How to Become Rich, William Windsor [readera ebook reader txt] 📗

in business, analyzed in such a manner that every business qualification is described and the reasons given why you will succeed. You are not left in the dark concerning the matter. The business is stated and the reasons given, and the reasons you can test seriatim before you go to any expense in making  a change, or in qualifying yourself for the business.

The enjoyment that a man gets from his business is a legitimate part of the profits. It is also one proper criterion of success. A man may accumulate a bank account, but if it is done at the expense of the enjoyment of life, if every task is a burden, and every day’s work a monotonous round of dreary duties, he is no better than a slave.

When he uses the strongest faculties of his nature the result is constant gratification. The use of weaker elements is always at the expense of extra effort and pain. The muscular woodsman enjoys the exercise of chopping, and swings his glittering axe with dexterity and pride. Put a college professor at the same task, and he would be clumsy and suffer fatigue and mortification as well, if he escaped without injury to his shins. But in his school-room the professor would display dignity, enjoyment and skill in expounding some intricate problem to admiring pupils. The skillful musician becomes identified with his instrument, and thrills with the melody evoked by his own fingers. The trained accountant becomes wonderfully gifted in mathematical computation, and enjoys his work in like manner. The accountant might find the work of the musician an impossibility, and what little he did accomplish, a vexation; while the confinement of the counting-room, with its prosaic duties, would be the worst form of slavery for the musician, his work  inferior, his capacity limited, his situation intolerable but for the meagre salary it might afford.

A bank president called on me with his son, requesting an examination for the latter. As he came in, I saw that he was in a bad humor. Said he, “This boy is a fool. If you can find any talent in him you will succeed better than I have. My desire is, that he should occupy a position in my bank and ultimately become cashier. Our present cashier is a first-class business man and can add up four columns of figures at once, and I have sent this boy to several business colleges with the request that he be taught the same accomplishment. I have spent seven hundred and fifty dollars on this boy’s mathematics, and he can’t add up one column of figures with any certainty of being correct. If there is any sense in him, I would like to have you find it.”

I examined the boy carefully, and I did not find an idiot. I said, “Sir, you are doing this boy an injustice. He has but little mathematical sense, it is true, and he will never be able to add more than one column of figures with speed and correctness. Nature intended him for something different from a bank cashier. Give this boy a good violin, place him under competent instructors, spend seventy-five dollars on his musical education and he will display such magnificent talent that you will be willing to continue.”

The old gentleman arose in wrath, and stamped  out of the room, and said he didn’t want any fiddlers in his family. The next day, however, he came back and apologized. Said he, “I suppose it is better for the boy to be a good violinist than a poor accountant; at all events, I’ve failed so far, and I’ll try your advice to the extent of seventy-five dollars; if he displays talents as a musician, he shall have the best instruction money can obtain.”

He kept his word, and placed the boy in a musical conservatory under first-class instructors, and before the seventy-five dollars was expended, the boy was the pride of the institution. He led his classes; graduated with first honors; is to-day the leader of a first-class orchestra and a professor in a leading conservatory; commands better compensation than any accountant in the city, and has an entree into the best society at all times by reason of his accomplishments. He stands to-day a king among his fellows because he is using his strongest faculties. But the best of it lies in the fact that he enjoys his profession; his position is one of dignity and pleasure. Whether he stands before audiences at the head of his orchestra, in the drawing rooms of elite society, or in the solitude of his study, his brain vibrates with the harmony of his own grand usefulness.

I have a friend who holds the position of first book-keeper in a leading bank, and he is master of the situation because he is able to add four columns of  figures at once with absolute accuracy. He commands a first-class salary for first-class work, and it is pleasurable to watch the pride, the dignity, and the evident enjoyment with which he performs the duties of his station. On one occasion I went into the bank to settle an account of long standing, and at the request of the cashier, my friend, the book-keeper, made out the account and added it up in his usual quick way. The cashier, being desirous of preventing any possible mistake, said, “Mr. B——, will you please add that up again and see that your figures are correct.” The book-keeper was insulted. The idea that he might make a mistake was not to be tolerated. With an expression of lofty dignity that I shall never forget, he handed back the account without looking at it, saying, “The account is correct, sir.” And as the cashier laboriously added it one column at a time he found that it was. The book-keeper was master of the situation, and he was able to humiliate anybody who dared to question his work. And as I saw his satisfaction in the discomfiture of the cashier, I said to myself, Verily the enjoyment of a man’s business is a legitimate part of the profits.

