I CALL
THAT
MAN IDLE
WHO
MIGHT BE
BETTER EMPLOYED.
Socrates
THE LAW OF SUCCESS
Lesson Six
IMAGINATION
"You Can Do It if You Believe You Can!”
IMAGINATION is the workshop of the human mind wherein old ideas and established facts may be reassembled into new combinations and put to new uses. The modern dictionary defines imagination as follows:
"The act of constructive intellect in grouping the materials of knowledge or thought into new, original and rational systems; the constructive or creative faculty; embracing poetic, artistic, philosophic, scientific and ethical imagination.
"The picturing power of the mind; the formation of mental images, pictures, or mental representation of objects or ideas, particularly of objects of sense perception and of mathematical reasoning! also the reproduction and combination, usually with more or less irrational or abnormal modification, of the images or ideas of memory or recalled facts of experience."
Imagination has been called the creative power of the soul, but this is somewhat abstract and goes more deeply into the meaning than is necessary from the viewpoint of a student of this course who wishes to use the course only as a means of attaining material or monetary advantages in life.
If you have mastered and thoroughly understood the preceding lessons of this Reading Course you know that the materials out of which you built your definite chief aim were assembled and combined in your imagination. You also know that self-confidence and initiative and leadership must be created in your imagination before they can become a reality, for it is in the workshop of your imagination that you will put the principle of Auto-suggestion into operation in creating these necessary qualities.
This lesson on imagination might be called the "hub" of this Reading Course, because every lesson of the course leads to this lesson and makes use of the principle upon which it is based, just as all the telephone wires lead to the exchange office for their source of power. You will never have a definite purpose in life, you will never have self-confidence, you will never have initiative and leadership unless you first create these qualities in your imagination and see yourself in possession of them.
Just as the oak tree develops from the germ that lies in the acorn, and the bird develops from the germ that lies asleep in the egg, so will your material achievements grow out of the organized plans that you create in your imagination. First comes the thought; then, organization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.
The imagination is both interpretative and creative in nature. It can examine facts, concepts and ideas, and it can create new combinations and plans out of these.
Through its interpretative capacity the imagination has one power not generally attributed to it; namely, the power to register vibrations and thought waves that are put into motion from outside sources, just as the radio-receiving apparatus picks up the vibrations of sound. The principle through which this interpretative capacity of the imagination functions is called telepathy; the communication of thought from one mind to another, at long or short distances, without the aid of physical or mechanical appliances, in the manner explained in the Introductory Lesson of this course.
Telepathy is an important factor to a student who is preparing to make effective use of imagination, for the reason that this telepathic capacity of the imagination is constantly picking up thought waves and vibrations of every description. So-called "snap-judgment" and "hunches," which prompt one to form an opinion or decide upon a course of action that is not in harmony with logic and reason, are usually the result of stray thought waves that have registered in the imagination.
The recently developed radio apparatus has enabled us to understand that the elements of the ether are so sensitive and alive that all manner of sound waves are constantly flying here and there with lightning-like speed. You have only to understand the modern radio outfit to understand, also, the principle of telepathy. So well has this principle been established, through psychological research, that we have abundance of proof that two minds which are properly attuned and in harmony with each other may send and receive thought at long distances without the aid of mechanical apparatus of any sort. Rarely have two minds become so well attuned that unbroken chains of thought could be registered in this manner, but there is evidence sufficient to establish the fact that parts of organized thought have been picked up.
That you may understand how closely interwoven are the fifteen factors upon which this Reading Course is based, consider, for example, what happens when a salesman who lacks confidence in himself, and in his goods, walks in to see a prospective buyer. Whether the prospective buyer is conscious of it or not, his imagination immediately "senses" that lack of confidence in the salesman's mind. The salesman's own thoughts are actually undermining his efforts. This will explain, from another angle, why self-confidence is one of the most important factors entering into the great struggle for success.
The principle of telepathy and the law of attraction, through which like attracts like, explain many a failure. If the mind has a tendency to attract from the ether those thought vibrations which harmonize with the dominating thoughts of a given mind, you can easily understand why a negative mind that dwells upon failure and lacks the vitalizing force of self-confidence would not attract a positive mind that is dominated by thoughts of success.
Perhaps these explanations are somewhat abstract to the student who has not made any particular study of the functioning processes of the mind, but it seems necessary to inject them into this lesson as a means of enabling the student to understand and make practical
use of the subject of this lesson. The imagination is too often regarded merely as an indefinite, untraceable, indescribable something that does nothing but create fiction. It is this popular disregard of the powers of the imagination that has made necessary these more or less abstract references to one of the most important subjects of this course. Not only is the subject of imagination an important factor in this course; but, it is one of the most interesting subjects, as you will observe when you begin to see how it affects all that you do toward the achievement of your definite chief aim.
You will see how important is the subject of imagination when you stop to realize that it is the only thing in the world over which you have absolute control. Others may deprive you of your material wealth and cheat you in a thousand ways, but no man can deprive you of the control and use of your imagination. Men may deal with you unfairly, as men often do; they may deprive you of your liberty, but they cannot take from you the privilege of using your imagination as you wish.
The most inspiring poem in all literature was written by Leigh Hunt, while he was a poverty-stricken prisoner in an English prison, where he had been unjustly confined because of his advanced views on politics. This poem is entitled Abou Ben Adhem, and it is here re-printed as a reminder that one of the great things a man may do, in his own imagination, is to forgive those who have dealt unjustly with him:
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
THE MAN
WHO
SLANDERS
HIS
FELLOWMAN
UNWITTINGLY UNCOVERS THE
REAL
NATURE OF
HIS
INNER SELF.
And saw within the moonlight of his room,
Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold,
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said:
"What writest thou?" - the vision raised its head,
And, with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel, - Abou spoke more low,
But cheerily still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again, with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest!
Civilization, itself, owes its existence to such men as Leigh Hunt, in whose fertile imaginations have been pictured the higher and nobler standards of human relationship. Abou Ben Adhem is a poem that will never die, thanks to this man who pictured in his imagination the hope of an ideal that is constructive.
