Chapter 2

_The Man-Stuff You Have For Sale_

[Sidenote: The Man Sales-Man Ship]

Your _knowledge_ of sales principles and methods, and your _skill_ in selling ideas must be combined with right sales-_manhood_ if your _complete_ success in sales-man-ship is to be made certain. Particular _man_ qualities are necessary to make you a master _salesman_ in your chosen field. "A good man obtaineth favor." So we will study now the elements of character required for the most effective sales-_man_-ship, and how to develop them.

We shall not consider "Man" in the abstract, nor exceptional ideals of manhood. Our thought of the sales _man_ will be concentrated on qualities _you_ have or can develop, that are necessary to make _you_ most efficient in selling ideas about _yourself_.

Some radical _changes_ in your present character may be required. But you will need principally to _grow_ in order to attain the full stature of sales manhood that is necessary to gain complete success. If your manliness is dwarfed now, you cannot succeed largely in selling true ideas of your best and biggest capabilities, until you rid yourself of the character faults that are stunting your growth as a sales _man_.

[Sidenote: The Little Man Out-of-Date]

Realize at the outset that the time has passed forever when the _little_ man, with the narrowly selfish outlook for "Number One," might succeed. The demand of the future will be, however, not so much for BIG men as for big MEN. The world no longer looks up to Kaisers and Czars. Success has ceased to be merely a towering figure. Hereafter the one sure way to succeed will lead through the door of _brotherly understanding of the other fellow_, into the _common heart of mankind_. Only sales_man_ship can open that door with certainty.

We are entering a new business era, where the old individualistic methods of attaining so-called "success" will be worse than useless. Many of them even now are forbidden by law. All the practices of the "profiteer" and his ilk are discountenanced by far-seeing people. Men of vision perceive that the size of To-morrow's Success will be measured in direct proportion to its quality of _human service_.

"SERVICE" is the motto of the highest salesmanship. Therefore, in shaping your plans to succeed, start with the resolve to make yourself a truly big sales MAN. Do not copy the little, selfish models of Yesterday. Study the signs of the times. To be out-of-date is equivalent to being a failure.

[Sidenote: Pint and Bushel Men]

You will need to be big in ability, in imagination, in energy, in your ideals--but most of all you must be big in MANHOOD. If you are little and selfish in your life purpose, you cannot be certain of success in selling to a truly BIG man the idea that you are fully qualified for his service. Before making any attempt to sell yourself into a desirable position, take pains to develop as much _man quality_ as characterizes your prospective employer. You cannot comprehend him if you fall short of his standard of manhood. To-day the biggest buyers of brains and brawn recognize their obligations of human brotherhood. If you are little and self-centered, how can you reach into the mind and heart and soul of another man who is genuinely BIG? How can you impel him to think as you wish?

The little man even doubts the existence of big manhood. He cannot comprehend such size. A pint measure, however much it is stretched, is utterly unable to contain a bushel. But the larger measure easily holds either a pint or a bushel. Similarly if you are big in _manhood_, you can comprehend alike the little man and the big man. You will be able to deal successfully with both.

[Sidenote: The Clothing Of Manhood]

It is not sufficient, however, that you grow to the full stature of your biggest man possibilities. It is necessary also that you be _clothed in the characteristics of manhood_ in order to be _recognized_ as a man. When you were only an infant, you were safety-pinned into a square of cloth once doubled triangularly. You graduated to rompers at a year and a half or two. Then you put on knee-pants, and afterward youth's long trousers. Now you wear the clothes of a full-grown man. You would not think of dressing in knickerbockers, or rompers, or--something younger, to present your qualities and services for sale. Yet your outer garb is much less important to the success of your salesmanship than is your _clothing of manhood._

[Sidenote: What is Your Man Power?]

If you hope to assure yourself of man's-size success in life, plan that wherever you are you will make the instant impression that you are "every inch a man," not just an overgrown baby or boy. Follow the example of Paul, that incomparably great salesman of the new ideas of Christianity. He wrote in his powerful first sales letter to the Corinthian field, "When I became a man, I put away childish things." _Compel respect_ by your sound virility. Have a well-founded consciousness that in manhood you are the equal of any other man, and you can make everybody you meet feel you are a man _all through_.

What is your size as a sales _man_ now?

Ask yourself this question, and answer it frankly. In order to make sure of selling yourself into the opportunities you want, you must take your own measure and fit your manhood to the selling process you have begun to learn. Beyond a doubt you are now a sales man of _some_ size. You are selling your physical or mental powers, your services of this kind or that, with a degree of efficiency directly proportionate to your man-power.

[Sidenote: The ¼ m.p. Man]

If you are only a ¼ m.p. salesman at present, you lack three-fourths of the man capacity needed to handle with certain success all the opportunities of full-size manhood. You were not limited by Nature to ¼ m.p. size. You were born with _full man capacity_. You are like a gasoline motor developing but a quarter of the power it was designed to produce--not because of any structural fault in the engine, but simply for the reason that it does not function _now_ as it was intended to operate, and as it can be made to work _in the future_ if it is overhauled and put in perfect condition. The full power capacity originally built _into_ the motor needs to be brought _out_. Likewise _your_ man-power plant requires to be made as efficient as possible, in order to assure you of full man-capability for achieving success.

Maybe your chief fault is poor fuel, and what you most need is good "gas." You have not been filling up your mind with the right ideas. Or, perhaps, your piston rings leak; and you lack the high compression of determined persistence. Another fault might be in your carburetor--you are not a good "mixer." Or your spark of enthusiasm may be weak. It is possible, too, that your fine points are caked over by the carbon of accumulated bad habits. Maybe you have a cracked cylinder--your health is partly broken down. The fault is in your timer, perhaps. You are not "on the job" when you should be.

[Sidenote: Your Manhood Can Be Re-built]

No matter what ails your particular engine, _it can be repaired or rebuilt into a full one-manpower motor of efficiency_. If you limp and pound along with but a quarter of your capability, it is your own fault for not overhauling your power plant. Don't continue as a ¼ m.p. man and blame anybody else, or curse your bad luck because you can't make speed and carry the load necessary to succeed. _Stop trying to go on crippled or clogged in manhood_. Run yourself into the repair shop right away and "get fixed."

