Chapter IV

Chapter 45,235 wordsPublic domain

A PERSONAL PROBLEM

How is it possible that the Modern Business Course and Service should be helpful alike to the grizzled executive and to the young man who has not yet made his mark in business? Why is it that in a great many organizations our list of subscribers begins with the president, includes practically all the officers and department heads, and ends with a selected group of men who as yet are in subordinate positions?

The answer is simple. The main problem of every business man is the problem of developing himself. It makes no difference how great or how small a man's position may be, the only way to enlarge his influence and his income is first to enlarge himself. The greatest business men in the country are quickest to accept and apply this truth.

It may sometimes appear as though a man becomes a bigger business man by being promoted into a bigger job. The truth is just the reverse. The big job naturally gravitates to the well-trained, capable man. If the job proves too large for the man, it doesn't take long for it to shrivel until it becomes a perfect fit.

On the other hand, a man who really becomes bigger than his job simply grows out of it and into another; or he enlarges the job and its rewards to fit his measure.

Where do you belong?

You are a member of one or the other of these two groups:

(1) those who have "arrived"

(2) those who are on their way toward success.

There is, to be sure, a third group which unfortunately constitutes an overwhelming majority, the group made up of purposeless drifters who have no special ambitions and usually little native ability. To this group the Institute has nothing to offer.

They might refuse indignantly to sign a contract to work for the next ten years at the same salary they are now receiving. Yet the end of the ten-year period will find most of them in the same position, or only a trifle ahead.

Find _your_ place and salary on this chart

For there is only one power in the world that can lift a man, and that is the power of added knowledge and training.

For years the Alexander Hamilton Institute has specialized in one thing; it has only one Course; its sole business is to take men who know one department of business, and by adding to their equipment a knowledge of the other fundamentals shown on the chart on the preceding page, to fit them for higher positions.

If you already have reached a business position of large responsibility, that surely does not mean that you have stopped growing. The boundless opportunities that are open to all are beckoning you on. No noteworthy business man attains his full development until he is well past middle age. In fact, the man of real power never appears to have reached his limit. Your real achievements are still ahead of you. As you look over the pages following, you will see that the brainiest executives in the country are using the Modern Business Course and Service as equipment for still bigger undertakings.

If you are still trudging in the ranks, or if you have advanced only part way toward your goal, you will be keenly interested in the comments of those who have found the Modern Business Course and Service an immense help in hastening their progress. These men are rapidly forging ahead. They are setting a faster and faster pace. Unless you are able to keep up with them, you must drift to the rear.

Because the young men of this generation are getting a better training than has been available in previous generations, the standards of business ability have risen and will continue to rise. Yesterday, a man of limited experience and training was often able to force his way into an executive position; today, it is much more difficult to do so; tomorrow, it will be impossible.

The business leaders of a few short years from now will be the men who today are preparing themselves for the duties of leadership.

Your gains

You may ask: "_What can the Institute do for me?_"

The answer to your question is outlined in the "Chart of the Modern Business Course and Service" which is printed on page 49. That Chart shows how the organized knowledge about business principles and business practice which has been collected and classified by the Alexander Hamilton Institute is transmitted to subscribers through the eight features of the Course and Service--Text, Talks, Lectures, Problems, Monthly Letters, Financial and Trade Reviews, Reports, and Service.

_In what ways can a business man cash in on this knowledge?_ A great many direct and practical benefits that naturally follow the use of the Modern Business Course and Service might be cited. Seven of the most important are shown in the Chart on the following page.

The most obvious and direct benefit consists in a BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF SOUND BUSINESS PRINCIPLES.

The other benefits shown on the Chart are:

ABILITY TO PLAN EFFECTIVELY

INCREASED CONFIDENCE IN HANDLING BIG DEALS

ABILITY TO MAKE QUICKER AND MORE ACCURATE DECISIONS

MORE LEISURE FOR RECREATION AND CONSTRUCTIVE THOUGHT

INCREASED ABILITY TO HANDLE MEN

INSURANCE AGAINST MISTAKES.

The inevitable results of these gains in personal power and efficiency are LARGER INCOME AND A GREATER SUCCESS IN BUSINESS.

Note on the following pages what subscribers for the Modern Business Course and Service have to say in that connection.

Better understanding

A man cannot go far in business unless he _thinks_. And he must not only think, but think straight. His conclusions must be based on sound principles.

Unless a man is thinking along right lines, he will have little initiative, and his judgment will be poor.

