignified Gentleman Of Unusual Prominence Carried Himself So Stiffly That Nobody Felt Free To Call Him By His First Name. He Quarreled With A Friend Of Earlier Days And From Then On The Two Never Spoke. The Day The Friend Died An Associate Found The Ultra-dignified Gentleman Staring Through The Window. When He Came Out Of His Reverie, He Soliloquized With A Sigh, ""he Was The Last To Call Me John."" Is Any Man Really Entitled To Regard Himself A Success Who Has Failed To Inspire At Least A Goodly Number Of Fellow Mortals To Greet Him By His First Name?

A Big Business Man Was Telling Henry Ford About A Coach Driver Of Super-expertness With His Whip. The Driver Was Telling How He Could Flick A Fly Off His Horse's Ear With His Whip-and, A Fly Alighting Just Then, He Promptly Did So. Next He Spied A Grasshopper Beside The Road, And He Flicked It Off With Equal Dexterity. A Little Further Along The Road The Passenger Noticed An Insect On A Bush, And Nudged The Driver To Get Him. Not On Your Life, Replied The Master Of The Whip. That There Insect Is A Hornet Sitting On His Nest With An Organization Behind Him. I Leave Him Alone.

J.p. Morgan, Then Past 70, Was Asked By The Son Of An Eminent Father Why He [morgan] Didn't Retire. When Did Your Father Retire? Asked Mr. Morgan, Without Looking Up From His Desk. In 1902. When Did He Die? Oh, At The End Of 1904. Huh! Snapped Mr. Morgan, If He Had Kept On Working He Would Have Been Alive Still. Work Is God's Best Medicine. It Is God's Medicine For Man.

Honesty Is The Cornerstone Of Character. The Honest Man Or Woman Seeks Not Merely To Avoid Criminal Or Illegal Acts, But To Be Scrupulously Fair, Upright, Fearless In Both Action And Expression. Honesty Pays Dividends Both In Dollars And In Peace Of Mind.

If You Don't Drive Your Business, You Will Be Driven Out Of Business.

That Which Is Useless Dies. Animals That Fail To Serve Some Useful Purpose In The Scheme Of Things Slowly But Surely Become Extinct. Let Any Part Of The Human Body Cease To Perform Its Ordained Function, And It Withers-as When An Arm Is Kept Long In A Sling. This Same Decree, That Nothing Useless Is Permitted To Survive, Runs Through The Mind Of The Industrial World.

In The Race For Success, Speed Is Less Important Than Stamina.

The Way To Make A True Friend Is To Be One. Friendship Implies Loyalty, Esteem, Cordiality, Sympathy, Affection, Readiness To Aid, To Help, To Stick, To Fight For, If Need Be. ... Radiate Friendship And It Will Return Sevenfold.

Some People Are So Methodical That That Is All They Are Or Ever Will Be.

Vitally Important For A Young Man Or Woman Is, First, To Realize The Value Of Education And Then To Cultivate Earnestly, Aggressively, Ceaselessly, The Habit Of Self-education.

It Is Easier To Start Taxes Than To Stop Them. A Tax An Inch Long Can Easily Become A Yard Long. That Has Been The History Of The Income Tax. Would Not The Sales Tax Be Likely To Have A Similar History [in The U.s.]? ... Canadian Newspapers Report That An Increase In The Sales Tax Threatens To Drive The Mackenzie King Administration Out Of Office. Canada Began With A Sales Tax Of 2%.... Starting This Month The Tax Is 6%. The Burden, In Other Words, Has Already Been Increased 200% ... What The U.s. Needs Is Not New Taxes, Is Not More Taxes, But Fewer And Lower Taxes.

Jealousy... Is A Mental Cancer.

Success Is Sweetest To One Who Has Known Failure.

The Christmas Spirit Brings Home To Us-or Should Bring Home To Us-the Profound Biblical Truth That It Is More Blessed To Give Than To Receive. Anything Which Inspires Unselfishness Makes For Our Ennoblement. Christmas Does That. I Am All For Christmas.

If The United States Is To Produce A Nation Of Investors-as We Must If We Are To Gain Financial World-leadership-it Is Imperative That Boards Of Directors Be So Constituted As To Adequately Represent The Interests And Inspire The Complete Confidence Of Investors Of Moderate Substance.

The Fittest, Not The Richest, Make The Most Enviable Mark. Pampered Sons Of Plutocrats May Shine For A Time In Society, But Not In The World Of Affairs And Of Service Unless They Rip Off Their Coats And Get To Work Early And Stay Late. To Be Born With A Golden Spoon In The Mouth Is More Of A Handicap Than A Help In Attaining Worthwhile Success In This Age.

Time Mends All, Ends All Things Earthly.

Inflationary Trends Are Under Way. Wage Increases, Through Strikes Or Threatened Strikes, Are Rampant. Government Expenditures Are Ballooning Ominously. Hoarding Has Contributed Unconscionably To Price-boosting. The Government Should Institute Measures Calculated To Arrest Inflation. America's Commitments Are Already So Mountainous, International And Domestic, That The Pruning Knife Should Be Applied. You And I, All American Taxpayers, Don't Possess Limitless Resources-our Pockets Are Not Bottomless. Curb Inflation At Every Turn!

Real Riches Are The Riches Possessed Inside.

No Man Can Fight His Way To The Top And Stay At The Top Without Exercising The Fullest Measure Of Grit, Courage, Determination, Resolution.