You can make your manhood over.

There is full-man capability in you. You can get it all out and put it to work for your success.

You have the ability to re-make your _character_ entirely, without changing _your individual nature_.

You must accomplish transformation into _your best self_ before you can make the most of your opportunities to sell your abilities and services. It will not suffice that you just are _willing_, or _desire,_ to become a first-class salesman of your particular "goods of sale." Merely acquiring information or _knowledge_ of the selling process is not enough to assure your success in life. Even the most skillful _practice_ of all the sales principles and methods you learn will be insufficient to guarantee your success--if you do not develop your full _man capacity_ for sales-man-ship.

[Sidenote: Essentials of the Master Sales Man]

The result of the necessary changes and growth in _your_ manhood will be an enlarged conception of _all_ men--your greater capacity to understand and to handle _any one else_ successfully.

It is entirely possible for you to develop and cultivate every essential quality of the master sales-_man_, and still to be just _yourself_.

[Sidenote: Good Appearance]

The high grade professional salesman makes the best _appearance_ of which he is capable. Surely you can do that, too. You can train yourself to grace and ease in your bearing. However unsatisfactory your features may be, you certainly are capable of looking pleasant, and therefore of being attractive. It is possible for you to have well-kept hands and hair; to wear suitable, clean clothes; to be neat.

[Sidenote: Physical Capacity]

First-class salesmanship requires, too, a high degree of _physical capacity_ for the most effective performance of the selling process. You need health, virility, energy, liveliness, and endurance, in order to sell effectively _the idea that you are physically able_ to fill the job you want most. Physical incapacity is a handicap in almost any vocation. It can be remedied. It _must_ be remedied as fully as possible in your case. You may not be very robust naturally, _but you can make the most of the constitution you have_, with certain success as the incentive for your fullest possible physical development. Few of us are as well as we _might_ be.

[Sidenote: Mental Equipment]

Whatever your physical shortcomings, there can be no doubt that you are capable of developing all the essential _mental_ equipment of the successful salesman. You only need to comprehend a few elemental laws of mind science; and then to _train_ yourself to the utmost of your particular ability--in perceptive power, alertness, accuracy, punctuality, memory, imagination, concentration, adaptability to circumstances, stability, self-control, determination, tact, diplomacy, and good judgment.

Does this seem like a long list of difficult accomplishments? Examine the items, and realize how easy it is to develop these mental qualities of masterly sales_man_ship.

Perception is simply looking at things with your mind as well as with your eyes.

Alertness is no more than mental sharp ears.

Accuracy results from taking pains to be right.

Punctuality is a habit of mind that anyone can develop.

Memory is acquired by practice in remembering things.

You use _some_ imagination every day--use _all_ your imaginative power.

Likewise you occasionally concentrate your thoughts. More exercise in concentration will develop this mental characteristic.

You adapt yourself to circumstances when necessary, or when you choose. You can train yourself so that you will be prepared to meet anything that may happen.

You have a degree of stability of character, otherwise you never would accomplish anything. Increase your steadfastness by sticking to more purposes.

Similarly determination, self-control, tact, diplomacy, and good judgment are merely the natural results of _continual practice_ to develop these mental qualities.

[Sidenote: Emotional Qualities]

The principal _emotional_ or _heart_ qualities required in masterly selling are ambition, hopefulness, optimism, enthusiasm, cheerfulness, self-confidence, courage, persistence, patience, earnestness, sympathy, frankness, expressiveness, humor, loyalty, and love of others. Think of these one by one, and realize how many of them you already possess to a considerable degree.

You may not be optimistic; perhaps you lack self-confidence, or maybe you are wanting in courage. But with the possible exception of these three "heart" qualities of the master salesman, you are not deficient now in the emotional essentials of successful salesmanship. You need only a _higher degree_ of each.

Develop all your capability in the other qualities, and you will find you have become an optimist. Your self-confidence, too, will grow as fast as you increase your ability. When you are full of optimism and self-confidence, you will not find it difficult to create courage within yourself. _Then you will have the complete emotional equipment of a master salesman._ The exact way to develop courage with certainty is explained in the second chapter of "The Selling Process," with especial reference to the professional salesman, who _must_ meet his prospects courageously in all circumstances if he would succeed.

[Sidenote: Ethical Essentials]

Nor is it hard for you to qualify yourself _ethically_ for mastery of the selling process. Surely your intentions are right. You mean to be honest and truthful. You can be of good moral character. You expect to be reliable. It should be easy for you to love your chosen work.

[Sidenote: Spiritual Capacity]

There remains, finally, the essential of _spiritual capacity_ for selling. It comprises idealism, vision, faith, desire to serve, ability to understand other men. Perhaps you are deficient in some of these spiritual qualities now. But with idealism all about you in the spirit of the world cannot you, too, lift your eyes to higher purposes than the satisfaction of merely selfish desires? Are you not able to look broadly, instead of narrowly at life? You know you must have faith--that you cannot make sure of success if you doubt. Your mission as a true salesman of yourself should be to serve your prospects by satisfying their real needs for the abilities you have. Love of others results from serving them with what you can supply that they lack.

In no respect, then, from personal good appearance to spiritual capacity, need you be other than _your best possible self_ to qualify for certain success with the selling process.

[Sidenote: Change and Growth Necessary]

Reference has been made repeatedly in these pages to the necessity for _change_ and _growth_ in your man character before you can become a master salesman of your full capability for success. Of course you cannot change your _nature_ into a different _nature_; any more than one form of life can be transformed into an entirely distinct form of life. It is impossible to develop a carrot into a calla, or to make a dog of a pig. But the _elements_ of any particular form of life may be altered, most radically.

[Sidenote: Develop Use, Activity and Quality Of Elements]

So you can develop: (1) the _use_; (2) the _degree of activity_; (3) the _quality_, of any element in your present salesman equipment.

For example, it is generally recognized that suitable clothes help to create a good impression. Therefore you should _use_ to the _highest degree of activity_ and of _quality_ what you know about the effect of dress in helping to create a good impression. But, to particularize, do you (_use_ your knowledge) polish your shoes, even if it is no more than flicking off the dust with your handkerchief, every chance (_highest degree of activity_) you get when they need it? And when you polish your shoes in the morning preparatory to starting your day's work, do you just give them "a lick and a promise," or do you "make 'em shine?" (Highest degree of _quality_.)