The necessity for every live business man to understand the principles upon which modern business is based cannot be overstated. The Modern Business Course and Service gives that understanding. It illuminates points that were obscure and it answers many puzzling questions. It lights up the road ahead, so that the business man can see more clearly the path that he should take.

Mr. Wm. H. Ingersoll, Marketing Manager for the famous Ingersoll watch, says that the Modern Business Course and Service

"gives the first coherent presentation of the entire subject of business. It gives one a perspective and an appreciation of essentials, as well as much knowledge regarding right and wrong methods of procedure."

As a fair example of the manner in which the Modern Business Course and Service stimulates thought and leads to progressive action, even in companies that already were well organized and highly successful, take the following note from Mr. Norman W. Wilson, Vice-President of the Hammermill Paper Company:

"Every moment's time I have devoted to it has been well rewarded. I want you to know what a high regard I have for the work you are doing and to know that I make it a point to encourage our people here to study your Course."

Mr. J. H. Hansen, President of the J. H. Hansen Cadillac Company of Omaha, emphasizes the practical information that the Modern Business Course and Service has brought to him:

"When I located in Nebraska as a salesman for the Cadillac automobile, a representative of the Institute persuaded me that I might just as well try for the big prizes in business as for one of the mediocre ones. The decision to enrol in the Modern Business Course and Service was a turning-point in my life.

"I knew something about selling already. But now I began to see business as a whole, and the relation of each department to it. Advertising and costs; accounting and office organization; the control of men, and corporation finance--all these elements, which are necessary if a man is to succeed in business for himself, came to me with the Institute's help.

"When the opportunity arrived I was ready for it. We organized our company and the first year did more than a million dollar business.

"In my judgment, the reason why so many men never get into business for themselves or fail after they do get in, is because they are not prepared for their opportunity when it comes."

Mr. H. C. Smith, President, Allith-Prouty Manufacturing Company, Chicago, states why the Modern Business Course and Service is helpful without being revolutionary:

"All men who have been successful must be credited with having good business principles. Your Course does not require changing these principles, but it will broaden one's own ideas and enable him to get greater results."

Increased confidence

A great many men accomplish less than their abilities and energy entitle them to accomplish, simply because they do not feel sure of themselves. The boldest man alive becomes uncertain and timid in the face of unfamiliar difficulties. The man who follows the Modern Business Course and Service becomes acquainted at close range with business difficulties as well as with tried methods of overcoming them; he learns how to tackle such difficulties and goes forward without fear or misgivings.

The series of Modern Business Problems which constitute an important feature of the Modern Business Course and Service is especially intended to cultivate familiarity with difficult business situations and thereby to create self-confidence. They are problems of the kind which executives are constantly meeting. The man who can solve them successfully should have no difficulty when he meets similar problems that arise in his own work.

A better and broader grasp of the principles and practices that underlie all business also suggests ways of widening the scope of one's business activity and gives the necessary confidence to go ahead and do it. Mr. John McBride, of McBride's Theatre Ticket Office, New York, wrote us after completing the Modern Business Course:

"The average man can double his faith in himself in a few months if he will master the fundamentals of business through your training."

Mr. W. H. Schmelzel, President of the W. H. Schmelzel Company, of St. Paul, Minnesota, wrote after he had followed the Course:

"It is my personal opinion that every young business man of today depends a great deal on consultation or advice from a successful and experienced adviser or friend on all matters of a business nature.

"In the early days of my business experience I was confronted with the task of making decisions preparing myself for the problems I was to solve in the years to follow. Having been born and raised in a small town in a Western State, I was content with advice and consultation of my acquaintances in matters pertaining to the thoughts I wished to carry out.

"I was, therefore, eager to obtain assistance from a corps of experts in their particular line, and after giving your Modern Business Course considerable scrutiny, and being informed on the class of men, that I felt confident of their success, and I realized that such a Course had merit, and one which I could afford to consult, advise with and build my future with ideas and methods you had so ably worked out."

Quicker decisions

Is the ability to decide things quickly an inborn faculty? No, it is largely a habit of mind which anyone may cultivate in himself. However, we must bear in mind that it is necessary not only to decide quickly; there must be very few mistakes. This requires a mind that is trained to grasp a situation and to think accurately as well as rapidly.

_The secret of quick and accurate decision is knowledge of principles._ If a man knows what principle applies in handling a given case, he has no difficulty in making up his mind and deciding what to do. If the balance sheet of a given concern were laid before you and you were asked to decide at once (assuming that the figures were correct) whether to ship a $10,000 order of goods to that company, possibly you would not know what to say. But if you were familiar with the definite principles of accounting and finance which would enable you to analyze that balance sheet and make it yield a vivid picture of the financial condition of the concern, you would not hesitate a moment. You would reply instantly.