The Man Who Works 52 Weeks In The Year Does Not Do His Best In Any One Week Of The Year, Daniel Guggenheim, Onetime Head Of The Greatest Smelting And Mining Family In America, Impressed Upon Me. Real Recreation Quickens Aspiration. The True Purpose Of Recreation Is Not Merely To Amuse, Not Merely To Afford Pleasure, Not Merely To Kill Time, But To Increase Our Fitness, Enhance Our Usefulness, Spur Achievement.

Money, Or Even Power, Can Never Yield Happiness Unless It Be Accompanied By The Goodwill Of Others.

The Man Of Fixed Ingrained Principles Who Has Mapped Out A Straight Course, And Has The Courage And Self-control To Adhere To It, Does Not Find Life Complex. Complexities Are All Of Our Own Making.

Henry Ford Has Several Times Sneered At Unproductive Stockholders.... Well, Now. Let's See. Who Made Henry Ford's Own Automobile Company Possible? The Stockholders Who Originally Advanced Money To Him. Who Makes It Possible For You And Me To Be Carried To And From Business By Train Or Street Car? Stockholders.... Who Made Our Vast Telephone And Telegraph Service Possible? Stockholders.... Were Stockholders All Over The Country To Withdraw Their Capital From The Enterprises In Which They Are Invested, There Would Be A Panic ... On A Scale Never Before Known.

America, In The Eyes Of The World, Typifies Above All Else This Quality Of Initiative. The Greatest Successes Are Nearly All The Fruit Of Initiative. Why Do We Hold In Such High Esteem The Achievements Of The Wright Brothers? Because They Were Illustrious Examples Of Initiative And Tenacity. And Ideas Are Born Of Initiative, The Children Of Men And Women Of Initiative. Advancement Is Applied Initiative. Don't Imitate. Initiate.

No Man Can Fight His Way To The Top And Stay At The Top Without Exercising The Fullest Measure Of Grit, Courage, Determination, Resolution. Every Man Who Gets Anywhere Does So Because He Has First Firmly Resolved To Progress In The World And Then Has Enough Stick-to-it-tiveness To Transform His Resolution Into Reality. Without Resolution, No Man Can Win Any Worthwhile Place Among His Fellow Men.

Here's A Pointer Culled From The Careers Of Men Who Have Attained Notable Success: Don't Sit In Your Office During The Hours Prospects Can Be Seen. Do Your Office Work Before Or After The Hours During Which Possible Customers Can Be Reached. This May Mean Adding An Hour Or Two Quite Often To Your Day's Work; But In Times Like This Particularly, The Securing Of A Satisfactory Amount Of Business Through The Expenditure Of An Extra Hour Or Two A Day Is Not An Unreasonable Price To Pay.

Lady Luck Generally Woos Those Who Earnestly, Enthusiastically, Unremittingly Woo Her.

The Fellow Who Isn't Fired With Enthusiasm Is Apt To Be Fired.

The British Have Their Own Conception Of What Constitutes The Typical American. He Must Have A Flavor Of The Wild West About Him. He Must Do Spectacular Things. He Must Not Be Punctilious About Dignity, Decorum And Other Refinements Characteristic Of The Real British Gentleman. The Yankee Pictured By The Briton Must Be A Bustler. If He Is Occasionally Flagrantly Indiscreet In Speech And Action, Then He Is So Much More Surely Stamped The Genuine Article. The Most Typical American The British Ever Set Their Eyes On Was, In Their Judgment, Theodore Roosevelt.

Call The Roll In Your Memory Of Conspicuously Successful [business] Giants And, If You Know Anything About Their Careers, You Will Be Struck By The Fact That Almost Every One Of Them Encountered Inordinate Difficulties Sufficient To Crush All But The Gamest Of Spirits. Edison Went Hungry Many Times Before He Became Famous.

He Who Has Faith Has... An Inward Reservoir Of Courage, Hope, Confidence, Calmness, And Assuring Trust That All Will Come Out Well - Even Though To The World It May Appear To Come Out Most Badly.

The Man Who Has Done His Level Best... Is A Success, Even Though The World May Write Him Down A Failure.

To Make Headway, Improve Your Head.

To Succeed, We Must Have The Will To Succeed, We Must Have Stamina, Determination, Backbone, Perseverance, Self-reliance, And Faith.

The Young Man Who Addresses Himself In Stern Earnest To Organizing His Life-his Habits, His Associations, His Reading, His Study, His Work-stands Far More Chance Of Rising To A Position Affording Him Opportunity To Exercise His Organizing Abilities Than The Fellow Who Dawdles Along Without Chart Or Compass, Without Plan Or Purpose, Without Self-improvement And Self-discipline.

The Victors Of The Battles Of Tomorrow Will Be Those Who Can Best Harness Thought To Action. From Office Boy To Statesman, The Prizes Will Be For Those Who Most Effectively Exert Their Brains, Who Take Deep, Earnest And Studious Counsel Of Their Minds, Who Stamp Themselves As Thinkers.

How You Start Is Important, But It Is How You Finish That Counts. In The Race For Success, Speed Is Less Important Than Stamina. The Sticker Outlasts The Sprinter.

Many Of The Most Successful Men I Have Known Have Never Grown Up. They Have Retained Bubbling-over Boyishness. They Have Relished Wit, They Have Indulged In Humor. They Have Not Allowed ‘dignity’ To Depress Them Into Moroseness. Youthfulness Of Spirit Is The Twin Brother Of Optimism, And Optimism Is The Stuff Of Which American Business Success Is Fashioned. Resist Growing Up!