[Sidenote: Animal Training]

The "stupid" pig can be taught to do as phenomenal tricks as the "intelligent" dog. It is possible to train a pig so that he will appear to be able to discriminate among colors, to tell time, even to perform simple operations in arithmetic. At the circus or vaudeville we sit in wonder while the "educated" stupid pig, alertly afraid of the trainer's whip, performs stunts of seeming _intelligence_. Under the stimulus of fear he acts like a quick-thinking dog. In truth he _has_ been changed by training, from the _pig characteristic_ of utter stupidity to the _dog characteristic_ of rudimentary intelligence. But in _nature and form_ he remains just a pig. If you should see him among other pigs in a pen, you never would mistake the "educated" pig for a fat puppy.

In the trained pig the _use_ of his pig mind is developed to an unusual degree of _activity_ and of _quality_ to save himself from punishment and to gain the tidbits that reward his performance of tricks. The purpose of the trainer is accomplished by changing and developing the _mind functioning_ of the pig. No trainer would attempt to change the _nature_ of a pig--to develop a pig into an elephant, a different _creature_. Only _characteristics_ can be changed or developed.

[Sidenote: Plant Development]

Luther Burbank has accomplished with plants even more extraordinary changes and developments in characteristics than have been achieved by the most expert trainers of animals. He could not make a carrot into a calla; but he did take the dwarf natural calla plant and develop it into a splendid lily that bears flowers measuring a foot across the petal. He also multiplied the characteristic colors of the natural calla and has evolved great blossoms of a score of shades, from pure white to jet black.

The noted plant wizard developed, too, the naturally small, hard, dry, sour prune and transformed it into a juicy, sweet fruit that is bigger and more delicious than our common plum.

He also succeeded in altering radically an element of the natural walnut, which had a characteristic covering skin of bitter tannin over the meat inside the nut shell. For countless centuries walnut trees had been in the habit of covering the meat of their nuts with this tannin skin. Luther Burbank trained selected walnut trees to give up this fixed bad habit, and to produce nuts the meats of which were not enveloped in bitter coverings.

[Sidenote: Man Making]

Since expert trainers have been able to accomplish such marvelous changes and developments in the characteristics of lower animals and plants--not changes in the form of life, but alterations so nearly miraculous that they seem almost to be changes in nature--is there the least doubt that you, a _man_, excelling every other animal, and every plant in consciousness and intelligence, are capable of the most radical, elemental changes in your present self?

Cannot _you_, then, certainly develop and _use_ to a much higher degree of _activity_ and _quality_ the MAN characteristics you now possess? Of course you can! You need but to learn the _science of yourself_--to get full knowledge of what you are and of what you might be--by studying the _big, best qualities in you_. After that you will need _to make the most_ of what you learn about your true self. Intensive self-study will reveal to you all the possibilities of your enlarged and bettered personality. When you know you have developed your biggest, best manhood, you certainly will feel increased power to sell your "goods."

Of all living creatures, Man is the most adaptable, is capable of the greatest development, and responsive in the highest degree to desires from within and to influences from outside himself. Only a stupidly ignorant man would hold to the belief that the elements of his character cannot be radically changed and developed. At present you may be handicapped with what you have considered "natural disqualifications" for success. Then _study_ yourself thoroughly, _one detail at a time_. Follow this self-analysis by intelligent practice in the active use of your best qualities, and determine to _change_ your "disqualifications" into _salable characteristics_ that will help you to succeed.

[Sidenote: No Normal Man Lacks Qualifications For Success]

Certainly a slouch can straighten up, wash his dirty hands and face, dress neatly, and suggest proper regard for his appearance. The physical weakling is able to build considerable strength into himself. Dullards, unless their brains are stunted, may develop surprising intellectual keenness. Careless men can train themselves to painstaking accuracy. Individuals who are habitually late may become models of punctuality. The man of flighty thoughts can concentrate. It is possible to control a quick, bad temper. Tact, diplomacy, and good judgment can be learned and used efficiently by the countless thousands of people who now are tactless, undiplomatic, and characterized by poor judgment.

So it is with the principal emotional, ethical, and spiritual qualities of the master salesman. _You_ have them _all_, elementally. _Certainly you can develop any selected element to higher activity and use it_ to help you sell true ideas of your best capabilities.

Maybe you have fought long and vainly for self-confidence, for courage, for will power. Perhaps you have realized for years that you are slow in perception, and have struggled to make yourself take mental snap-shots of details and conditions. You have wished and willed and worked to be agreeable and courteous; yet perhaps you lose friends by your characteristic disagreeableness and lack of courtesy. If, in spite of all you so far have done to improve yourself, you have been unable to get rid of your faults and defects, you are apt to question the statement that you _certainly can_ develop such qualities as you most desire.

[Sidenote: Decision Will Power Hard Work Insufficient]

No doubt you have _decided_, probably you have _willed_, very likely you have made a _persistent struggle_ to change your characteristics. You honestly have tried hard to grow, and to increase your man capacity. Consequently your failure may have left you rather hopeless about ever succeeding as you once expected to succeed. Perhaps you have given up your case as "too tough a job." We will assume that you are not so young as you wish you were, and that you have committed to memory the fatalistic, hoary lie, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." But recall the fixed habit of bitterness the walnut had for centuries, the color and size of the natural calla, the sour taste of the little wild prune, which the plant wizard changed most radically without using any "wizardry" at all. He just _applied scientific knowledge_ in his training of walnut trees and callas and prunes and other forms of vegetable life. Have you tried his method of development? Do you know exactly what he did?

If Luther Burbank had merely _desired_ and _willed_ that the walnut should give up its old bad habit, he never could have accomplished the job of development. He might have _insisted persistently_ for a life-time that the little, sour, dry prune should become more luscious and larger than the plum; but it would have remained the same in size and other characteristics as it always had been, despite his continued determination. Desire, will, and persistence were but preliminary steps toward the complete accomplishment of his purpose with the prune.