The major trouble with this world today lies in our lack of understanding of the power of imagination, for if we understood this great power we could use it as a weapon with which to wipe out poverty and misery and injustice and persecution, and this could be done in a single generation. This is a rather broad statement, and no one understands better than the author of this course how useless such a statement would be if the principle upon which it is founded were not explained in terms of the most practical, workaday nature; therefore, let us proceed to describe what is meant.
To make this description understandable we must accept as a reality the principle of telepathy, through the operation of which every thought we release is registering itself in the minds of other people. We need devote no time to proving that telepathy is a reality, for the reason that this lesson on imagination cannot be of the slightest value to the student who has not sufficiently informed himself to understand and accept telepathy as an established principle. We will take it for granted that you are one who accepts and understands this principle.
You have often heard of "mob psychology," which is nothing more nor less than some strong, dominating idea that has been created in the mind of one or more persons and registers itself in the minds of other persons, through the principle of telepathy. So strong is the power of mob psychology that two men fighting in the street will often start a "free-for-all" fight in which by-standers will engage each other in battle without even knowing what they are fighting about, or with whom they are fighting.
On armistice day, 1918, we had evidence in abundance to prove the reality of the principle of telepathy, on a scale such as the world had never before witnessed. I remember, distinctly, the impression made on my mind on that eventful day. So strong was this impression that it awakened me at about 3:00 o'clock in the morning, just as effectively as if someone had aroused me by physical force. As I sat up in bed I knew that something out of the ordinary had happened, and so strange and impelling was the effect of this experience that I got up, dressed myself and went out in the streets of Chicago, where I was met by thousands of others who had felt the touch of the same influence. Everyone was asking: "What has happened?"
What had happened was this:
Millions of men had received instructions to cease fighting, and their combined joy set into motion a thought wave that swept the entire world and made itself felt in every normal mind that was capable of registering this thought wave. Perhaps never in the history of the world had so many millions of people thought of the same thing, in the same manner, at the same time. For once in the history of the world everybody felt something in common, and the effect of this harmonized thought was the world-wide "mob psychology" that we witnessed on armistice day. In connection with this statement it will be helpful if you recall what was said about the method of creating a "Master Mind," through the harmony of thought of two or more persons, in the Introductory Lesson of this course.
We will bring the application of this principle a little nearer home by showing how it may be made to make or break the harmonious working relationship of a business or industry. You may not have satisfied yourself that it was the harmony of thought of millions of soldiers that registered in the minds of the, people of the world and caused the "mob" psychological condition that was everywhere in evidence on armistice day, but you will need no proof that a disgruntled person always disturbs everyone with whom he comes in contact. It is a well established fact that one such person in a place of employment will disrupt the entire organization. The time is almost at hand when neither the workers nor the employers will tolerate the typical "grouch" inside of a place of employment, for the reason that his state of mind registers itself in the minds of those about him, resulting in distrust, suspicion and lack of harmony. The time is near at hand when the workers in a place of employment will no more tolerate one of their own rank and file who is a typical "grouch" than they would a poisonous snake.
Apply the principle in another way: Place among a group of workers one person whose personality is of the positive, optimistic type, and who makes it his business to sow the seeds of harmony around the place where he works, and his influence will reflect itself in every person who works with him.
If every business is "the extended shadow of one man" as Emerson stated, then it behooves that one man to reflect a shadow of confidence and good cheer and optimism and harmony, that these qualities may, in turn, reflect themselves in all who are connected with the business.
In passing to the next step in our application of the power of imagination in the attainment of success we will cite some of the most recent and modern examples of its use in the accumulation of material wealth and the perfection of some of the leading inventions of the world.
In approaching this next step it should be borne ill mind that "there is nothing new under the sun." Lift, on this earth may be likened to a great kaleidoscope before which the scenes and facts and
material substances are ever shifting and changing, and all any man can do is to take these facts and substances and re-arrange them in new combinations.
The process through which this is done is called imagination.
We have stated that the imagination is both interpretative and creative in its nature. It can receive impressions or ideas and out of these it can form new combinations.
As our first illustration of the power of imagination in modern business achievement, we will take the case of Clarence Saunders, who organized the Piggly-Wiggly system of self-help grocery stores.
Saunders was a grocery clerk in a small southern retail store. One day he was standing in a line, with a tin tray in his hands, waiting his turn to secure food in a cafeteria. He had never earned more than $20.00 a week before that time, and no one had ever noticed anything about him that indicated unusual ability, but something took place in his mind, as he stood in that line of waiting people, that put his imagination to work. With the aid of his imagination he lifted that "self-help" idea out of the cafeteria in which he found it (not creating anything new, merely shifting an old idea into a new use) and set it down in a grocery store. In an instant the Piggly-Wiggly chain-store grocery plan had been created and Clarence Saunders the twenty-dollar-a-week grocery clerk rapidly became the million-dollar chain-store groceryman of America.
Where, in that transaction, do you see the slightest indication of a performance that you could not duplicate?
IT will make a big difference to you whether you are a person with a
message or a person
with a grievance.
Analyze this transaction and measure it by the previous lessons of this course and you will see that Clarence Saunders created a very definite purpose. He supported this purpose with sufficient self-confidence to cause him to take the initiative to transform it into reality. His imagination was the workshop in which these three factors, definite purpose, self-confidence and initiative were brought together and made to supply the momentum for the first step in the organization of the Piggly-Wiggly plan.
Thus are great ideas changed into realities.
When Thomas A. Edison invented the incandescent electric light bulb he merely brought together two old, well known principles and associated them in a new combination. Mr. Edison and practically all others who were informed on the subject of electricity, knew that a light could be produced by heating a small wire with electricity, but the difficult problem was to do this without burning the wire in two. In his experimental research Mr. Edison tried out every conceivable sort of wire, hoping to find some substance that would withstand the tremendous heat to which it had to be subjected before a light could be produced.
