Part 32

Do not take on financial responsibilities until you see your way clear to meet the responsibilities, and in addition to meeting them, see to it that you have made an allowance for good measure.

Catching up calls for double effort and double work.

Anger

In proportion as a man is wise, he controls his anger.

Centuries ago the following truth was written: "Whom the gods would destroy they first make angry," and in the same era there was also given us another truth: "A soft answer turneth away wrath."

A man's judgment gets twisted, his ground becomes insecure and his point of vantage weakens when he becomes angry.

The man who keeps calm when the other fellow gets angry has infinitely the best of the matter.

Let the other fellow fret and stew and get red in the face, but you keep calm and you will win the fight every time.

Control yourself, change the subject, and absent yourself when anger shows.

Cultivate poise, refrain from lowering yourself to the methods of the ignorant, which is anger. By keeping your temper when your adversary gets angry you thereby show your superiority, and your adversary instinctively feels you are a bigger man than he is.

A cool head is wonderful capital for an employer or an employe.

Don't mistake coolness and poise for submissiveness and servility. Don't let people impose on you and take advantage of your good nature.

State your position in cool, well-weighed words, and carry conviction with them by your manner.

It takes two to make a quarrel. Whenever anger is present, do not be one of the two.

Precedent

Precedent has caused many failures. We refuse to make a bold move and inaugurate a new system because we hate to break away from the methods established by successful predecessors.

We say "Let well enough alone." We forget that times change, and that conditions which made our competitors successful, may not now exist.

If you have the precedent habit it is an admission that you have not the brains to originate, and you are trying to take advantage of another's brains.

You remember the old fable of the lion and the jackass. The jackass was browsing on thistles in the desert. It took all his time to gather enough of the scanty vegetation to keep him alive. One day the jackass noticed the lion comfortably eating a lamb, whereupon he said "That's the scheme for me. I will do the same trick as Mr. Lion," and forth-with the jackass found a dead lion and covered himself with the lion's skin, hoping that with the lion's skin he would appear as a lion and thus be able to catch game in large portions, and relieve himself of this slow monotonous, hard work he had been used to. The jackass sallied forth, but he could not catch a lamb. He had copied the lion so far as physical appearances were concerned, but he did not have the brains of the lion, and he failed.

There are hundreds of wealthy business concerns today who are slowly dying from dry rot because they have not the nerve to break away from the precedent that built up their businesses. They let sentiment outweigh common sense. They maintain the same old lines and follow the same policy because that policy years before things made them successful.

Many manufacturers continue to advertise in publications which have long since lost their advertising value. These manufacturers have the habit, and on account of precedent they are afraid to break away. They do not recognize that since they started there are dozens of newer, brighter and better publications than the ones they are using.

Columbus, Marconi, Edison, Stevenson, Newton, Fulton, and hundreds of other originators would never have succeeded if they had followed precedent. They required strong courage to break away from accepted methods. Each of these men was told in so many words that the thing never had been done, and consequently could not be done.

Business men who throw aside precedent are more apt to succeed, for by throwing aside precedent they show they have originality instead of the ability to copy.

Financing

A financier and a general are much the same thing. The financier makes the dollars do the work at the best place, and the general does the same thing with his soldiers. The financier with plenty of money in the bank and the general with plenty of soldiers at his command are alike. They give the order and the thing is done, for they have the material to do the thing with. The difference between the good financier and the bad financier is like the difference between the good general and the bad one, the difference being that the good one makes a little go a long way, and gets the best results from the little under his command.

The cause of many failures is due to bad financing instead of bad business. The trouble is few business men know exactly "where they are at."

A detailed statement should be kept of all obligations. The business man should get along as far as possible without giving notes, and when he does give notes he should see to it that the notes are taken up when due.

The business man who overstocks shows he is a bad financier. The man who buys too much on possibilities makes a mistake.