[Sidenote: Luther Burbank's Method]

Burbank worked out in his mind and by actual experiments _distinctive methods_ of development--_development and changes along particular, definite lines._ He selected for the prune he _wanted to produce,_ (an imagined, ideal prune) certain desirable qualities of the plum--the best plum characteristics. He studied _what produced these particular qualities in plums_. Then with his exact, scientific knowledge of the _similarity in nature_ of the plum and the prune, and his equally definite knowledge of the _differences in their characteristics_, supplemented by his knowledge of _exactly what produced_ the difference in the two fruits, he started his experiments with natural prune trees.

He led specimens through a pre-determined scientific process of training. He succeeded in getting his experimental prune trees to develop discriminatively, almost as if they had the power of choice, _particular plum qualities in preference to others._ But the result was not a transformation of the prune trees into plum trees. The fruit of the tree he evolved was just a _perfected_ prune. He simply developed _all the capability_ the prune had originally to be _like_ a plum in deliciousness.

[Sidenote: Natural Growth Without Struggle]

Note just here one very important feature of the Burbank method of plant development and change. It did not involve any _struggle_ or _hard work_ on the part of his trees. He merely provided _natural_, but scientifically _selected_ conditions and food; knowing that his prunes then would grow naturally in the particular ways he wanted them to develop, and in no other ways at variance with his plan.

Perhaps the primary fault in your ineffective effort to develop yourself into the man you want to be, is that it has been a _struggle_. _Natural_ growth always is _easy_. Growth involves a struggle only when one or more of the _means_ of natural growth are lacking. Luther Burbank wished his prune trees to develop certain selected qualities of the plum. Therefore he provided his wild prunes with the same means he had used effectively _with plums_ to increase _their_ lusciousness. He knew these means should have a _similar_ effect on _prunes_. When he had provided the natural means of discriminative development, he left the rest to the _natural growth_ of his prune trees. They began to develop the selected plum qualities _easily_, and generation after generation became more and more like plums.

[Sidenote: Two Bases Of Growth Mind and Body]

Now let us consider briefly: first, the _bases_ of natural, easy growth of selected man qualities; second, the _processes_ that take place in the development of desired man qualities, some of which may not have seemed to exist previous to the evolutionary training; third, the training _methods_ that should be employed to make these processes most effective and to produce the particular results wanted and no others.

There are _two bases of development in every one_--the inner and the outer man. The _real himself_ is the inner man, which psychologists call the "Ego." But there is something else in the make-up of every man, his _body_. Each of us recognizes his body--not as _himself_, not as his ego--but as _belonging to_ the real, or inner himself. A man thinks and says, "_my_ body" just as he considers and refers to anything else that is his.

The discrimination between the two parts of "_You_" must be understood at the very start of your self-development. All your plans for the growth of the characteristics you need to assure your success should be based on comprehension of your _duality_. The two "You's" in yourself not only are distinctly _different_, but they are also very intimately _related_ in all their functions. Neither your "ego" nor your body is independent of the other part of your duality. So, of course, both must co-operate fully in every _process_ of your self-development; and your _training methods_ should be planned for the bettered growth of your inner and outer man _as a team_.

[Sidenote: Team-work Processes]

You understand now that your growth should be on a dual basis; that you have two different men to develop, not just one; and that they must be handled _discriminatively_, but _together_.

Next it is necessary that you know in _exactly what ways_ the activities of the mind man, or ego, are related to the activities of his body, or the physical man. Otherwise you cannot comprehend the team-work processes by which any desired qualities of manhood can be developed from their rudiments. Perhaps the reason you have not yet succeeded fully is that you have been a "one-horse" man and have not trained your dual self to be an effective _mind-and-body_ team pulling together. It takes both mind and body to bring to market successfully all the "best capability" of a man.

[Sidenote: Training Methods]

Evidently, as a pre-requisite to self-development, one should have knowledge of the particular processes that result _surely_ in natural, easy, rapid growth. Otherwise he would be more than likely to employ a wrong or only partly right _method of training_. So as a student of yourself you need to start with comprehension of your two _bases_ of development, mind and body. It is necessary next that you acquire scientific knowledge of the distinct but related _processes_ of developing your two selves severally to work together as a team. Then you must learn the particular _methods_ of coöperative mental and physical training that are most effective in accomplishing the man growth you desire.

[Sidenote: Neither Mind Nor Body A Unit]

Not only have you two selves, but neither "You" is a _single unit_. Your mind, as well as your body, is made up of distinctly different but very intimately related and associated _parts_. Your "mind" cannot be developed as a _whole_. Its parts must be severally bettered and strengthened in coordination, just as the physical man is developed by training his various muscles.

You know you have _distinct sets of muscles_ which all together make up your _composite body_. Perhaps, however, you have not realized before that your _mind_ is not a _unit_, but is made up of innumerable distinct "mind centers," each of which functions as independently of the others as your set of eye muscles operates independently of the set of muscles governing the movements of one of your fingers. And possibly you do not know that each _mind_ center has a distinct _brain_ center, which functions for that _particular part alone_ of your whole mind. _Each associated mind-and-brain center_ also has direct, distinct nerve connections _with only one set of muscles_.

In fact, you are "a many-minded, many-bodied" man--a collection of mental and physical _parts_, a composite man rather than a man unit. These several parts are in large measure practically _independent_ of one another. One set of body parts "belongs to" only its particular associated set of mind parts, or mind center.

[Sidenote: Independent Mind and Body Centers]

If you were constituted otherwise, your life would be very precarious; for the injury or destruction of even a minor part of your body would be fatal to the whole unit. As it is, you can lose a finger without affecting your eye-sight in the least. So you might suffer a localized brain injury that would completely paralyze a finger, without impairing your sight at all. Either the mind center that governs a finger, or the set of muscles in that finger can be affected without necessarily reacting upon any _other_ mind center or any _other_ set of muscles.

[Sidenote: Interrelation Of the Ego And Physical Man]

_But if the mind center that governs a certain set of muscles is affected, that set of muscles also is directly affected and at once. Likewise if anything happens to a particular set of muscles, the reaction is instantly transmitted to its associated mind center through the "direct wire" nerves and brain center which particularly serve that part of the mind_.