His invention was half completed, but it was of no practical value until he could find the missing link that would supply the other half. After thousands of tests and much combining of old ideas in his imagination, Edison finally found this missing link. In his study of physics he had learned, as all other students of this subject learn, that there can be no combustion without the presence of oxygen. He of course knew that the difficulty with his electric light apparatus was the lack of a method through which to control the heat. When it occurred to him that there could be no combustion where there was no oxygen he placed the little wire of his electric light apparatus inside of a glass globe, shut out all the oxygen, and lo! the mighty incandescent light was a reality.
When the sun goes down tonight you step to the wall, press a button and bring it back again, a performance that would have mystified the people of a few generations ago, and yet there is no mystery back of your act. Thanks to the use of Edison's imagination, you have simply brought together two principles both of which were in existence since the beginning of time.
No one who knew him intimately ever accredited Andrew Carnegie with unusual ability, or the power of genius, except in one respect, and that was his ability to select men who could and would co-operate in a spirit of harmony, in carrying out his wishes. But what additional ability did he need in the accumulation of his millions of dollars?
Any man who understands the principle of organized effort, as Carnegie understood it, and knows enough about men to be able to select just those types that are needed in the performance of a given task, could duplicate all that Carnegie accomplished.
Carnegie was a man of imagination. He first created a definite purpose and then surrounded himself with men who had 'the training and the vision and the capacity necessary for the transformation of that purpose into reality. Carnegie did not always create his own plans for the attainment of his definite purpose. He made it his business to know what he wanted, then found the men who could create plans
through which to procure it. And that was not only imagination, it was genius of the highest order.
But it should be made clear that men of Mr. Carnegie's type are not the only ones who can make profitable use of imagination. This great power is as available to the beginner in business as it is to the man who has "arrived."
One morning Charles M. Schwab's private car was backed on the side-track at his Bethlehem Steel plant. As he alighted from his car he was met by a young man stenographer who announced that he had come to make sure that any letters or telegrams Mr. Schwab might wish to write would be taken care of promptly. No one told this young man to be on hand, but he had enough imagination to see that his being there would not hurt his chances of advancement. From that day on, this young man was "marked" for promotion. Mr. Schwab singled him out for promotion because he had done that which any of the dozen or so other stenographers in the employ of the Bethlehem Steel Company might have done, but didn't. Today this same man is the president of one of the largest drug concerns in the world and has all of this world's goods and wares that he wants and much more than he needs.
A few years ago I received a letter from a young man who had just finished Business College, and who wanted to secure employment in my office. With his letter he sent a crisp ten-dollar bill that had never been folded. The letter read as follows
"I have just finished a commercial course in a first-class business college and I want a position in your office because I realize how much it would be worth to a young man, just starting out on his business career, to have the privilege of working under the direction of a man like you.
"If the enclosed ten-dollar bill is sufficient to pay for the time you would spend in giving me my first week's instructions I want you to accept it. I will work the first month without pay and you may set my wages after that at whatever I prove to be worth.
"I want this job more than I ever wanted anything in my life and I am willing to make any reasonable sacrifice to get it. Very cordially,"
This young man got his chance in my office. His imagination gained for him the opportunity that he wanted, and before his first month had expired the president of a life insurance company who heard of this incident offered the young man a private secretary-ship at a substantial salary. He is today an official of one of the largest life insurance companies in the world.
Some years ago a young man wrote to Thomas A. Edison for a position. For some reason Mr. Edison did not reply. By no means discouraged on this account the young man made up his mind that he would not only get a reply from Mr. Edison, but what was more important still, he would actually secure the position he sought. He lived a long distance from West Orange, New Jersey, where the Edison industries are located, and he did not have the money with which to pay his railroad fare. But he did have imagination. He went to West Orange in a freight car, got his interview, told his story in person and got the job he sought.
Today this same man lives in Bradentown, Florida. He has retired from active business, having made all the money he needs. His name, in case you wish to confirm my statements, is Edwin C. Barnes.
By using his imagination, Mr. Barnes saw the advantage of close association with a man like Thomas A. Edison. He saw that such an association would give him the opportunity to study Mr. Edison, and at the same time it would bring him in contact with Mr. Edison's friends, who are among the most influential people of the world.
These are but a few cases in connection with which I have personally observed how men have climbed to high places in the world and accumulated wealth in abundance by making practical use of their imagination.
Theodore Roosevelt engraved his name on the tablets of time by one single act during his tenure of office as President of the United States, and after all else that he did while in that office will have been forgotten this one transaction will record him in history as a man of imagination.
He started the steam shovels to work on the Panama Canal.
Every President, from Washington on up to Roosevelt, could have started the canal and it would have been completed, but it seemed such a colossal undertaking that it required not only imagination but daring courage as well. Roosevelt had both, and the people of the United States have the canal.
At the age of forty - the age at which the average man begins to think he is too old to start anything new - James J. Hill was still sitting at the telegraph key, at a salary of $30.00 per month. He had no capital. He
THE reason most people do not like to hear the story of your troubles is that they have a big flock of their own.
He had no influential friends with capital, but he did have that which is more powerful than either -imagination.
In his mind's eye he saw a great railway system that would penetrate the undeveloped northwest and unite the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. So vivid was his imagination that he made others see the advantages of such a railway system, and from there on the story is familiar enough to every school-boy. I would emphasize the part of the story that most people never mention - that Hill's Great Northern Railway system became a reality in his own imagination first. The railroad was built with steel rails and wooden cross ties, just as other railroads are built, and these things were paid for with capital that was secured in very much the same manner that capital for all railroads is secured, but if you want the real story of James J. Hill's success you must go back to that little country railway station where he worked at $30.00 a month and there pick up the little threads that he wove into a mighty railroad, with materials no more visible than the thoughts which he organized in his imagination.
What a mighty power is imagination, the workshop of the soul, in which thoughts are woven into railroads and skyscrapers and mills and factories and all manner of material wealth.