The enjoyment of my own business is a large share of the profits. I enjoy lecturing, and I enjoy examinations, because I know when I examine a head that I know more about it than the man who wears it, and that what I am about to say will do him more  good than anything he ever heard in his life if he will heed it. And when some young man comes up to me in Texas, and shakes hands and thanks me for something he heard me say in a lecture in California, and another shows me his prosperity in Colorado, and draws out a chart I made for him in Missouri, telling him to enter that business, I enjoy it. And when I examine some diffident young lady and encourage her to learn accomplishments and show her the occupation she should follow, and years later I find her succeeding in all of them and developed into a grand self-sustaining woman, a mighty power for good in her neighborhood, I enjoy that. And when I give my professional sanction to the marriage of some brave young man and beautiful young woman, and later I find them surrounded by superb offspring, a good home and every indication of prosperity, and I see that the beauty of the wife has not faded, and that the husband is stronger and braver and more tender than he was, I enjoy that.

Commercial reports show that only a fraction over two per cent. of business enterprises are successful. The rest are failures because they are managed by men who do not possess the kind of sense required.

The question presents itself to every young man and woman at this moment: Will you be a success, or will you join the long, dismal procession of failures? If you really desire to succeed, you should first find  out the true measure of your abilities. My delineation of your character is the surest guide, because it is the estimate placed upon your capacity, your quality, your temperament, your special development of sense, by an impartial friend, a skillful critic, guided by the light of science and a conscientious regard for your welfare.

In coming to me for examinations, come prepared to know the truth. I am not here to flatter you, nor am I here to ridicule or abuse your weaknesses. I have for many years enjoyed a magnificent practice, gained by strict candor and honesty with my patrons, who have long since learned that I spare no pains to know the facts, and knowing them I fear no consequences in relating them as they are.

I will tell you every element of your character as nature and circumstances have combined to develop them. I will not flatter you, but I promise you that I will find more good in you than you have ever found in your own organization, and I will tell you how to turn that good to the best practical account. I will describe your business qualities, and analyze them, showing you how to improve and correct them; and if you are in the proper business already, this knowledge will enable you to develop more perfect usefulness and strengthen your confidence for the future. If you are not in the right profession, trade or occupation, the sooner you find it the better, and make use of your opportunities. I will tell you the very best  you can do, and prove it to you by reasons seriatim, and convince you that it will be as natural for you to succeed in that business as it is for a cork to swim, and for the same reason, because the law of nature commands that it should be so. Brain is money, character is capital, knowledge of your resources is the secret of success.

I wish to say a word to the ladies at this point. In this lecture I have used the term “man” in its generic sense, as the old preacher did when he announced that his congregation numbered two hundred and fifty brethren, and then qualified it by remarking that the brethren “embraced” the sisters. Phrenology discloses the fact that women have as many varieties of temperament, quality, capacity and size and special development of brain organs, as men. Every woman as well as every man is endowed with a certain line of talents, and when she enters her proper vocation she succeeds at it, no matter what it may be. Women have succeeded wherever men have, as rulers, as leaders of armies, as physicians, lawyers, in the world of commerce, in the shop, the factory, and on the farm. There is a great deal of bosh written and spoken about “woman’s sphere.” The proper sphere of every individual man or woman is in that line of work for which nature intended them, and for which they are endowed with the proper development of brain and brawn. And, ladies, when you come to me for  examinations I shall be just and honest enough to tell you where you belong; and if I can find you something which will take you out of competition with the Negroes and Chinamen I shall certainly do so.

To parents, also, I wish to say that this is the opportunity you must not neglect. You have no right to bring children into the world unless you are willing to promote their welfare and give them the best opportunities to enjoy whatever nature has endowed them with, in the nature of talent. Do not allow the trifling cost of an examination to stand in the way of obtaining this priceless knowledge, which will enable you to direct their