Great scientists have studied mental and physical phenomena in inter-relation and have learned certain facts. For example, it is known that "the mind" not only affects the general functions of "the body," but also the rate of bodily activity and the chemistry of body tissues. Long-continued hard thinking actually does "wear a man out." It consumes blood and brain tissue. It "slows him up." It may impair his digestion and appetite. We all know these things, but the scientists know just _why_ we feel _physically_ tired after using only our _minds_.

They have learned also that every activity of the _mind_ has a direct effect on the _brain substance._ That is, each mind operation _through_ the brain _changes_ its physical structure in some degree. Mental effort or relaxation increases or decreases the amount of blood in the brain. When you have been using your mind very hard, your head "feels heavy," and it _is_ unusually heavy then on account of the extra amount of blood weight. Even the temperature of the brain, particularly of that portion of the brain which is especially functioning at a given moment, is changed with every mental effort.

[Sidenote: Slow Muscles Slow Mind]

There is abundant scientific proof that the quality and quantity of muscle, brain, and nerve (_physical_) activity in a particular individual are accompanied by corresponding qualities and quantities of _mental_ activity. That is, when a person's muscle action, nerve response, and brain action are sluggish, his _mind_ also develops a characteristic of slow action. And vice versa.

We say of a certain acquaintance that he has an alert mind. But his "ego," or mental self, could not act quickly and alertly if his _brain_, the physical instrument of his _mind_, did not receive and transmit impressions swiftly to his mentality. The _brain_ does not _think_. It is as purely physical as any other part of the body. It just _handles_, or transmits in and out, to and from the _mind_, the various impressions sent _in_ by different sense muscles, and the mental reflexes or impulses sent _out_ by the innumerable mind centers. Your mind works _through_ your brain. Of course, therefore, the quality and quantity of mental work _you_ are capable of doing are limited by the degree of handling-or-transmitting _efficiency_ characteristic of _your_ particular brain structure.

[Sidenote: Value of Practical Psychology]

Any interference with the _brain_ quality or quantity of an individual naturally interferes with his normal _mental_ functioning. If a particular part of a man's brain is injured, the associated mind center is harmed likewise and his mental _quality_ is affected in proportion. Should a certain portion of his brain be cut out, the total _quantity_ of his mental powers would be correspondingly reduced. We all know these things about the brain and the mind. But only a few scientists are familiar with many _details_ of the _inter-relation of mind and brain and muscles_, which should be known to all people who want to make the most of themselves. The salesman of himself needs to understand his "goods" thoroughly; so as we study the selling process that completes the secret of certain success, we dig into _practical psychology_ a little way now in order to stimulate in you a desire for further exploration of that gold mine of opportunities.

[Sidenote: Physical Manifestations of Ideas]

The mind depends on the brain, in coordination with the nerves and muscles, to _express_ thoughts. That is how your _inner_ or "ego" sales-man gets his ideas _out_ of your physical salesman, and _shows them_ to the minds of prospective buyers. You can make another person conscious of your thoughts only by some _perceptible physical manifestation_ of the idea you wish to convey to him. Evidently, then, in order to succeed in developing your big sales manhood and in making effective impressions of it on others, you must learn both _how to think the ideas of big manhood into your own mind_ most effectively and how to _show them outwardly_ with masterly skill. The first process is man development; the second is sales-_man_-ship, or _manhood self-expression for the purpose of controlling the ideas of other men_.

[Sidenote: Selling A Thought]

There is but one way to indicate or express what is going on in your mind. Your thoughts can be physically shown only by _muscular action_ of some kind. Brain and nerve action are hidden, but muscle action can be perceived. If your _muscular action_ expresses exactly the _idea_ you desire and will and use it to manifest, your mind is able to get its _thought_ across to another mind--_to sell_ the idea.

Conversely, if your muscle action--your outer, perceptible self--expresses something _different_ from your thought intention, your mind has failed to make the true impression of your idea. It may be that an impression directly contradictory to your thought has been made by your muscles working at cross purposes. So the truth in your mind won't get across to the other man's mind--not because your _idea_ was untrue, but because it has not been _physically interpreted_ by your muscles as you _intended_. For example, you might stand so much in awe of a man you greatly admire that you would avoid speaking to him, and in consequence would appear to him indifferent or cold. Your physical appearance would belie your intentions.

Perhaps, if you have failed in life or have only partially succeeded, despite the qualifications you possess for complete success, your _muscles_ may be principally to blame. The parts of your idea-selling equipment that _can be perceived in action_ probably have not "delivered the goods" of sale correctly.

[Sidenote: How Knowledge is Accumulated]

Not only is your mind absolutely dependent on the muscular system of your body for any true _expression_ of the real _you_ inside; it likewise must depend on the activity of your various sets of muscles to get all the _incoming_ sense impressions that make up whatever _knowledge_ you have.

Have you realized how your present fund of information was accumulated? Everything you know came into your conscious mind originally through impressions first made on your various "sense" muscles, and then transmitted by nerve telegraph to directly connected brain centers, which in turn passed on to their associated mind centers these original impressions of new ideas. Many repetitions of similar sense impressions were needed to register permanently in your mind your first conceptions of different colors, scents, etc. Thus you learned to think. The process was _started_--not by your _mind_--but by your various "sense" muscles. These received from your environment impressions of heat, cold, softness, hardness, etc., and passed them in to associated brain-mind centers, which thus commenced to collect knowledge about the world which you entered with a mind _absolutely empty of_ ideas.

If a child might be born with a good brain, but with his general muscular system completely paralyzed, _he could learn nothing at all_ regarding the world. He would have no conscious mind. No sense impression of smell, light, taste, sound, or feeling could be received by the brain of such a child; for no original perceptions of any kind could be taken in. He would be like a complete telegraph system with every branch office closed. No intelligence would be transmitted; since no message could be even filed for sending. Because of the paralysis of the sensory muscles, the child's conscious mind would remain blank.