"I hold it true that thoughts are things;
They're endowed with bodies and breath and wings;
And that we send them forth to fill
The world with good results or ill.
That which we call our secret thought
Speeds forth to earth's remotest spot,
Leaving its blessings or its woes,
Like tracks behind it as it goes.
We build our future, thought by thought,
For good or ill, yet know it not,
Yet so the universe was wrought.
Thought is another name for fate;
Choose, then, thy destiny and wait,
For love brings love and hate brings hate."
If your imagination is the mirror of your soul, then you have a perfect right to stand before that mirror and see yourself as you wish to be. You have the right to see reflected in that magic mirror the mansion you intend to own, the factory you intend to manage, the bank of which you intend to be president, the station in life you intend to occupy. Your imagination belongs to you! Use it! The more you use it the more efficiently it will serve you.
At the east end of the great Brooklyn Bridge, in New York City, an old man conducts a cobbler shop. When the engineers began driving stakes and marking the foundation place for that great steel structure this man shook his head and said "It can't be done!"
Now he looks out from his dingy little shoe-repair shop, shakes his head and asks himself: "How did they do it?"
He saw the bridge grow before his very eyes and still he lacks the imagination to analyze that which he saw. The engineer who planned the bridge saw it a reality long before a single shovel of dirt had been removed for the foundation stones. The bridge became a reality in his imagination because he had trained that imagination to weave new combinations out of old ideas.
Through recent experiments in the department of electricity one of our great educational institutions of America has discovered how to put flowers to sleep and wake them up again, with electric "sunlight." This discovery makes possible the growth of vegetables and flowers without the aid of sunshine. In a few more years the city dweller will be raising a crop of vegetables on his back porch, with the aid of a few boxes of dirt and a few electric lights, with some new vegetable maturing every month of the year.
This new discovery, plus a little imagination, plus Luther Burbank's discoveries in the field of horticulture, and lo! the city dweller will not only grow vegetables all the year around, within the confines of his back porch, but he will grow bigger vegetables than any which the modern gardener grows in the open sunlight.
In one of the cities on the coast of California all of the land that was suitable for building lots had been developed and put into use. On one side of the city there were some steep hills that could not be used for building purposes, and on the other side the land was unsuitable for buildings because it was so low that the back-water covered it once a day.
A man of imagination came to this city. Men of imagination usually have keen minds, and this man was no exception. The first day of his arrival he saw the possibilities for making money out of real estate. He secured an option on those hills that were unsuitable for use because of their steepness. He also secured an option on the ground that was unsuitable for use because of the back-water that covered it daily. He secured these options at a very low price because the ground was supposed to be without substantial value.
With the use of a few tons of explosives he turned those steep hills into loose dirt. With the aid of a few tractors and some road scrapers he leveled the ground down and turned it into beautiful building lots, and with the aid of a few mules and carts he dumped the surplus dirt on the low ground and raised it above the water level, thereby turning it into beautiful building lots.
He made a substantial fortune, for what?
For removing some dirt from where it was not needed to where it was needed! For mixing some useless dirt with imagination!
The people of that little city gave this man credit for being a genius; and he was-the same sort of genius that any one of them could have been had he used his imagination as this man used his.
In the field of chemistry it is possible to mix two or more chemical ingredients in such proportions that the mere act of mixing gives each of the ingredients a tremendous amount of energy that it did not possess. It is also possible to mix certain chemical ingredients in such proportions that all the ingredients of the combination take on an entirely different nature, as in the case of H2O, which is a mixture of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, creating water.
Chemistry is not the only field in which a combination of various physical materials can be so assembled that each takes on a greater value, or the result is a product entirely foreign in nature to that of its component parts. The man who blew up those useless hills of dirt and stone and removed the surplus from where it was not needed over to the low-land, where it was needed, gave that dirt and stone a value that it did not have before.
A ton of pig-iron is worth but little. Add to that pig-iron carbon, silicon, manganese, sulphur and phosphorus, in the right proportions, and you have transformed it into steel, which is of much greater value. Add still other substances, in the right proportion, including some skilled labor, and that same ton of steel is transformed into watch-springs worth a small fortune. But, in all these transformation processes the one ingredient that is worth most is the one that has no material form - imagination!
Here lie great piles of loose brick, lumber, nails and glass. In its present form it is worse than useless for it is a nuisance and an eye-sore. But mix it with the architect's imagination and add some skilled labor and lo! it becomes a beautiful mansion worth a king's ransom.
On one of the great highways between New York and Philadelphia stood an old ramshackle, time-worn barn, worth less than fifty dollars. With the aid of a little lumber and some cement, plus imagination, this old barn has been turned into a beautiful automobile supply station that earns a small fortune for the man who supplied the imagination.
Across the street from my office is a little print-shop that earns coffee and rolls for its owner and his helper, but no more. Less than a dozen blocks away stands one of the most modern printing plants in the world, whose owner spends most of his time traveling and has far more wealth than he will ever use.
I KNOW I am here. I know I had nothing to do with my coming, and I shall have but little, if anything, to do with my going, therefore I will not worry because worries are of no avail.
Twenty-two years ago those two printers were in business together.
The one who owns the big print-shop had the good judgment to ally himself with a man who mixed imagination with printing. This man of imagination is a writer of advertisements and he keeps the printing plant with which he is associated supplied with more business than it can handle by analyzing its clients' business, creating attractive advertising features and supplying the necessary printed material with which to make these features of service. This plant receives top-notch prices for its printing because the imagination mixed with that printing produces a product that most printers cannot supply.
In the city of Chicago the level of a certain boulevard was raised, which spoiled a row of beautiful residences because the side-walk was raised to the level of the second story windows. While the property owners were bemoaning their ill-fortune a man of imagination came along, purchased the property for a "song," converted the second stories into business property, and now enjoys a handsome income from his rentals.
As you read these lines please keep in mind all that was stated in the beginning of this lesson; especially the fact that the greatest and most profitable thing you can do with your imagination is the act of rearranging old ideas in new combinations.