The Man Who Is Too Busy To Read Is Never Likely To Lead.

After Visiting Several Of America's Most Fashionable Playgrounds, I Have Reached The Conclusion That Men Who Work Hard Enjoy Life Most. The Men At Such Places Can Be Divided Into Two Classes, First, Busy Men Of Affairs ... And, Second, Rich Loafers. I Was Impressed By The Obvious Enjoyment Corporation Heads And Other Important Executives Were Deriving From Their Vacation Activities.... The Idle Rich Fellows, On The Other Hand, Although Indulging In Exactly The Same Activities, Palpably Were Bored.

Thomas Edison Reads Not For Entertainment But To Increase His Store Of Knowledge. He Sucks In Information As Eagerly As The Bee Sucks Honey From Flowers. The Whole World, So To Speak, Pours Its Wisdom Into His Mind. He Regards It As A Criminal Waste Of Time To Go Through The Slow And Painful Ordeal Of Ascertaining Things For One's Self If These Same Things Have Already Been Ascertained And Made Available By Others. In Edison's Mind Knowledge Is Power.

Finally, There Is More Genuine Joy In Climbing The Hill Of Success, Even Though Sweat May Be Spent And Toes May Be Stubbed, Than In Aimlessly Sliding Down The Path To Failure. If A Straight, Honorable Path Has Been Chosen, The Gaining Of The Summit Yields Lasting Satisfaction. The Morass Of Failure, If Through Laziness, Indifference Or Other Avoidable Fault, Yields Nothing But Ignominy And Sorrow For Self And Family And Friends.

It Is Not A Case Of Whether We Want To Wash Our Hands Of Europe Or Want To Help Her To Regain Her Feet. The Troubles Of Europe Have Been Laid On Our Doorstep, So To Speak, And Will Plague Us, If We Do Nothing To Cure Them, Whether We Like It Or Not.

When The Worms Are Scarce, What Does A Hen Do? Does She Stop Scratching? She Does Not. She Scratches All The Harder. A Lot Of Businessmen Have Been Showing Less Sense Than A Hen Since Orders Became Scarce. They Have Laid Off Salesmen; They Have Stopped Or Reduced Their Advertising; They Have Simply Resigned Themselves To Inaction And, Of Course, To Pessimism. If A Hen Knows Enough To Scratch All The Harder When The Worms Are Scarce, Surely Businessmen ... Ought To Have Gumption Enough To Scratch All The Harder For Business.

Backboneless Employees Are Too Ready To Attribute The Success Of Others To Luck. Luck Is Usually The Fruit Of Intelligent Application. The Man Who Is Intent On Making The Most Of His Opportunities Is Too Busy To Bother About Luck.

Mediocre Men Wait For Opportunity To Come To Them. Strong, Able, Alert Men Go After Opportunity.

Selfishness Corrodes. Unselfishness Ennobles, Satisfies. Don't Put Off The Joy Derivable From Doing Helpful, Kindly Things For Others.

Don't Forget Until Too Late That The Business Of Life Is Not Business But Living.

It Can Be Set Down As A Broad, General Principle That We Cannot Indulge In Idleness And Abundance During Both The First And Second Half Of Our Life. Study, Application, Industry, Enthusiasm While We Are Young Usually Enable Us To Enjoy Life When We Grow Older. But Unless We Toil And Strive And Earn All We Can In The First Half, The Second Half Of Our Life Is Liable To Bring Disappointment, Discomfort, Distress. The Time To Put Forth Effort Is When We Are Most Able To Do It, Namely, In The Years Of Our Greatest Strength. The Law Of Compensation Hasn't Ceased To Function.

I Don't Feel Myself That I Know It All, But I Have Enough Conceit To Be Successful. That Observation Was Made By A Businessman In His 30s Who Was Making Notable Headway, Although His Path Bristled With Difficulties. Business Places No Premiums On Shrinking Violets. Employers Prefer Men Who Have Self-assurance, Forcefulness, Go-aheadness, Men Who Know Their Jobs And Know That They Know It.

Acting Without Thinking Is Like Shooting Without Aiming.

The Most Famous Self-made Man In The World Today Is Our Own Edison. Talk With Mr. Edison And He Will Tell You He Owes Much If Not Most Of His Success To Omnivorous Reading. Forbes Is One Of His Favorite Publications. How Closely He Reads It Can Be Gathered From A Letter Just Received From Him In Which He Asks The Editor To Forward A Long Analytical Letter To The Writer Of A Series Of Articles Which Contained Two Figures Mr. Edison Questions, And He Wants To Know Exactly On What Authority Or Investigation They Were Based. Both Letters Were The Product Of Mr. Edison And Were Signed By Him.

Jealousy Is An Inner Consciousness Of One's Own Inferiority. It Is A Mental Cancer.

The Truth Doesn't Hurt Unless It Ought To.

Accuse American Businessmen Of Being Responsible For Radicalism And They Would Indignantly Deny The Accusation. Yet, In One Fundamental Sense, They Are Responsible. They Are Responsible In The Sense That They Have Utterly Neglected To Take Part In The Work And The Organization Which Precede The Choosing Of Candidates For Political Office. Local Political Organizations All Over The Land Are Conducted And Controlled, As A Rule, By Politicians.... Businessmen Have Shirked Such Responsibilities, Leaving An Untrammeled Field To Others Less Capable Of Carrying On The Administration Of Government.

