Part 9

When a plan is presented to you do not calculate the outcome by the plan, but by the man.

Two banks may start side by side with exactly the same office furniture and exactly the same business operations. They use the same kind of money; they make loans on lands or on securities. The operations of these two banks may be as closely identical as possible, yet within ten years one bank will have considerable surplus and the other may be out of business.

If the plan were the measure of success these two banks should fare equally well, but the fact that they differed so materially is in itself evidence that the success is determined by the individuals and not the plan.

The illustration of a bank may be carried into other lines, merchandising, manufacturing or railroading.

Compensation

The law of Compensation is--you pay for what you get, or you get what you pay for.

This law says if a horse can run fast it can't pull a good load and vice versa.

This law says a horse cannot go fast far.

It says that for every sorrow there is a joy, for every positive there is a negative.

Where evil exists there is some good to offset it, says compensation.

The law of compensation is the measure optimists use, and in nearly every chapter we have written in this series, compensation will be found as a ground-work.

You can't get away from nor violate this rule of compensation.

It is not new, it is as old as creation itself.

Centuries ago it was expressed this way: "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap."

Too many try to ignore this great rule, they try to get something for nothing.

You may eat first and pay afterwards, or you may pay first and eat afterwards.

You may play the butterfly; sip life's sweets and sow your wild oats now, but pay day will come and may be you will be unable to pay.

You may spend your income now and suffer want later on.

You may work hard now and play as you go along. You may have happiness each day you live; you can make life worth living if you work.

Happiness is compensation for work; no work, no happiness.

You may have what you want, but, you must pay for it.

Millions cost happiness and often cost health too.

The dinner is properly balanced when it has sweets as well as substantials. The sensible person finds the dinner is better if the sweets come after the substantials.

To violate the law of compensation is to eat the sweets first and then the substantials, and by this law the substantials do not taste good when they are eaten after the sweets.

The man who procrastinates is violating the law of compensation. When you see your duty attend to it at once.

The Boss

By the boss we mean the active proprietor, the executive head, the owner of the business. He is sometimes called the "old man."

The success of an institution depends largely upon the example set by the boss.