If you properly use your imagination it will help you convert your failures and mistakes into assets of priceless value; it will lead you to discovery of a truth known only to those who use their imagination; namely, that the greatest reverses and misfortunes of life often open the door to golden opportunities.
One of the finest and most highly paid engravers in the United States was formerly a mail-carrier. One day he was fortunate enough to be on a street car that met with an accident and had one of his legs cut off. The street railway company paid him $5,000.00 for his leg. With this money he paid his way through school and became an engraver. The product of his hands, plus his imagination, is worth much more than he could earn with his legs, as a mail-carrier. He discovered that he had imagination when it became necessary to re-direct his efforts, as a result of the street car accident.
You will never know what is your capacity for achievement until you learn how to mix your efforts with imagination. The products of your hands, minus imagination, will yield you but a small return, but those selfsame hands, when properly guided by imagination, can be made to earn you all the material wealth you can use.
There are two ways in which you can profit by imagination. You can develop this faculty in your own mind, or you can ally yourself with those who have already developed it. Andrew Carnegie did both. He not only made use of his own fertile imagination, but he gathered around him a group of other men who also possessed this essential quality, for his definite purpose in life called for specialists whose imagination ran in numerous directions. In that group of men that constituted Mr. Carnegie's "master mind" were men whose imaginations were confined to the field of chemistry. He had other men in the group whose imaginations were confined to finances. He had still others whose imaginations were confined to salesmanship, one of whom was Charles M. Schwab, who is said to have been the most able salesman on Mr. Carnegie's staff.
If you feel that your own imagination is inadequate you should form an alliance with someone whose imagination is sufficiently developed to supply your deficiency. There are various forms of alliance. For example, there is the alliance of marriage and the alliance of a business partnership and the alliance of friendship and the alliance of employer and employee. Not all men have the capacity to serve their own best interests as employers, and those who haven't this capacity may profit by allying themselves with men of imagination who have such capacity.
It is said that Mr. Carnegie made more millionaires of his employees than any other employer in the steel business. Among these was Charles M. Schwab, who displayed evidence of the soundest sort of imagination by his good judgment in allying himself with Mr. Carnegie. It is no disgrace to serve in the capacity of employee. To the contrary, it often proves to be the most profitable side of an alliance since not all men are fitted to assume the responsibility of directing other men.
Perhaps there is no field of endeavor in which imagination plays such an important part as it does in salesmanship. The master salesman sees the merits of the goods he sells or the service he is rendering, in his own imagination, and if he fails to do so he will not make the sale.
A few years ago a sale was made which is said to have been the most far-reaching and important sale of its kind ever made. The object of the sale was not merchandise, but the freedom of a man who was confined in the Ohio penitentiary and the development of a prison reform system that promises a sweeping change in the method of dealing with unfortunate men and women who have become entangled in the meshes of the law.
That you may observe just how imagination plays the leading part in salesmanship I will analyze this sale for you, with due apologies for personal references, which cannot be avoided without destroying much of the value of the illustration.
A few years ago I was invited to speak before the inmates of the Ohio penitentiary. When I stepped upon the platform I saw in the audience before me a man whom I had known as a successful business man, more than ten years previously. That man was B_, whose pardon I later secured, and the story of whose release has been spread upon the front page of practically every newspaper in the United States. Perhaps you will recall it.
After I had completed my address I interviewed Mr. B_ and found out that he had been sentenced for forgery, for a period of twenty years. After he had told me his story I said:
"I will have you out of here in less than sixty days!"
With a forced smile he replied: "I admire your spirit but question your judgment. Why, do you know that at least twenty influential men have tried every means at their command to get me released, without success? It can't be done!"
I suppose it was that last remark - It can't be done - that challenged me to show him that it could be done. I returned to New York City and requested my wife to pack her trunks and get ready for an indefinite stay in the city of Columbus, where the Ohio penitentiary is located.
I had a definite purpose in mind! That purpose was to get B_ out of the Ohio penitentiary. Not only did I have in mind securing his release, but I intended to do it in such a way that his release would erase from his breast the scarlet letter of "convict" and at the same time reflect credit upon all who helped to bring about his release.
Not once did I doubt that I would bring about his release, for no salesman can make a sale if he doubts that he can do it. My wife and I returned to Columbus and took up permanent headquarters.
The next day I called on the governor of Ohio and stated the object of my visit in about these words:
"Governor: I have come to ask you to release B_ from the Ohio penitentiary. I have sound reason for asking his release and I hope you will give him his freedom at once, but I have come prepared to stay until he is released, no matter how long that may be.
"During his imprisonment B__ has inaugurated a system of correspondence instruction in the Ohio penitentiary, as you of course know. He has influenced 1729 of the 2518 prisoners of the Ohio penitentiary to take up courses of instruction. He has managed to beg sufficient textbooks and lesson materials with which to keep these men at work on their lessons, and has done this without a penny of expense to the state of Ohio. The warden and the chaplain of the penitentiary tell me that he has carefully observed the prison rules. Surely a man who can influence 1729 men to turn their efforts towards............
IF you have been wise and successful I congratulate you; unless you are unable to forget how successful you have been, then I pity you.
........their efforts toward self-betterment cannot be a very bad sort of fellow.
"I have come to ask you to release B_ because I wish to place him at the head of a prison school that will give the 160,000 inmates of the other penitentiaries of the United States a chance to profit by his influence. I am prepared to assume full responsibility for his conduct after his release.
"That is my case, but, before you give me your answer, I want you to know that I am not unmindful of the fact that your enemies will probably criticize you if you release him; in fact if you release him it may cost you many votes if you run for office again."
With his fist clinched and his broad jaw set firmly Governor Vic Donahey of Ohio said:
"If that is what you want with B_ I will release him if it costs me five thousand votes. However, before I sign the pardon I want you to see the Clemency Board and secure its favorable recommendation. I want you also to secure the favorable recommendation of the warden and the chaplain of the Ohio penitentiary. You know a governor is amenable to the Court of Public Opinion, and these gentlemen are the representatives of that Court."