Happiness Is Normally The Prime Search Of Every Rational Human Being. One Way To Derive Increasing Happiness During The Year We Have Just Entered Is To Strive Diligently To Promote The Happiness Of Others, To Think Of Them First, Yourself Second. Happiness Is The Greatest Tonic, The Greatest Elixir, Of All. Worry Is Among The Worst Poisons. One Sensible New Year Resolution: I Will Do My Utmost To Have Consideration For Others, To Exercise Usefulness, To Radiate Happiness, To Conquer Worrying Over Things I Cannot Possibly Remedy.

Many A Man Thinks He Is Patient When, In Reality, He Is Indifferent.

The Bell Of Public Opinion Is Today Making The Morgan-rockefeller-vanderbilt Class Jump. Nor Are The Strongest Of Our Corporations Immune. The Railroads Have Had To Jump Pretty Lively, And Certain Gigantic Industrial Combinations Are Also Being Put Through Their Paces.

Many Concerns Now Make Part Or The Whole Of Their Dividends From By-products That Formerly Went To Waste. How Do We, As Individuals, Utilize Our Principal By-product? Our Principal By-product Is, Of Course, Our Leisure Time. Many Years Of Observation Forces The Conclusion That A Man's Success Or Failure In Life Is Determined As Much By How He Acts During His Leisure As By How He Acts During His Work Hours. Tell Me How A Young Man Spends His Evenings And I Will Tell You How He Is Likely To Spend The Latter Part Of His Life.

Temporary Release From Work, Through Vacations, Becomes More Welcome, More Pleasurable, Even More Necessary, As We Grow Older.

Honesty Is The Cornerstone Of Character.

Upon Our Children-how They Are Taught-rests The Fate-or Fortune-of Tomorrow's World.

How We Love To Blame Others For Our Misfortunes! Almost Every Individual Who Has Lost Money In Stock Speculation Has On The Tip Of His Tongue An Explanation Which He Trots Out To Show That It Wasn't His Own Fault At All.... Hardly One Loser Has The Manliness To Say Frankly, "i Was Wrong.

Ugliness, Squalor Are Breeding Grounds For Revolution. Beauty Is Conducive To Tranquillity, Happiness. Beautifying Of Homes And Places Of Worship Began With The Dawn Of Civilization. Beautifying Of Workplaces Is Only In Its Infancy. Yet, Since Men Normally Spend More Than Half Of Their Waking Hours At Work, Surely It Is Important That Adequate Attention Be Devoted To Elevating Their Working Environment, Whether Office Or Factory, Foundry Or Machine Shop, Mine Or Warehouse. Beautiful Surroundings Subtly Encourage Beautiful Living. Drab Surroundings, Bad Air, Bad Light, Evoke Bad Reactions.

An Idea, Like A Machine, Must Have Power Applied To It Before It Can Accomplish Anything.

There Is More Credit And Satisfaction In Being A First-rate Truck Driver Than A Tenth-rate Executive.

Whimpering Never Kept A Leaking Vessel From Foundering. Vigorously Manning The Pumps Has. Get Busy With Your Head And Hands, Not Your Chin.

It Is The Hard-boiled Employer, Not The Soft-hearted Species, That Incites Most Of Our Strikes And Does Most Ot Endanger The Harmonious Progress Of Democracy.

Plan Your Work - Work Your Plan

Timing Is Everything. Tell Me How A Young Man Spends His Evenings And I Will Tell You How Far He Is Likely To Go In The World. The Popular Notion Is That A Youth's Progress Depends Upon How He Acts During His Working Hours. It Doesn't. It Depends Far More Upon How He Utilizes His Leisure...if He Spends It In Harmless Idleness, He Is Likely To Be Kept On The Payroll, But That Will Be About All. If He Diligently Utilizes His Own Time...to Fit Himself For More Responsible Duties, Then The Greater Responsibilities - And Greater Rewards - Are Almost Certain To Come To Him.

Henry Ward Beecher, So The Story Goes, Was Once Asked By A Young Preacher How He Could Keep His Congregation Wide Awake And Attentive During His Sermons. Beecher Replied That He Always Had A Man Watch For Sleepers, With Instructions, As Soon As He Saw Anyone Start Nodding Or Dozing, To Hasten To The Pulpit And Wake Up The Preacher. Aren't You And I Usually Less Sensible? Would We Not Be Inclined To Have The Watcher Wake Up Not Ourselves But The Fellows Caught Sleeping? In Other Words, Aren't We Disposed Always To Blame Others?

There Are Two Brands Of Discontent: The Brand That Merely Fosters Greed And Snarling And Back-biting, And The Brand That Inspires Greater And Greater Effort To Reach The Desired Goal. Which Is Your Brand?

What You Have Outside You Counts Less Than What You Have Inside You.

Frank W. Woolworth Once Told Me That The Turning-point In His Career Did Not Come Until He Was Thrown Flat On His Back By Illness. He Was Sure That His Business Would Go To Pieces During His Long, Enforced Absence. Instead, He Discovered That He Had In His Employ Men Who Could Overcome Difficulties When Given Power To Exercise Initiative. After That Woolworth Left Many Problems And Difficulties To Be Solved By Subordinates And Turned His Attention To Big Things.