What decision meant to this man

A young man, whose name we are not at liberty to give, told us of a dramatic incident which illustrates the value that keen business men attach to preparedness and quick decisions. Up to about a year ago this young man was head accountant for his company. The Board of Directors had been in session about an hour one afternoon when a messenger came to his desk and told him that he was wanted in the board room.

As he entered the room the president snapped at him, "Would you advise us to issue a block of collateral trust bonds to finance a new addition to our factory which will cost about $60,000?"

"No," said the accountant, "the company's credit is good enough for an issue of $60,000 one to three-year notes without security. If necessary, the new building could be mortgaged after construction, and, at the present rate, the business could pay off the whole loan in five years."

A rapid-fire series of questions followed, covering the financial, advertising and sales policy of the firm, to each of which the accountant gave concentrated thought, quick decision and convincing reply.

The president's final question was, "How would you like to become treasurer of this company at $6,000 a year?"

In the letter that told of this incident this subscriber said:

"I don't know whether I owe most to you or to my friend in the Carnegie Steel Company who urged me to enrol for your Course and Service. I could have answered few if any of the questions asked me without the knowledge I gained from it. I found out later that the president knew all the time I was following your Course, and wanted to prove to the rest of the directors that I could intelligently consider and discuss business problems."

Mr. Charles C. Chase, in the Advertising Department of Brown Company, of Portland, Maine, brings out another method of securing help in deciding questions that are outside the scope of his previous experience. He says:

"To the fellows who have asked me about the Course and what I believe it will do for them, I have said:

"Through a subscription to the Course of the Alexander Hamilton Institute you not only ally yourself with a "Board of Directors" whose combined business experience probably amounts to at least five hundred successful years--a Board the members of which have had specialized experience in every important phase of business--but who have been assembled for the very definite purpose of helping men."

This method is equally valuable to the executive, according to Mr. Lynn P. Talley, Deputy Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas:

"Whenever I am confronted with a problem relating to fundamental economic conditions of business practice or business policy, I find great comfort and satisfaction in taking down the volume relating to the subject and always find elucidation of the problems that confront me."

Mr. James P. Robertson, of Smith, Robertson and Company, Seattle, says:

"As a general reading Course on business I can truthfully say it is high grade, and can recommend it to anyone interested in the study of business."

Mr. A. E. Winger, President, American Lithographic Company, writes:

"I think your Course is an excellent one and am particularly impressed with the underlying thought that I find throughout the entire Course--application of principles. It has been my experience that sound judgment is the most essential requisite of any executive, and that the judgment required in business today can best be formed by a thorough knowledge of business principles."

Mr. Samuel Cochrane, President, Cochrane Chemical Company, Jersey City, sums up the argument in this remark:

"If I had enrolled with you a year or two ago, I should be better able to handle the problems put up to me every day."

More leisure

The secret of leisure is not to do less work, but to organize work so that a greater volume can be handled in less time. No active man wishes to cut down his productive efforts. A great many men, however, are so tied to their business tasks by detail and routine that they have little time or energy left for constructive thought. Frequently they do not get enough recreation and physical exercise to keep them in prime condition. As a result, they are frittering away the best years of their life in handling small details that never bring them anywhere.

To a greater or lesser extent, this is true of all of us. How to escape from the time-wasting energy-absorbing routine and details is a vital question.

Being "swamped with too much detail" is in reality a kind of business disease--and a very dangerous one. It is most likely to attack the officers of rapidly expanding concerns and energetic, ambitious men who are constantly taking on new responsibilities. Unless one can shake off this disease, it will probably go on eating away more and more of his time and energy until he loses his grip on large affairs and to his chagrin, sees other men of smaller ability rising above him. It is as bad for a man to be "too busy" as for him to be not busy enough.

As a matter of fact, it is unnecessary for any man to be so harassed with details--except as a temporary condition--that he cannot give a reasonable amount of time to recreation, reading and thought. The company burdened by the detail-type of executive is not getting what it pays for. His natural abilities are being diverted to things that cheaper men could do equally well. He owes it to his company, as well as to himself, to reorganize his work.

Cutting out the details

It is necessarily true in all such cases that many of the over-busy man's duties recur day after day. They are of a semi-routine nature and could be made wholly routine by giving the proper instructions to some one else. In other words, this is a problem of organization similar to that of organizing a factory, a store, or a body of men. The principles that are discussed in the Modern Business Course and Service apply to an individual just as well as to a company. A man can organize his desk very much on the same plan that he would organize a factory. When he does so, he invariably finds that his efficiency is increased, his work is more productive, and he himself has more leisure.