[Sidenote: Each Mind-Center Must Be Developed Specifically]

Recall now that you have a _multiplex_, not a single brain. That is, your so-called "brain" is made up of innumerable, distinct "brain centers" which function quite independently of one another. No particular unit requires help from any of the others in order to do its especial work with full efficiency. _Each center attends only to its specific business in your life_. It rests, or relaxes from activity, when it has nothing to do; or when the particular muscles it governs are not in use. And, of course, when a certain _brain_ center rests or is inactive, its associated _mind_ center also rests or is inactive.

As already has been stated, the mind of a man is built up, _through_ the brain instrument, by the _sense impressions_ transmitted to his consciousness. In other words, _all he knows with his mind first came into his mental capacity from outside impressions of things and ideas_. The fewer the impressions that come into the mind through the brain, the less does a man know. And only the impressions that come into a _particular_ mind center develop _that_ center. (For example, the development of keenest eyesight by many _optical_ impressions would not affect at all a man's ability to discriminate among the tones of music, would not give him "a good _ear_.")

[Sidenote: Weak or Undeveloped Centers]

It is evident, therefore, that if a _particular brain center_ temporarily or permanently is deprived of right and sufficient exercise in transmitting sense impressions, _its coordinated mind center_ will be stunted in its growth or starved for lack of mental food. This is why a man is awkward in using his native tongue when he returns to the country of his birth after a long residence among people of a different nation where that language was not spoken. But a little exercise of his brain in transmitting again the sound of his native tongue will quickly stimulate his mind with the renewed supply of this particular mental food to which it formerly was accustomed. In a few weeks he will use the old language naturally; whereas another man, who never had spoken it, would require years to build up such full knowledge from a start of complete ignorance of the language.

Evidently, too, a _weak_, undeveloped brain center would be incapable of receiving _strong_ mental impulses from its coordinated mind center, and of transmitting them in full strength to the particular muscles governed by that mind center. This is why, if a man's _brain center_ of courage is undeveloped, even the most courageous _thoughts_ will not make his body _act_ bravely. His legs may run away against his will to fight. The physical instrument of his mind (his brain), and also certain associated sets of muscles, must be sufficiently exercised in the _action_ of courage to build up within him the _physical structure_ of fearlessness that will be instantly responsive to a _mental attitude_ of bravery.

[Sidenote: Right Exercise for Development]

If for any reason the brain instrument is weak or undeveloped, it can handle only weakly either in-coming messages to the ego from the senses, or out-going impulses from the mind to the muscles. So, because of this undeveloped brain instrument, the full capability of neither the inner nor the outer man can be built up and put to use. Obviously, therefore, if one is ambitious to succeed, he needs to know and to practice the _coordinated mind-brain-muscle exercises_ that will increase the quantity and better the quality of his man capacity. Since he is a "many-minded, many-bodied" man, _general_ physical and mental exercise will not develop the _particular_ qualities required to assure his success. Each and every mind-brain-muscle set must be built up individually by _specific_ exercises which strengthen _that particular unit_ of the multiplex man. Then, of course, all his units should be taught to work _together_ to make his success certain with his all-around capability fully developed and coordinated.

[Sidenote: The Discriminative-Restrictive Method]

Luther Burbank worked out "discriminative-restrictive" methods of growth that may be applied as successfully to men as to plants. He could not have built up the ability of a prune tree to produce _delicious_ fruit if he had not fed into the tree structure, or instrument of production, a sufficient quantity and high quality of the _particular plant foods of deliciousness_. He restricted his experimental prune trees to the development of specific delicious qualities, by giving them no food except that _discriminatively_ selected for his purpose. That is, he made them develop in one way and in one way only, when he was making a particular test.

Similarly, as has been stated before, you can develop the specific _man_ qualities you need to succeed. You must _feed_ to a particular mind center, through the related brain center, _selected sense impressions_. These can come only from the coordinated set of _muscles_ governed by that mind-brain center. Then you should _exercise_ the specific brain center and set of muscles in the production of mental reflexes, or the mind fruit. Acts of courage, for example, are the fruit of brave thoughts.

[Sidenote: Brain Development]

A particular brain center, of course, will be strengthened both by the _food_ of sense impressions it is given, and by the _exercise_ of handling messages to and from the mind. The brain, or physical instrument of the mind, is like an intermediary or go-between of the ego and the body. It is of the utmost importance that it should do its work efficiently. Otherwise the full capability of neither the outer nor the inner man can be utilized.

If Brown passes something to Jones, who passes it along to Smith; then Smith passes it back to Jones to be re-passed to Brown--Jones, the middle agent of transmission or handling instrument, whom we are comparing to the brain, might be so awkward, slow, and inefficient as a go-between that the possible ability of Brown and Smith in passing would be nullified or greatly hampered. But if the inefficiency of Jones is blamable to his inexperience, it evidently can be changed to efficiency by _sufficient right exercise_ in passing. The more of that sort of work he does, in either direction, the better passer will Jones become.

His exercise, however, must be _in passing_ things, if _passing_ capability is to be developed. He would not become a better and quicker _passer_ by any amount of exercise in taking things apart, or in inspecting things--wholly dissimilar functions.

[Sidenote: Training in Passing]

Moreover, Jones would not become an expert passer of _glassware_ as a result of practice in passing _bricks_, for the two kinds of things are not handled alike. Indeed, the man accustomed to passing bricks might be more likely to break glassware than another man who previously had no particular skill in passing anything. The expert brick-passer would be apt to forget sometimes that he was passing glass. His muscles might treat the fragile ware with the rough habit acquired in passing bricks.

Plainly, discriminative-restrictive methods of training are required to perfect capability in any _particular_ kind of physical passing; however much skill in _general_ passing may have been developed. If Jones should become expert in passing pails of liquid, he would nevertheless need to train himself anew in order to pass frozen liquid efficiently in the form of cakes of ice. And, to particularize still more, it would be necessary for him to learn how to pass different liquids. Water and thick molasses in pails should not be handled alike.

Similarly the various brain centers, as passers of different sense impressions and mental reflexes in and out, require, each of them--like Jones--the _specific_ exercises that will develop _their several particular_ abilities. The _individual brain unit_ (as of courage, memory, judgment, etc.) is strengthened only by handling the in and out business of _its_ coordinated muscles and mind center. Also, while a particular set of muscles and coordinate mind center are strengthening their brain center by the exercise they give _it_, they are both being developed by the same exercise of passing along sense impressions and thoughts to each other through the brain--like Smith and Brown.