The sale had been made! and the whole transaction had required less than five minutes.
The next day I returned to the governor's office, accompanied by the chaplain of the Ohio penitentiary, and notified the governor that the Clemency Board, the Warden and the Chaplain all joined in recommending the release. Three days later the pardon was signed and B walked through the big iron gates, a free man.
I have cited the details to show you that there was nothing difficult about the transaction. The groundwork for the release had all been prepared before I came upon the scene. B_ had done that, by his good conduct and the service he had rendered those 1729 prisoners. When he created the world's first prison correspondence school system he created the key that unlocked the prison doors for himself.
Why, then, had the others who asked for his release failed to secure it?
They failed because they used no imagination!
Perhaps they asked the governor for B_'s release on the ground that his parents were prominent people, or on the ground that he was a college graduate and not a bad sort of fellow. They failed to supply the governor of Ohio with a sufficient motive to justify him in granting a pardon, for had this not been so he would undoubtedly have released B_ long before I came upon the scene and asked for his release.
Before I went to see the governor I went over all the facts and in my own imagination I saw myself in the governor's place and made up my mind what sort of a presentation would appeal most strongly to me if I were in reality in his place.
When I asked for B_'s release I did so in the name of the 160,000 unfortunate men and women inmates of the prisons of the United States who would enjoy the benefits of the correspondence school system that he had created. I said nothing about his prominent parents. I said nothing about my friendship with him during former years. I said nothing about his being a deserving fellow. All these matters might have been used as sound reasons for his release, but they seemed insignificant when compared with the bigger and sounder reason that his release would be of help to 160,000 other people who would feel the influence of his correspondence school system after his release.
When the governor of Ohio came to a decision I doubt not that B_ was of secondary importance as far as his decision was concerned. The governor no doubt saw a possible benefit, not to B_ alone, but to 160,000 other men and women who needed the influence that B_ could supply, if released.
And that was imagination!
It was also salesmanship! In speaking of the incident after it was over, one of the men who had worked diligently for more than a year in trying to secure B_'s freedom, asked:
"How did you do it?"
And I replied: "It was the easiest task I ever performed, because most of the work had been done before I took hold of it. In fact I didn't do it B_ did it himself."
This man looked at me in bewilderment. He did not see that which I am here trying to make clear; namely, that practically all difficult tasks are easily performed if one approaches them from the right angle. There were two important factors entering B_'s release. The first was the fact that he had supplied the material for a good case before I took it in charge; and the second was the fact that before I called on the governor of Ohio I so completely convinced myself that I had a right to ask for B_'s release that I had no difficulty in presenting my case effectively.
Go back to what was stated in the beginning of this lesson, on the subject of telepathy, and apply it to this case. The governor could tell, long before I had stated my mission, that I knew I had a good case. If my brain did not telegraph this thought to his brain, then the look of self-confidence in my eyes and the positive tone of my voice made obvious my belief in the merits of my case.
Again I apologize for these personal references with the explanation that I have used them only because the whole of America was familiar with the B_ case that I have described. I disclaim all credit for the small part I played in the case, for I did nothing except use my imagination as an assembly room in which to piece together the factors out of which the sale was made. I did nothing except that which any salesman of imagination could have done.
It requires considerable courage to prompt one to use the personal pronoun as freely as it has been used in relating the facts connected with this case, but justification lies in the value of application of the principle of imagination to a case with which nearly everybody is familiar.
I cannot recall an incident in my entire life in connection with which the soundness of the fifteen factors that enter into this Reading Course was more clearly manifested than it was in securing the release of B_.
It is but another link in a long chain of evidence that proves to my entire satisfaction the power of imagination as a factor in salesmanship. There are endless millions of approaches to every problem, but there is only one best approach. Find this one best
approach and your problem is easily solved. No matter how much merit your goods may have, there are millions of wrong ways in which to offer them. Your imagination will assist you in finding the right way.
In your search for the right way in which to offer your merchandise or your services, remember this peculiar trait of mankind:
Men will grant favors that you request for the benefit of a third person when they would not grant them if requested for your benefit.
Compare this statement with the fact that I asked the governor of Ohio to release B_, not as a favor to me, and not as a favor to B_, but, for the benefit of 160,000 unfortunate inmates of the prisons of America.
Salesmen of imagination always offer their wares in such terminology that the advantages of those wares to the prospective purchaser are obvious. It is seldom that any man makes a purchase of merchandise or renders another a favor just to accommodate the salesman. It is a prominent trait of human nature that prompts us all to do that which advances our own interests. This is a cold, indisputable fact, claims of the idealist to the contrary notwithstanding.
To be perfectly plain, men are selfish!
To understand the truth is to understand how to present your case, whether you are asking for the release of a man from prison or offering for sale some commodity. In your own imagination so plan your presentation of your case that the strongest and most impelling advantages to the buyer are made plain.
This is imagination!
I NEVER see a person trying to disclose the
scarlet letter on another's
breast that I do not
wonder if he doesn't carry some mark of disgrace
which would have ruined
him had he been
overtaken by justice.
A farmer moved to the city, taking with him his well trained shepherd dog. He soon found that the dog was out of place in the city, so he decided to "get rid of him." (Note the words in quotation.) Taking the dog with him he went out into the country and rapped on the door of a farm-house. A man came hobbling to the door, on crutches. The man with the dog greeted the man in the house in these words
"You wouldn't care to buy a fine shepherd dog, that I wish to get rid of, would you?"
The man on crutches replied, "No!" and closed the door.
The man with the dog called at half a dozen other farm-houses, asking the same question, and received the same answer. He made up his mind that no one wanted the dog and returned to the city. That evening he was telling of his misfortune, to a man of imagination. The man heard how the owner of the dog had tried in vain to "get rid of him."
"Let me dispose of the dog for you," said the man of imagination. The owner was willing. The next morning the man of imagination took the dog out into the country and stopped at the first farm-house at which the owner of the dog had called the day before. The same old man hobbled out on crutches and answered the knock at the door.