Accordingly, any business man who desires to forge ahead should reduce the details of his work to routine which can be carried on without special thought. The Modern Business Course and Service is a direct and invaluable aid to the man who feels himself tied down by details.

Of course, we must consider in this connection the man who thinks that he is much busier than he really is. There are spare moments in every man's day. There is the half-hour before or after the evening meal; the time spent in traveling to and from work; the one or two evenings a week that even the busiest man should spend at home. The measure of a man's chances of success may readily be taken by learning the manner in which he uses--or wastes--his spare time.

No better use can be made of these odd moments than in reading the Modern Business Course. This reading is not tiring; it is recreative and stimulating. It will enable any man to organize his work so as to increase his leisure for reading and study. It will help him to rise to a higher level where his thought and energy will be more productive.

Many of the big business executives are investing their spare moments in just this way. They realize the great results that are bound to follow. It is unquestionably true that the use of one's spare moments count heavily in determining how much will be accomplished a year or two hence.

The following also give their opinion:

"For a good many years as a practising mining engineer, I gradually began to realize that there was something wrong with engineers in regard to their business success. Something that seemed to stand between the most brilliant of men and success in business. After a long study of men and conditions, I subscribed to your Course. From then on I began to take greater responsibilities and larger fees because of my added confidence and business knowledge. I truly feel that your course ferried me across to that phase of professional grasp where I became successful in business as a professional engineer."

GLENVILLE A. COLLINS, _Consulting Engineer of Seattle._

Much the same thoughts are admirably expressed by another busy executive, Mr. J. H. Carter, Vice-President, National City Bank of New York:

"You will no doubt be interested to know that the class formed under the auspices of the City Bank Club to follow the Alexander Hamilton Institute Course, which you helped start about two years ago last Spring, is just completing its study.

"The majority of the original enrolment of fifty members have followed the Course regularly. It has held the interest of the men throughout and has proved unusually stimulating and interesting.

"The official staff of the bank has given the class its hearty moral support, and, in addition, has offered to refund a part of the fee to those completing the Course successfully. We feel that this policy has not only encouraged the men, but has benefited the bank as well.

"Personally, I cannot speak too highly of the Course. I feel that the time I have given to it during the past few years could not have been employed to greater advantage."

Increased ability to handle men

There are just two factors that determine a man's competence to direct the work of other men:

1. His superior knowledge of the work in hand. 2. His ability to command respect.

As a matter of fact, the second factor is almost wholly included in the first. The man who really knows what he is talking about always commands respect. The man who is largely a "bluff," no matter how "magnetic" or forceful his personality, is soon found out and retired in favor of the man of smaller pretensions, but more knowledge. The history of almost any business success demonstrates the truth of this statement.

Modern business affairs are so complex that it is wholly out of the question to put an untrained man in command. One might as well talk of putting an untrained man in charge of a modern battleship. In both positions broad-gauge knowledge and judgment are absolutely essential. The same principle applies equally to the minor commands. The leading business men of the country are for the most part quiet, self-controlled men, who think before they speak and who are constantly studying business problems. This is the type of man best fitted to control and direct the work of others.

The man who develops himself, develops his ability to handle men. Through the Modern Business Course and Service the training can be secured that makes for self-development and for success.

T. H. Bailey Whipple, of the Publicity Department of the Westinghouse Electric Company, writes:

"Your Course unquestionably does for men what experience and native ability alone can never do."

Mr. G. E. Lucas, Office Efficiency Engineer, Sayles Finishing Plants, says:

"I am indeed glad that I took the opportunity to enrol for the Modern Business Course and Service. What I have obtained has been of very material benefit to me. My own experience bears on the experience of my other colleagues who have been getting help and information from you in the past two years. All the reports that we have obtained have been thoroughly satisfactory and very complete."

The experience of Mr. S. G. McMeen, President, Columbus Railway Power and Light Company, Columbus, Ohio, is equally to the point:

"My experience began many years ago in technical lines and continued along them to engineering and construction practice. As often happens, this technical work led me into executive matters. It was in them that I missed some of the advantages enjoyed by men who have specialized earlier in commercial and financial work.

"Naturally I formed a habit of appropriating the needed knowledge wherever I might find it, and found much more than I could assimilate. The long-felt need, therefore, was for a source of classified information for reference and study, a source of training by the use of intelligent problems and a source of advice to which I might turn when in doubt. This source I found in the volumes, periodical literature and service of the Alexander Hamilton Institute."