[Sidenote: The Process Of Growth]

Returning to the comparison of Burbank's methods with man development, we perceive again how the principle of discriminative-selective training is applied to accomplish the growth of certain characteristics needed to assure a man's success. The plant wizard in his initial tests gave to his undeveloped prune trees particular food and conditions and treatment selected for the purpose of imparting specific qualities of deliciousness. A prune _somewhat improved_ in deliciousness was the first result. Then from the product of that _improved_ prune he started _another_ cycle of development. He fed the selected food of deliciousness to the improved prune tree, and a fruit _more_ delicious resulted. His work was simply plant breeding by the discriminative-restrictive method. Brain breeding is a similar process of _particularized, cumulative_ development.

[Sidenote: Begin With Specific Training of The Outer Man]

All the foregoing rather complicated explanation of "psychological processes" has seemed necessary to make a clear impression of the _right training methods_ for building within you any quality you need to assure your success. You must begin by training your _outer_ man.

You can develop a particular mind-brain center (such as the center of courage) only by the discriminative-restrictive training of those portions of your _body_ which are directly related in activity and responsiveness to that mind-brain unit of the multiplex YOU. Training of _any other_ set of muscles will not develop the particular mind-brain center you want to build up, and would be a wrong procedure.

You should _begin_ with specific training of particular sets of _sensory muscles_ because, as we have seen, that is the _natural_ order of the process of growth. It is how you began to learn everything you know. You can increase and improve your present limited, conscious knowledge most effectively by taking into your mind from your _trained_ particular senses _more and better_ impressions than you ever have taken in before.

[Sidenote: Developing Persistence]

Suppose your success has been hindered by your lack of persistence. You need to develop _that quality_ in particular. Let us see how the discriminative-restrictive principle should be applied specifically to assure you of building _persistence_ within yourself.

First it is necessary that you discriminate between _this one_ quality and _all others_; especially between it and the quality of _determination_. Very _different_ training methods are required to develop persistence and determination respectively. When you are just "determined" to do a thing, your jaw muscles, your arm and back muscles, perhaps all your commonly known muscles, will be hardened _as long as you remain determined, but no longer_. They will relax when the occasion for determination has passed. The habit of instantly tensing your muscles temporarily whenever you need to be determined will very greatly strengthen and improve the efficiency of your brain-mind center of _determination._ But that _temporary_ hardening of your muscles will only slightly affect the development in you of _characteristic persistence_.

[Sidenote: Developing Determination]

Hence the training of your muscles for building the habit of determination within you should be concentrated on exercise in _changing swiftly_ from comparative laxity to _muscular tension_. That is, in order to accustom your _mind_ to hardening with _determined thoughts_ whenever determination is needed, you should train your _muscles_ to harden _in coordination_, and thus to support your mental determination by the complementary _physical suggestion_ of the same quality.

You do not need to use determination _all the time_; so it will be sufficient if your muscles are taught to be _quickly responsive_ to determination of mind on any occasion. (You know it helps you to carry out a resolution if you stiffen your body at the moment you make up your mind to do a thing, but _continued_ stiffness of the body in determination would be a strain likely to weaken your power of action unless backed by a tremendous, stored-up reserve strength of muscles.) Begin your practice for the development of determination, then, by training your muscles to tauten the instant you think determinedly. Your brain-mind center of determination will also be strengthened by the exercise that builds up the supporting habit of muscle action in coordination. Millions of men have failed in life because their determined thoughts were not reenforced by stiffened backbones.

[Sidenote: Discrimination Between Determination and Persistence]

Now let us discriminate between muscle training to develop the characteristic of _persistence_ and the training already described for the building of determination. In order to strengthen your persistence, you must transmit through the distinct brain center of persistence to the corresponding mind center, the impression of muscles _permanently developed in firmness_, not just capable of temporary hardening on occasion.

The _characteristically persistent_ man has gradually developed his lax-muscled, sagging, baby chin into a jaw that is habitually firm, whether or not he happens to be determined to do anything at a given moment. His muscles do not sag utterly, even when he is asleep. He probably wakes up in the morning with his teeth clenched. So, whenever his coordinated brain-mind center perceives that the quality of persistence is required, and starts to apply it, the _mental impulse_ to persist is backed by a _permanent firm muscle structure_ that can stand up as long as the mind needs the physical support.

[Sidenote: A Slump in Determination]

In contrast, the man who is only characteristically _determined_, but who lacks _persistence_ in his determination, has developed just the habit of hardening his muscles _for the time_ he is determined on doing a particular thing. That does not exercise his muscles sufficiently to make them firm _all_ the time, whether under tension or not. Consequently his determination is likely to slump if his resolution is subjected to a long strain. He does not possess muscular structure sufficiently strong to support persistence in his determination.

_Habitual lack_ of firmness in the jaw muscles, as you know, results in a sagging chin; which detrimentally affects the brain-mind center of persistence. A man whose jaw habitually hangs loose may be capable of great _determination_ for a while, but he is not _persistent in character_. He might clench his teeth, stiffen his body, and plunge into the surf to rescue a drowning person; but his first resolution to effect the rescue would be weakened by the cold water and by fear. He lacks the quality of the bulldog that will die rather than loose its teeth from another dog's throat.

[Sidenote: Muscles Express and Impress Ideas]

The coordinated muscles _express_ the mental attitude, as we have perceived; and equally they _impress_ the mind with _their_ attitude. If you have a sagging chin, you are incapable of the mental bulldog grip of persistence. So _tighten up your jaw muscles, and never let them hang utterly loose_, if you are resolved to develop the characteristic of "stick-to-it-iveness." _Begin_ with _muscle_ training, for your muscles must be utilized to start the process of building up your brain-mind center of persistence.