The man of imagination greeted him in this fashion:
"I see you are all crippled with rheumatism. What you need is a fine dog to run errands for you. I have a dog here that has been trained to bring home the cows, drive away wild animals, herd the sheep and perform other useful services. You may have this dog for a hundred dollars."
"All right," said the crippled man, "I'll take him!"
That, too, was imagination!
No one wants a dog that someone else wants to "get rid of," but most anyone would like to own a dog that would herd sheep and bring home the cows and perform other useful services.
The dog was the same one that the crippled buyer had refused the day before, but the man who sold the dog was not the man who had tried to "get rid of him." If you use your imagination you will know that no one wants anything that someone else is trying to "get rid of."
Remember that which was said about the Law of Attraction through the operation of which "like attracts like." If you look and act the part of a failure you will attract nothing but failures.
Whatever your life-work may be, it calls for the use of imagination.
Niagara Falls was nothing but a great mass of roaring water until a man of imagination harnessed it and converted the wasted energy into electric current that now turns the wheels of industry. Before this man of imagination came along millions of people had seen and heard those roaring falls, but lacked the imagination to harness them.
The first Rotary Club of the world was born in the fertile imagination of Paul Harris, of Chicago, who saw in this child of his brain an effective means of cultivating prospective clients and the extension of his law practice. The ethics of the legal profession forbid advertising in the usual way, but Paul Harris' imagination found a way to extend his law practice without advertising in the usual way.
If the winds of Fortune are temporarily blowing against you, remember that you can harness them and make them carry you toward your definite purpose, through the use of your imagination. A kite rises against the wind - not with it!
Dr. Frank Crane was a struggling "third-rate" preacher until the starvation wages of the clergy forced him to use his imagination. Now he earns upward of a hundred thousand dollars a year for an hour's work a day, writing essays.
Bud Fisher once worked for a mere pittance, but he now earns seventy-five thousand dollars a year by making folks grin, with his Mutt and Jeff comic strip. No art goes into his drawings, therefore he must be selling his imagination.
Woolworth was a poorly paid clerk in a retail store - poorly paid, perhaps, because he had not yet found out that he had imagination. Before he died he built the tallest office building in the world and girdled the United States with Five and Ten Cent Stores, through the use of his imagination.
You will observe, by analyzing these illustrations, that a close study of human nature played an important part in the achievements mentioned. To make profitable use of your imagination you must make it give you a keen insight into the motives that cause men to do or refrain from doing a given act. If your imagination leads you to understand how quickly people grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self-interest, you can have practically anything you go after.
I saw my wife make a very clever sale to our baby not long ago. The baby was pounding the top of our mahogany library table with a spoon. When my wife reached for the spoon the baby refused to give it up, but being a woman of imagination she offered the baby a nice stick of red candy; he dropped the spoon immediately and centered his attention on the more desirable object.
That was imagination! It was also salesmanship. She won her point without using force.
I was riding in an automobile with a friend who was driving beyond the speed limit. An officer rode up on a motorcycle and told my friend he was under arrest for speeding. The friend smiled pleasantly at the officer and said: "I'm sorry to have brought you out in all this rain, but I wanted to make the ten o'clock train with my friend here, and I was hitting it up around thirty-five miles an hour."
"No, you were only going twenty-eight miles an hour," replied the officer, "and as long as you are so nice about it I will let you off this time if you will watch yourself hereafter."
And that, too, was imagination! Even a traffic cop will listen to reason when approached in the right manner, but woe unto the motorist who tries to bully the cop into believing his speedometer was not registering properly.
There is one form of imagination against which I would caution you. It is the brand which prompts some people to imagine that they can get something for nothing, or that they can force themselves ahead in the world without observing the rights of others. There are more than 160,000 prisoners in the penal institutions of the United States, practically every one of whom is in prison because he imagined he could play the game of life without observing the rights of his fellow men.
There is a man in the Ohio penitentiary who has served more than thirty-five years of time for forgery, and the largest amount he ever got from his misapplication of imagination was twelve dollars.
There are a few people who direct their imaginations in the vain attempt to work out a way to show what happens when "an immovable body comes in contact with an irresistible force," but these types belong in the psychopathic hospitals.
There is also another form of misapplied imagination; namely, that of the young boy or girl who knows more about life than his or her "Dad." But this form is subject to modification with time. My own boys have taught me many things that my "Dad" tried, in vain, to teach me when I was their age.
Time and imagination (which is often but the product of time) teach us many things, but nothing of more importance than this:
That all men are much alike in many ways.
If you would know what your customer is thinking, Mr. Salesman, study yourself and find out what you would be thinking if you were in your customer's place.
Study yourself, find out what are the motives which actuate you in the performance of certain deeds and cause you to refrain from performing other deeds, and you will have gone far toward perfecting yourself in the accurate use of imagination.
The detective's biggest asset is imagination. The first question he asks, when called in to solve a crime is: "What was the motive?" If he can find out the.................
WE all like commendation and many of us like flattery, but it is a debatable question as to whether the indulgence of these tendencies builds character and strength and individuality.
............motive he can usually find the perpetrator of the crime.
A man who had lost a horse posted a reward of five dollars for its return. Several days later a boy who was supposed to have been "weak-minded" came leading the horse home and claimed the reward. The owner was curious to know how the boy found the horse. "How did you ever think where to look for the horse?" he asked, and the boy replied, "Well, I just thought where I would have gone if I had been a horse and went there, and he had." Not so bad for a "weak-minded" fellow. Some who are not accused of being weak-minded go all the way through life without displaying as much evidence of imagination as did this boy.
If you want to know what the other fellow will do, use your imagination, put yourself in his place and find out what you would have done. That's imagination.
Every person should be somewhat of a dreamer. Every business needs the dreamer. Every industry and every profession needs him. But, the dreamer must be, also, a doer; or else he must form an alliance with someone who can and does translate dreams into reality.