A Shady Business Never Yields A Sunny Life.

Sunny Afternoon

Whenever Possible, I Like To Have The Supreme Head Of A Company Show Me Over The Works. It Is Extremely Illuminating To Note The Attitude Of Workers Towards Their Boss, And Equally Interesting To Note The Attitude Towards The Workers. It Is Tragic To Notice How Many Chief Executives Of Large Concerns Are Absolutely Unknown, Even By Sight, To The Rank And File Of Their Workers.

The Man Who Is Cocksure That He Has Arrived Is Ready For The Return Journey.

Use Life To Provide Something That Outlasts It.

There Is No Fun Equal To The Satisfaction Of Doing One's Best. The Things That Are Most Worthwhile In Life Are Really Those Within The Reach Of Almost Every Normal Human Being Who Cares To Seek Them Out.

It Is Well For Civilization That Human Beings Constantly Strive To Gain Greater And Greater Rewards, For It Is This Urge, This Ambition, This Aspiration That Moves Men And Women To Bestir Themselves To Rise To Higher And Higher Achievement. Individual Success Is To Be Won In Most Instances By Studying And Diagnosing The Kind Of Rewards Human Hearts Seek Today And Are Likely To Seek Tomorrow.

The Majority Of America's Colossal Fortunes Have Been Made By Entering Industries In Their Early Stages And Developing Leadership In Them.... Think Of What Opportunities The Present And The Future Contain In Such Fields As Ship-building And Ship-owning, Aircraft, Electrical Development, The Oil Industry, Different Branches Of The Automotive Industry, Foreign Trade, International Banking, Invention, The Chemical Industry, Moving Pictures, Color Photography, And, One Night Add, Labor Leadership.

Do Too Many Executives Still Indulge In The Short-sighted Habit Of Issuing Orders Without Taking The Slightest Pains To Explain To Those Responsible For Carrying Them Out The Whyfor And Wherefor Of The Orders? Where Employees Come In Daily And Hourly Contact With The Public, Surely It Is Important That Care Be Taken To Fit Them To Reply Intelligently To Courteous Questions. ""because Them Are Orders"" Isn't A Satisfying Reply-even Less Satisfactory To The Management Than To The Public.

He Best Keeps From Anger Who Remembers That God Is Always Looking Upon Him.

Next To The Dog, The Wastebasket Is Your Best Friend.

Your Best Friend

...the Incontestable Truth Is That America Has Been Built Up By Optimists, Not By Pessimists, But By Men Possessing Courage, Confidence In The Nation's Destiny, By Men Willing To Adventure, To Shoulder Risks Terrifying To The Timid.

Better To Be Occasionally Cheated Than Perpetually Suspicious.

The Men Who Have Done Big Things Are Those Who Were Not Afraid To Attempt Big Things, Who Were Not Afraid To Risk Failure In Order To Gain Success.

It Is When Things Go Hardest, When Life Becomes Most Trying, That There Is The Greatest Need For Having A Fixed Goal, For Having An Air Castle That The Outside World Cannot Wreck. When Few Comforts Come From Without, It Is All The More Necessary To Have A Fount To Draw From Within. And The Man Or Woman Who Has A Star Toward Which To Press Cannot Be Thrown Off The Course, No Matter How The World May Try, No Matter How Far Things Seem To Be Wrong.

Madame Curie Didn't Stumble Upon Radium By Accident. She Searched And Experimented And Sweated And Suffered Years Before She Found It. Success Rarely Is An Accident.

When It Comes To Betting On Yourself... You're A Chicken-livered Coward If You Hesitate.

Think Not Of Yourself As The Architect Of Your Career But As The Sculptor. Expect To Have To Do A Lot Of Hard Hammering And Chiselingand Scraping And Polishing.

Difficulties Should Act As A Tonic. They Should Spur Us To Greater Exertion.

New Year, The Season For Changes In Positions And Advances In Salaries, Approaches. If You Have In Your Employ Some Who Deserve More Salary, Do Not Compel Them To Go Through The Unpleasant Ordeal Of Asking A Raise, But, Rather, Voluntarily Increase Their Remuneration. A Raise That Comes From The Boss Without Asking Is Worth A Lot More Than One That Has To Be Gouged Out Of Him. Is It Not True That A Great Many Employers Who Would Not Dream Of Overcharging Their Customers Have No Qualms Whatever About Underpaying Their Employees If The Latter Will Submit Without Protest?

The Bargain That Yields Mutual Satisfaction Is The Only One That Is Apt To Be Repeated.

For My Part, I Rather Distrust Men Or Concerns That Rise Up With The Speed Of Rockets. Sudden Rises Are Sometimes Followed By Equally Sudden Falls. I Have Most Faith In The Individual Or Enterprise That Advances Step By Step. A Mushroom Can Spring Up In A Day; An Oak Takes 50 Years Or More To Reach Maturity. Mushrooms Don't Last; Oaks Do. The Real Cause For An Enormous Number Of Business Failures Is Premature Over-expansion, Attempting To Gallop Before Learning To Creep. Sudden Successes Often Invite Sudden Reverses.

Work Done With Little Effort Is Likely To Yield Little Result.

If You Do The Best And The Most You Can Today, Don't Worry About Tomorrow.