[Sidenote: Developing Perception]

When you train the particular sense muscles that transmit external _impressions_ to a particular brain-mind unit (the same muscles that reflexively _express_ the ideas of that one part of your multiplex ego) you may be absolutely _sure_ of developing a particular related characteristic. For example, if you want to sharpen your _perceptive_ faculties so that you will see with the _eyes of your mind_ much more than the _ordinary_ man perceives, exercise your _physical_ eyes in taking snap-shots that you can see clearly in detail _with your imagination_ when you look away from an object after a glance at it. Try glancing at the furnishings of your room, then shut your eyes and construct a mental picture. When this is definitely clear to you, open your eyes. The reality will be very different from your imagined picture. But _sharpen your perceptive faculties_, develop a "camera eye;" then the reality will be exactly impressed on your mind. Witnesses in court often contradict one another, in all honesty, simply because their ability to perceive actualities is not highly developed. In consequence, they get false mental impressions of happenings or things they severally have seen.

[Sidenote: Three Processes Of Mental Development]

There are but three _processes_ of mental development:

The first process comprises _getting information_ from a _sense_ to its associated _brain center_, which then makes the _mind_ center conscious that particular information has been transmitted to it.

The second process is _organizing_ the information in the mind center, with relation to _other_ information _previously_ brought to the mind.

In the third process the mind center directs its co-related brain center to send out certain _impulses of action_ to the corresponding muscular structure.

Let us analyze an illustration of these three processes of mental development. Suppose first you _hear_ something that concerns a particular prospect for your "goods of sale." Second, you comprehend the _significance_ to you of what you have heard. Third, your mind directs your muscles to make a particular _use_ of what you have comprehended. The original mental impression has been _fully developed_ because you employed all three processes. If you had not completed the cycle of development, you would have given your mind only partial exercise with what you heard.

In order to become a master salesman, you must _take in_ many impressions, perceive their _significance to you_ and how you can make use of them, then _act_ on your comprehension of what you have learned. There are countless failures in the world who might have been successes if they had not stopped their possible mental development at the first or second stages.

A man might know an encyclopedia of facts, but be a failure.

He might comprehend how to use his knowledge, and still be a failure.

_Success comes only to the man who acts most effectively on what he knows_.

[Sidenote: Right Practice Of the Three Processes]

In order to secure quick and effective results, the _practice_ of the three necessary processes of development should be:

First, _definitely conscious_. You need to _know just what_ quality you want to develop in yourself.

Second, _discriminative_. You must learn the _differences_ between what you _want_, and what you _don't want_ to develop in particular.

Third, _restrictive_. It is necessary that in your training to develop a certain quality, you _concentrate_ your practice on the respects in which this particular quality differs from other qualities.

Most of us are pretty _definitely conscious_ of what we want. We know just the qualities we would like to have. But very few people employ most effectively the _discriminative-restrictive methods of training_ in their processes of development.

[Sidenote: Importance of Differentiation]

It is impossible to develop a particular quality fully if you only recognize its _likenesses_ to other qualities. _Real mental development is accomplished only as a result of the recognition of differences_. After studying twins for a year, you still might be unable to tell them apart if you were impressed solely with their remarkable similarity to each other. Another man, with a mind discriminatively and restrictively trained to recognize differences, would learn in five minutes to distinguish the individualities of the twins.

Almost phenomenal development can be attained by use of the discriminative-restrictive training method. The minutest distinctions can be perceived if one concentrates his practice for mental growth on the recognition of _differences only_. Individuals who have lost one or more senses become extraordinarily adept in detecting contrasts with their other senses. A normal man, possessed of all his senses, is capable of even greater development of his powers of differentiation.

You know how remarkably a blind man learns to "see" with his fingers and ears. But need you lose the sense of sight before you can comprehend the lesson of his example to you? You realize that you appear to lack many essential qualities of success. Know now that these are all merely _dormant_ in you. They can be awakened and developed to an extraordinary degree if you train yourself consciously in the discriminative-restrictive use of all your sense tools. You would do it if you were blind. It certainly should be much easier to accomplish the desired transformation with your eyes open to aid your other senses.

[Sidenote: Whatever You Lack Now You Can Develop]

The significance of all this is that you need not be permanently handicapped in your sales-_man_-ship by any present lack of particular qualifications for success. _It makes no difference what you happen to be short of now_. By properly coordinating your brain-mind-muscle sets or centers, and by using all three in the processes of your development, _you can make yourself over almost miraculously_. Will power, courage, exact and wise judgment, persistence, patience, rapid thinking, constructive imagination--_any and all qualities you want_ CAN be developed in you, even though they now seem not to exist.

Your development is limited only by the practically limitless number of unawakened cells in your brain. Most of your potential mind centers are asleep yet. _You can wake up the slumberers with your various sense muscles, and vigorously exercise them into activity for your success_. You have been handicapped because you have been carrying so many "dead-heads" that ought to be working or paying their way.

_Remember that growth of any brain-mind center can be begun and continued only by the exercise of the coordinated set of sense muscles in transmitting impressions from outside yourself and in expressing your thoughts_.

[Sidenote: Your Limitless Brain Capacity]

The number of cells in the human brain has been estimated at from six hundred millions to two billions. The greatest genius who ever lived doubtless had scores of millions of brain cells that remained more or less idle, if not sound asleep, all his life. Nature has furnished you with a plentiful surplus of grey matter in your head. Do not be afraid that you will exhaust or tire out your brains by your self-development. _Put into your work all the brains you can waken with your various senses. And keep the alarm clocks wound up_.

William James, the great psychologist, wrote, "Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped; our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. There are in every one potential forms of activity that actually are shunted from use. Part of the imperfect vitality under which we labor can thus be easily explained. One part of our mind dams up--even damns up--the other part."

[Sidenote: Growth Can Be Assured And Success Made Certain]

Can you become a big sales MAN? Of course! You have all the necessary tools to make yourself over in any way you will--your muscles, nerves, brain, and mind. Use them cooperatively, as they were meant to be used, _in their respective sets_--not as if you were a mental-physical unit. _To develop your sales manhood you need only to apply real thinking in the processes of your daily life_. Study out the reasons and effects of all your acts and expressions. Your experimental psychological laboratory should be yourself, undergoing at your hands the transformation from what you are to what it is possible for you to become. Begin making your man-stuff over. Each successive step will be easier to take. _Your growth, when you employ the right processes and methods, is certain_. Therefore your success in making yourself a big sales man can be _assured_.