Larger income and success

As the diagram on page 49 indicates, the seven direct aids which subscribers obtain from the Modern Business Course and Service are:

1. Better understanding of business principles

2. Ability to plan more effectively

3. Increased confidence in handling big problems

4. Quicker and more accurate decisions

5. More time for constructive thinking

6. Greater ability to handle men

7. Knowledge that prevents mistakes

All of these aids to personal efficiency are bound to result in increased income and greater success. Even though a man should gain only slightly in any one of the seven qualities named, he would become a far better business man. He would either advance in position or expand his business--in either case raising himself to a higher level of income and success. The effect is all the more striking when a man increases his efficiency in respect to all seven qualities. To cite examples seems almost unnecessary. Yet a few typical expressions from subscribers may be of interest:

"It is very hard to put into words just how much good I have derived from the Alexander Hamilton Institute Course, but I do realize that as problems present themselves, they are much easier to solve, and I have a better conception of the future outlook of business since having the benefit of your Course, and there is scarcely a day but what some matter comes up for which I use your Course."

Mr. W. C. ROOSE, _Sec'y and Gen. Mgr._ _Beacon Shoe Company_, _Manchester, New Hampshire_

"During the past two years my salary has increased more than 400%. This has been due to the rather remarkable increase the Fuller Brush Company has had in sales. These sales are indirectly the result of the ideas I have received from your Course."

S. L. METCALF, _Former Vice-President and Director of Sales, Fuller Brushes, Inc. Now President, Better Brushes, Inc., Palmer, Mass._

"To the man who has had the advantage of a college education this Course opens up what might be called a vista of the business world in a very unique manner. The information obtained from this course, if acquired by the ordinary college man by actual experience, would require no less than a lifetime and it is presented in such a manner as to be readily assimilated in the short space of two years, devoting only odd hours to study."

Mr. E. J. BARTELLS, _Manager_ _Wood Pipe Export Company, Seattle, Washington_

A subscriber from a prosperous city in Iowa recently called at the New York offices of the Alexander Hamilton Institute, saying that he wanted to meet some of the men who had given him such valuable assistance. He is the controller of a large manufacturing company and a thoroughly trained and expert accountant. The thing that impressed him most about the plan of the Modern Business Course and Service was the opportunity it offered him of increasing his already extensive knowledge of the principles of finance, management, advertising, selling and organization, as well as accounting.

"Let me tell you what happened to me a few weeks ago," he said. "I found myself up against a problem that never had arisen in my previous experience. I was simply stumped. I sought help from various sources in attempting to find a satisfactory solution. Then it occurred to me--the most obvious things often come to mind last--to look in the Modern Business texts for a ray of light. To my great delight, there I found a clear and definite statement of the very principles that should be applied.

"I am frank to say to you," he concluded, "that this one bit of information was worth to me at least three times the price of your Course." Already this subscriber had realized a 300 per cent dividend on his investment. Of his subsequent gains we have no record. To the great majority of those who subscribe for the Course and Service the returns are simply incalculable. The training, the information and the ideas that they secure are a big--often an essential--factor in making their business careers happier and more successful. Who can calculate the money value of a return of that kind?

The moderate fee which is charged for the Modern Business Course and Service is based directly upon the cost of producing the literature included in the Course and of maintaining the organization that conducts the Course and Service. The fee is small in itself; it shrinks into insignificance when compared with the returns. One of our subscribers was speaking only the literal truth when he said:

"To the man of ability and brains, your Course and Service offers a _priceless_ means of developing these qualities to their highest efficiency."

For the woman in business

The Modern Business Course and Service makes the same appeal to the business woman as it does to the business man. Consequently a number of women are enrolled for it. Among these women are:

Mrs. E. M. Simon, President, R. & H. Simon Company, Union Hill, New Jersey Miss Sara F. Jones, Mgr. Woman's Dept., Equitable Life Assurance Society, Chicago, Illinois Mrs. M. K. Alexander, Solicitor, Equitable Life Assurance Society, Chicago, Illinois Miss Mary R. Cass, Manager, F. N. Burt Company, Buffalo, New York Miss Louise Messner, Accountant, Petermann Stores Company, Kearsarge, Michigan Miss S. F. Troutman, Secretary and Assistant to Treasurer, First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Mrs. N. M. Favor, Assistant Cashier, The Travelers Insurance Company, Manchester, New Hampshire

Today women are engaged in all branches of business. A great number of women occupy executive and other important positions in some of the large concerns of the country, and the number is steadily increasing. For the ambitious woman a career in business, with its great rewards and the possibilities of rendering worthy service, holds forth attractive opportunities.