How To Win Friends And Influence People Part 38

"I finally won my point, to my own satisfaction - but my time was up, the interview was over, and I still hadn't produced results.

"The second time, I didn't bother with tabulations of figures and data, I went to see this man, I dramatized my facts I.

"As I entered his office, he was busy on the phone.

While he finished his conversation, I opened a suitcase and dumped thirty-two jars of cold cream on top of his desk - all products he knew - all compet.i.tors of his cream.

"On each jar, I had a tag itemizing the results of the trade investigation, And each tag told its story briefly, dramatically.

"What happened?

"There was no longer an argument. Here was something new, something different. He picked up first one and then another of the jars of cold cream and read the information on the tag. A friendly conversation developed.

He asked additional questions. He was intensely interested. He had originally given me only ten minutes to present my facts, but ten minutes pa.s.sed, twenty minutes, forty minutes, and at the end of an hour we were still talking.

"I was presenting the same facts this time that I had presented previously. But this time I was using dramatization, showmans.h.i.+p - and what a difference it made."

PRINCIPLE 11 Dramatize your ideas.

12 WHEN NOTHING ELSE WORKS, TRY THIS

Charles Schwab had a mill manager whose people weren't producing their quota of work.

"How is it," Schwab asked him, "that a manager as capable as you can't make this mill turn out what it should?"

"I don't know," the manager replied. "I've coaxed the men, I've pushed them, I've sworn and cussed, I've threatened them with d.a.m.nation and being fired. But nothing works. They just won't produce."

This conversation took place at the end of the day, just before the night s.h.i.+ft came on. Schwab asked the manager for a piece of chalk, then, turning to the nearest man, asked: "How many heats did your s.h.i.+ft make today?"

"Six."

Without another word, Schwab chalked a big figure six on the floor, and walked away.

When the night s.h.i.+ft came in, they saw the "6" and asked what it meant.

"The big boss was in here today," the day people said.

"He asked us how many heats we made, and we told him six. He chalked it down on the floor."

The next morning Schwab walked through the mill again. The night s.h.i.+ft had rubbed out "6" and replaced it with a big "7."

When the day s.h.i.+ft reported for work the next morning, they saw a big "7" chalked on the floor. So the night s.h.i.+ft thought they were better than the day s.h.i.+ft did they? Well, they would show the night s.h.i.+ft a thing or two. The crew pitched in with enthusiasm, and when they quit that night, they left behind them an enormous, swaggering "10." Things were stepping up.

Shortly this mill, which had been lagging way behind in production, was turning out more work than any other mill in the plant.

The principle?

Let Charles Schwab say it in his own words: "The way to get things done," say Schwab, "is to stimulate compet.i.tion. I do not mean in a sordid, money-getting way, but in the desire to excel."

The desire to excel! The challenge! Throwing down the gauntlet! An infallible way of appealing to people of spirit.

Without a challenge, Theodore Roosevelt would never have been President of the United States. The Rough Rider, just back from Cuba, was picked for governor of New York State. The opposition discovered he was no longer a legal resident of the state, and Roosevelt, frightened, wished to withdraw. Then Thomas Collier Platt, then U.S. Senator from New York, threw down the challenge. Turning suddenly on Theodore Roosevelt, he cried in a ringing voice: "Is the hero of San Juan Hill a coward?"

Roosevelt stayed in the fight - and the rest is history.

A challenge not only changed his life; it had a real effect upon the future of his nation.

"All men have fears, but the brave put down their fears and go forward, sometimes to death, but always to victory" was the motto of the King's Guard in ancient Greece. What greater challenge can be offered than the opportunity to overcome those fears?

When Al Smith was governor of New York, he was up against it. Sing Sing, at the time the most notorious pen- itentiary west of Devil's Island, was without a warden.

Scandals had been sweeping through the pristin walls, scandals and ugly rumors. Smith needed a strong man to rule Sing Sing - an iron man. But who? He sent for Lewis E. Lawes of New Hampton.

"How about going up to take charge of Sing Sing?" he said jovially when Lawes stood before him. "They need a man up there with experience."

Lawes was flabbergasted. He knew the dangers of Sing Sing. It was a political appointment, subject to the vagaries of political whims. Wardens had come and gone - one had lasted only three weeks. He had a career to consider. Was it worth the risk?

Then Smith, who saw his hesitation, leaned back in his chair and smiled. "Young fellow," he said, "I don't blame you for being scared. It's a tough spot. It'll take a big person to go up there and stay."

So Smith was throwing down a challenge, was he?

Lawes liked the idea of attempting a job that called for someone "big."