Uncertainty Hurts Business. It Annoys Individuals. Why Keep The Whole Country, Including Business And Individuals, In Uncertainty Over The Extent Of The Tax Burdens To Be Placed Upon Us? How Many Of Those Who Voted For Calvin Coolidge Imagined For A Moment That Would Do Nothing To Bring About Tax Relief Before 1926?.... But If The Administration Persists In Opposing A Special Session Then It Will Inevitably Be 1926 Before Action Is Taken.... Coolidge And Congress Should Ease Our Minds And Grease Our Activities By Reforming And Reducing Taxation As Soon As Feasible After March 4.

Triumph Often Is Nearest When Defeat Seems Inescapable.

Employers, Have You Ever Stopped To Reckon What The Goodwill Of Your Workers Is Worth? ... In Most Large Concerns It Would Be Worth More In Dollars And Cents To Have The Goodwill Of The Working Force Than Of Those On The Outside. It Has Been Repeatedly Demonstrated That The Average Working Force Is Capable Of Increasing Its Production 25% Or More Whenever The Workers Fell So Inclined. Workers Animated By Ill Will Cannot Possibly Give Results Equal To Those Of Workers Animated By Goodwill. The Tragic Fact Appears To Be That A Tremendous Number Of Working Forces Are Not So Animated.

History Has Demonstrated That The Most Notable Winners Usually Encountered Heartbreaking Obstacles Before They Triumphed. They Won Because They Refused To Become Discouraged By Their Defeats.

I Have Known Not A Few Men Who, After Reaching The Summits Of Business Success, Found Themselves Miserable On Attaining Retirement Age. They Were So Exclusively Engrossed In Their Day-to-day Affairs That They Had No Time For Friend-making.... They May Flatter Themselves That Their Unrelaxing Concentration On Business Constitutes Patriotism Of The Highest Order. They May Tell Themselves That The Existing Emergency Will Pass, And That They Can Then Adopt Different, More Sociable, More Friendly Habits. [but] Such A Day Is Little Likely To Come For Such Individuals.

Is America Becoming Decadent? Do We No Longer Regard Our Promises And Pledges As Sacred? ... We Promised To Make Peace With Germany Only In Conjunction With The Allies; But We Brought Forward A Separate Peace, Demanding For Ourselves All The Advantages Of The Treaty Of Versailles But Rejecting All The Responsibilities Embodied In The Treaty. It Was America's President Who Induced Europe To Form A League Of Nations; And Then America Was The First Country That Refused To Joint It.... If These Are Not The Symptoms Of National Decadency, What Are They?

It Is A Great Mistake For Presidents And Other Leading Executives Of Organizations Having Branches Throughout The Country To Chain Themselves To Their Desks At Headquarters And Send Out Rigid Instructions To Those In Charge Of Distant Branches And Offices. Because A Man Sits In A Palatial Office In New York Or Chicago Or Philadelphia Or Detroit And Draws A Big Salary, It Does Not Necessarily Follow That He Knows Better Than The Man On The Spot What Ought To Be Done.... Paul, Caesar, Napoleon Did Not Merely Sit At Home And Issue Long-range Instructions.

Managing The Other Fellow's Business Is A Fascinating Game. Trade Unionists All Over The Country Have Pronounced Ideas For The Reform Of Wall Street Banks; And Wall Street Bankers Are Not Far Behind In Giving Plans For The Tremendous Improvement Of Trade Union Policies. Wholesalers Have Schemes For Improving The Retailer; The Retailer Knows Just What Is Wrong In The Conduct Of Wholesale Business-and We Might Go Through A Long List.... Yet For Some Reason The Classes That Ought To Be Helped Keep On Stubbornly Clinging To Their Own Method Of Running Their Affairs.

Has Your Work Become Very Easy? Do You Find You Can Do It With Little Effort? Has It Ceased To Impose Any Strain Or Fatigue Upon You? Do You No Longer Feel Loss Of Vitality After A Long Spell Of It? Can You Now Do It As Easy As Water Rolls Off A Duck's Back? If So, Look Out! Do Some Stock-taking. Examine Your Output.... Work Done With Little Effort Is Likely To Yield Little Result. Every Job Can Be Done Excellently Or Indifferently. Excellence Necessitates Effort-hard, Sustained, Concentrated Effort.

Cheerfulness Is Among The Most Laudable Virtues. It Gains You The Good Will And Friendship Of Others. It Blesses Those Who Practice It And Those Upon Whom It Is Bestowed.

First Make Sure That What You Aspire To Accomplish Is Worth Accomplishing, And Then Throw Your Whole Vitality Into It. What's Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Well. And To Do Anything Well, Wheter It Be Typing A Letter Or Drawing Up An Agreement Involving Millions, We Must Give Not Only Our Hands To The Doing Of It, But Our Brains, Our Enthusiasm, The Best - All That Is In Us. The Task To Which You Dedicate Yourself Can Never Become A Drudgery.

The Be-all And End-all Of Life Should Not Be To Get Rich, But To Enrich The World.

Kill Time And You Will Kill Your Career.

Justice Must Be Blind To The Hardness Or Softness Of A Man's Hands, As Well As To The Leanness Or Fatness Of His Pocketbook

The Person Who Renders Loyal Service In A Humble Capacity Will Be Chosen For Higher Responsibilities, Just As The Biblical Servant Who Multiplied The One Pound Given Him By His Master Was Made Ruler Over Ten Cities.

We Must Learn That To Enjoy Happiness We Must Conscientiously And Continuously Seek To Spread Happiness. Selfishness Is Suicidal To Happiness.

