Certain Success Part 34

[Sidenote: Make Each Goal a New Starting Point]

Samuel McRoberts, vice-president of the great National City Bank of New York, started working for Armour & Company at a small salary in the early nineties. He was a young man who was always _healthily ambitious to keep moving ahead_. He "ate up" the minor work a.s.signed to him, and celebrated the completion of each task by asking at once, "What next?"

In a few years he had risen by successive promotions to the position of treasurer of Armour & Company. But that wasn't a _goal_ to McRoberts. It seemed to him only a _good starting point_ to bigger successes in the financial world. He became a director of several banks, an officer in important railroad and other corporations. _He continually enlarged his service value_ until he was called to New York's greatest bank, and took his place among the masters of American finance.

He did not loll back in his chair then and start taking it easy. _He packed more and more accomplishments into every day._ When the war began, he went to Was.h.i.+ngton to take executive charge of the job of procuring ordnance for the fighters. He held a post a.n.a.logous to that of Lloyd-George when he was Minister of Munitions for Great Britain.

McRoberts made good as a brigadier general, and after the war resumed his success in business. Whatever he did, wherever he worked, Samuel McRoberts _smiled welcomes to more opportunities for service, and reached out his ready hands to grasp them_.

[Sidenote: Celebrate by Tackling the Job Ahead]

_That is the way to celebrate--by tackling the job ahead. There is no end to the selling process. One sale should lead directly to another_.

The good salesman celebrates only the opportunity to get the next order in prospect. He may chuckle to himself over the sale just closed, but he does his rejoicing on his way to a new selling chance.

[Sidenote: Dynamic Confidence Static Complacency]

You haven't "arrived" yet. You are just well started. _Keep moving, and you will never "see your finish."_ Your successes thus far should have developed a considerable degree of _self-confidence._ Be careful not to let that _dynamic_ quality change into the _static_ element of _self-complacency._ Never be satisfied with what you have done. _Always have the zest of appet.i.te for more to do_. Add every day to your success chances.

Do not lose either your self-respect, or the respect of the men with whom you are a.s.sociated, by _ceasing to grow. Do more than you are paid for, and pretty soon your job will be unable to hold all your earning capacity_. You will be promoted to bigger opportunities. _If you shrink in the place you occupy now, your future chances will shrivel to fit your smaller size_. The way to get a better-paying job, to win a bigger, more profitable field for your salesmans.h.i.+p, is to _crowd your present position with your capabilities_. Burst out of your limited territory and spread over more ground.

[Sidenote: Serving Friends]

Render your utmost possible service to other people. Celebrate each opportunity to form a friends.h.i.+p. _Make some one like you for what you are willing to do for him_. Hold your friends, once they are made. As Emerson advised, "Be concerned for other people and their welfare. Put their interests sometimes ahead of your own. You can love your fellow men so much that you will never trample on their rights; and while you yourself keep climbing, raise as many of them as you can along with you.

That is the way to make friends."

Celebrate the good fortune of your business a.s.sociates, rather than your own. When a big contract is closed by your employer, be as tickled over it as he feels. Genuinely rejoice in his success. _Have no envy of the man above you, then when you rise to a higher level the men below you will not be likely to feel jealous_.

[Sidenote: Ford and Schwab]

Why has Henry Ford won so unique a place in the personal regard of the everyday man? Ford is one of the richest men in the world; yet he is not hated. What is the reason for his general popularity? He is not an idler. He has celebrated each success by taking on another job. And he always has given a hand-up to the other fellow instead of kicking him down so that he might climb higher because of his failure. He has understood and sympathized with the hopes and viewpoint of people who work. As a result countless men and women, most of whom never have seen him, think of Henry Ford as their friend. His finest success is not signified by the millions of money he has acc.u.mulated, but by the millions of friends.h.i.+ps he enjoys.

Charles M. Schwab, too, is popular. He is a man whom people like.

Because he was so successful in winning friends, rather than for his generally recognized business ability, he was made the head of the Government's s.h.i.+p-building program in the war. Other men were eager to work with and for Charles M. Schwab. The co-operation of thousands of friends.h.i.+ps, new and old, more than anything else enabled him to succeed in his big, patriotic job. How much more he has to celebrate in his wealth of good will than in his great fortune of dollars! Schwab has been called the most successful salesman in the world, which is another way of saying that he has no equal in ability to make other people both trust and like him.

[Sidenote: The Truest Wealth]

You may never acc.u.mulate millions of dollars. _That in itself is not success. Many wealthy men are failures in life. But with the aid of masterly salesmans.h.i.+p you can so enrich yourself with friends.h.i.+ps and the opportunities they bring that making all the money you want will be merely incidental to your real success_. Let every accomplishment be a stimulus to better selling of your service. Celebrate successful sales of your ideas by undertaking to sell more true ideas about your best capabilities in a larger field of usefulness.

[Sidenote: The Revolving Door]

The good salesman goes from opportunity to opportunity through a revolving door. As it closes on one selling chance, it opens on another.

He steps directly from a finished sale into the prospect of getting an order elsewhere. So he never stops selling.

You have sold yourself some knowledge of salesmans.h.i.+p. Do not rest contented with what you have already learned. These chapters should but whet your appet.i.te for more opportunities to master the principles and methods of selling true ideas of your best capabilities. So as you close this book, reach out your hand to open another. You cannot over-study the subject of salesmans.h.i.+p. _Never be satisfied with what you know_.

Continue to search for more golden knowledge, and make it yours by practicing everything you learn.

[Sidenote: Failure Impossible to The Good Salesman]

It is impossible to fail in life if you become a master salesman of the best that is in you. You will be sure to succeed. So here is Good Luck to you! Keep on making it for yourself, and you never will run out.

CERTAIN SUCCESS WILL BE YOURS.

It is you that you offer for sale, With your traits ranged like goods on a shelf, And the first thing to do, without fail, Is to make a success of yourself.

EDGAR A. GUEST.