Without Self-respect There Can Be No Genuine Success. Success Won At The Cost Of Self-respect Is Not Success ? For What Shall It Profit A Man If He Gains The Whole World And Loses His Own Self-respect.

Whenever Calamity Howlers Shake Their Heads And Impress Upon You That This, That, And The Next Dire Catastrophe Is To Befall This Nation Or The Nations Of The World-such As, For Example, That Exhaustion Of The World's Oil Supply Will Bring All Transportation And Machinery To A Standstill Through Lack Of Lubrication, Or That Exhaustion Of The Earth's Stores Of Coal Will Make Life Unlivable In These Cold Climates-just Smile And Reply That The Worst Troubles Of All Are Those That Never Happen [and] That You Prefer Not To Cross Shaky Bridges Until You Come To Them.

Enthusiasm Is The Electric Current That Keeps The Engine Of Life Going At Top Speed. Enthusiasm Is The Very Propeller Of Progress.

Electric Current

The Bible Says, 'where There Is No Vision, The People Perish.' Have You A Vision? And Are You Undeviatingly Pressing And Pushing Toward Its Accomplishment? Dreaming Alone Will Not Get You There. Mix Your Dreams With Determination And Action.

The Man Without Religion Is As A Ship Without A Rudder.

Many A Man Has Walked Up To The Opportunity For Which He Has Long Been Preparing Himself, Looked It Full In The Face, And Then Begun To Get Cold Feet... When It Comes To Betting On Yourself And Your Power To Do The Thing You Know You Must Do Or Write Yourself Down A Failure, You're A Chicken-livered Coward If You Hesitate.

Are You Doing The Kind Of Work You Were Built For, So That You Can Expect To Be Able To Do Very Large Amounts Of That Kind And Thrive Under It? Or Are You Doing A Kind Of Which You Can Do Comparatively Little.

How You Start Is Important, Very Important, But In The End It Is How You Finish That Counts. It Is Easier To Be A Self-starter Than A Self-finisher. The Victor In The Race Is Not The One Who Dashes Off Swiftest But The One Who Leads At The Finish. In The Race For Success, Speed Is Less Important Than Stamina. The Sticker Outlasts The Sprinter In Life's Race. In America We Breed Many Hares But Not So Many Tortoises.

Vacations For Wage Earners Have Proved Both Popular With Workers And Profitable For Employers. Unfortunately, The Majority Of Large Employers Have Not Yet Followed The Example Set By A Number Of Progressive Corporations. I Don't Know Of A Single Company That Has Abandoned Vacations For Wage Earners After Having Tried The Experiment. But I Do Know Many That Are Delighted With The Fruits They Have Gathered. Under Some Of The Plans Vacations With Pay Must Be Earned By Good Behavior, Punctuality, Etc.... The Best Results Have Come Where The Treatment Has Been Regarded As Most Liberal.

How Many Men I Know Who Are Earning Dollars Aplenty, But Who Are Really Earning Little Of What Counts. They Are So Overwhelmingly Engrossed In Business That They Get Nothing From Their Dollars. The Juggernaut Of Dollar-making Has Crushed Out Of Them Every Capacity For Genuine Enjoyment, Every Grace, Every Unselfish Sentiment And Instinct.

I Resolve For 1920 To Sit Down All By Myself And Take A Personal Stock-taking Once A Month. To Be No More Charitable In Viewing My Own Faults Than I Am An Viewing The Faults Of Others. To Face The Facts Candidly And Courageously. To Address Myself Carefully, Prayerfully, To Remedying Defects.

There's No Such Thing As A Self-made Man. I've Had Much Help And Have Found That If You Are Willing To Work, Many People Are Willing To Help You.

Summer, With Its Dog Days, Its Vacations, Its Distractions, Is Over. We Have Had Our Holidays, Our Rest, Our Recreation. The Fall Season, With Its New Opportunities For Effort, Enterprise And Achievement, Is Upon Us. Let Us Rip Off Our Coats And Get Down To Business. We May Have Allowed Pessimism To Grip Us During The Summer Months. We May Even Have Allowed Laziness To Enter Our Bones. Now It Is Up To Us To Throw Off Both Lassitude And Pessimism. The Time Has Come For Action, For Aggressiveness.

Golf Is An Ideal Diversion, But A Ruinous Disease.

Now, Ideas Are The Raw Material Of Progress. Everything First Takes Shape In The Form Of An Idea. But An Idea Itself Is Worth Nothing. An Idea, Like A Machine, Must Have Power Applied To It Before It Can Accomplish Anything. The Men Who Have Won Fame And Fortune Through Having An Idea Are Those Who Devoted Every Ounce Of Their Strength And Every Dollar They Could Muster To Putting It Into Operation. Ford Had A Big Idea, But He Had To Sweat And Suffer And Sacrifice To Make It Work.

Genius Is Often A Short Way Of Spelling Hard Work. Poverty, Obscurity, Struggle And Ambition Formed The Foundation For Many Careers Of Transcendent Achievement. Few Marks Are Made In The World's History By Eight-hour-day Men.... Sir Joshua Reynolds Had But One Maxim For Success: Work, Work, Work. Is Not Rigid And Continuous Training Necessary For The Making Of Strong Athletes? Hard Work Is Not Fatal To Real Success. Vouloir C'est Pouvoir.

Optimism Is A Tonic. Pessimism Is Poison. Admittedly, Every Businessman Must Be Realistic. He Must Gather Facts, Analyze Them Candidly And Strive To Draw Logical Conclusions, Whether Favorable Or Unfavorable. He Must Not Engage In Self-delusion. He Must Not View Everything Through Rose-colored Glasses. Granting This, The Incontestable Truth Is That America Has Been Built Up By Optimists, Not By Pessimists, But By Men Possessing Courage, Confidence In The Nation's Destiny, By Men Willing To Adventure To Shoulder Risks Terrifying To The Timid.

With All Thy Getting, Get Understanding, Is The Banner Under Which These Forbes Editorials Have Appeared Since The First Issue Of The Publication. We Have No Illusions About What Great Wealth Can Do And What It Cannot Do. We Believe In The Worthwhileness Of Striving By All Worthy Means To Attain Success And To Attain Wealth. Simply Because We Are Convinced That No Amount Of Money Is Worth The Sacrifice Of One's Better Instincts, Of One's Self-respect-of One's Soul, If You Wish-simply Because We Are Convinced That Riches Not Gained Legitimately And Decently Are Not Worth Having.

Work Is The Meat Of Life, Pleasure The Dessert.

Enthusiasm Is The Parent Of Enterprise. Search And You Will Find That At The Base And Birth Of Every Great Business Organization Was An Enthusiast, Someone Consumed With Earnestness Of Purpose, With Confidence In Their Powers, With Faith In The Worthwhileness Of Their Endeavors.

Many Of The Most Successful Men I Have Known Have Never Grown Up. Youthfulness Of Spirit Is The Twin Brother Of Optimism... Resist Growing Up!

A Willing, Cheerful Worker, With His Heart In His Job, Will Turn Out More Work And More Satisfactory Work In 44 Hours Than An Unwilling Worker, Dissatisfied With His Conditions, Will Turn Out In 54 Hours. It Is Good Business, Therefore, For Every Employer To Go As Far As He Possibly Can In Reaching A Schedule Agreeable To His People.

When You Delve Deep Enough, You Find That Practically Every Great Fortune And Great Enterprise In America Have Sprung From The Courageous Enterprise Of Some Individual. It Was Commodore Vanderbilt's Enterprise In Switching First From Running A Ferryboat To Running Other Ships, And Then, When He Was Well Along In Years, His Enterprise In Switching Into Railroading, That Created What Was To Become One Of The Most Notable Fortunes In The History Of The World.

Success Consists Of Being And Doing, Not Simply Accumulating.

The Man Who Is Intent On Making The Most Of His Opportunities Is Too Busy To Bother About Luck.

A Magazine Editor Recently Asked Me To Sit Down On My 40th Birthday And Write An Article On The Most Important Things I Had Learned In My First 40 Years. I Told Him That The Chief Thing I Had Learned Was That The Copybook Maxims Are True, But That Too Many People Forget This Once They Go Out Into The Heat And Hustle And Bustle Of The Battle Of Life And Only Realize Their Truth Once One Foot Is Beginning To Slip Into The Grave. The Man Who Has Won Millions At The Cost Of His Conscience Is A Failure.

Judgment Can Be Acquired Only By Acute Observation, By Actual Experience In The School Of Life, By Ceaseless Alertness To Learn From Others, By Study Of The Activities Of Men Who Have Made Notable Marks, By Striving To Analyze The Everyday Play Of Causes And Effects, By Constant Study Of Human Nature.

What Would You Call America's Most Priceless Asset? Surely Not Its Limitless Natural Resources, Not Its Matchless National Wealth, Not Its Unequalled Store Of Gold, Not Its Giant Factories, Not Its Surpassing Railroads, Not Its Unprecedented Volume Of Cheap Power. Is Not Its Most Priceless Asset The Character Of Its People, Their Indomitable Self-confidence, Their Transcendent Vision, Their Sleepless Initiative And, Perhaps Above All, Their Inherent, Irrepressible Optimism?

Self Confidence

You Have No Idea How Big The Other Fellow's Troubles Are.

Which Class Is Happiest, The Rich, The Middle Class Or The Poor? A Very Successful Executive Of A Large Organization Touches Upon This Vital Subject In A Long Letter To All His Salesmen. He Uses As His Text A Passage From Robinson Crusoe Which Included This: ""my Father Bid Me Observe It, And I Should Always Find That The Calamities Of Life Were Shared Among The Upper And Lower Part Of Mankind; But That The Middle Station Had The Fewest Disasters, And Were Not Exposed To So Many Vicissitudes As The Higher Or Lower Part Of Mankind.

To Get The Most Out Of The World One Must Conscientiously Strive To Put The Most Into It. Life Without Worthy Ideals Becomes Wholly Unsatisfying, Sour. If Our Supreme Objective Is To Serve, No Blow Fate May Administer Can Daunt Us.

The More I Move Among Workers And Factories And Other Plants, The Stronger I Become Convinced That It Is Advisable To Have As [a Company] President A Practical Man, Preferably One Who Has Risen From The Very Bottom Of The Ladder. Workmen, I Find, Have Far More Respect For Such Men Than For Collar-and-cuff Executives Knowing Little Or Nothing About The Different Kinds Of Work Which Have To Be Done By The Workers. Wherever Circumstances Call For Placing A Financier Or Lawyer Or A Papa's Son At The Head Of A Large Organization, He Should Be Made Chairman Or Some Other Title, But Not President.

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Roger Rosenblatt

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