The greatest nation upon the face of this earth was conceived, born and nurtured through the early days of its childhood, as the result of imagination in the minds of men who combined dreams with action!
Your mind is capable of creating many new and useful combinations of old ideas, but the most important thing it can create is a definite chief aim that will give you that which you most desire.
Your definite chief aim can be speedily translated into reality after you have fashioned it in the cradle of your imagination. If you have faithfully followed the instructions set down for your guidance in Lesson Two you are now well on the road toward success, because you know what it is that you want, and you have a plan for getting that which you want.
The battle for the achievement of success is half won when one knows definitely what is wanted. The battle is all over except the "shouting" when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be.
The selection of a definite chief aim calls for the use of both imagination and decision! The power of decision grows with use. Prompt decision in forcing the imagination to create a definite chief aim renders more powerful the capacity to reach decisions in other matters.
Adversities and temporary defeat are generally blessings in disguise, for the reason that they force one to use both imagination and decision. This is why a man usually makes a better fight when his back is to the wall and he knows there is no retreat. He then reaches the decision to fight instead of running.
The imagination is never quite so active as it is when one faces some emergency calling for quick and definite decision and action.
In these moments of emergency men have reached decisions, built plans, used their imagination in such a manner that they became known as geniuses. Many a genius has been born out of the necessity for unusual stimulation of the imagination, as the result of some trying experience which forced quick thought and prompt decision.
It is a well known fact that the only manner in which an overpampered boy or girl may be made to become useful is by forcing him or her to become self-sustaining. This calls for the exercise of both imagination and decision, neither of which would be used except out of necessity.
The Reverend P. W. Welshimer is the pastor of a church in Canton, Ohio, where he has been located for nearly a quarter of a century. Ordinarily pastors do not remain at the head of one church for so great a length of time, and Reverend Welshimer would have been no exception to this rule if he had not mixed imagination with his pastoral duties.
Three years constitute the usual time that one pastor may remain in a given pastorate without wearing out his welcome.
The church of which Reverend Welshimer is the leader has a Sunday School of over 5,000 members -the largest membership enjoyed by any church in the United States.
No pastor could have remained at the head of one church for a quarter of a century, with the full consent of his followers, and have built up a Sunday School of this size, without employing the Laws of Initiative and Leadership, a Definite Chief Aim, Self-confidence and Imagination.
The author of this course made it his business to study the methods employed by Reverend Welshimer, and they are here described for the benefit of the students of this philosophy.
It is a well known fact that church factions, jealousy, etc., often lead to disagreements which make a change in leaders essential. Reverend Welshimer has steered around this common obstacle by a unique application of the Law of Imagination. When a new member comes into his church he immediately assigns a DEFINITE task to that member - one that suits the temperament, training and business qualifications of the individual, as nearly as possible - and, to use the minister's own words, he "keeps each member so busy pulling for the church that there is no time left for kicking or disagreeing with other members."
Not a bad policy for application in the field of business, or in any other field. The old saying that "idle hands are the devil's best tools" is more than a mere play upon words, for it is true.
Give any man something to do that he likes to do, and keep him busy doing it, and he will not be apt to degenerate into a disorganizing force. If any member of the Sunday School misses attendance twice in succession a committee from the church calls to find out the reason for the failure to attend. There is a "committee" job for practically every member of the church. In this way Reverend Welshimer delegates to the members, themselves, the responsibility of rounding up the delinquents and keeping them interested in church affairs. He is an organizer of the highest type. His efforts have attracted the attention of business men throughout the country, and times too numerous to be mentioned he has been offered positions, at fancy salaries, by banks, steel plants, business houses, etc., that recognized in him a real Leader.
In the basement of the church Reverend Welshimer operates a first-class printing plant where he publishes, weekly, a very creditable church paper that goes to all the members. The production and
distribution of this paper is another source of employment which keeps the church members out of mischief, as practically all of them take some sort of an active interest in it. The paper is devoted exclusively to the affairs of the church as a whole, and those of the individual members. It is read by each member, line by line, because there is always a chance that each member's name may be mentioned in the news locals.
The church has a well trained choir and an orchestra that would be a credit to some of the largest theaters. Here Reverend Welshimer serves the double purpose of supplying entertainment and at the same time keeping the more "temperamental" members who are artists employed so they, also, remain out of mischief, incidentally giving them a chance to do that which they like best.
The late Dr. Harper, who was formerly president of the University of Chicago, was one of the most efficient college presidents of his time. He had a penchant for raising funds in large amounts. It was he who induced John D. Rockefeller to contribute millions of dollars to the support of the University of Chicago.
It may be helpful to the student of this philosophy to study Dr. Harper's technique, because he was a Leader of the highest order. Moreover, I have his own word for it that his leadership was never a matter of chance or accident, but always the result of carefully planned procedure.
The following incident will serve to show just how Dr. Harper made use of imagination in raising money in large sums:
He needed an extra million dollars for the....................
WE cannot sow thistles and reap clover. Nature simply does not run things that way. She goes by cause and effect.
.......................construction of a new building. Taking inventory of the wealthy men of Chicago to whom he might turn for this large sum, he decided upon two men, each of whom was a millionaire, and both were bitter enemies.
One of these men was, at that time, the head of the Chicago Street Railway system. Choosing the noon hour, when the office force and this man's secretary, in particular, would be apt to be out at lunch, Dr. Harper nonchalantly strolled into the office, and, finding no one on guard at the outer door, walked into the office of his intended "victim," whom he surprised by his appearance unannounced.
"My name is Harper," said the doctor, "and I am president of the University of Chicago. Pardon my intrusion, but I found no one in the outer office (which was no mere accident) so I took the liberty of walking on in.
"I have thought of you and your street railway system many many times. You have built up a wonderful system, and I understand that you have made lots of money for your efforts. I never think of you, however, without its occurring to me that one of these days you will be passing out into the Great Unknown, and after you are gone there will be nothing left as a monument to your name, because others will take over your money, and money has a way of losing its identity very quickly, as soon as it changes hands.
"I have often thought of offering you the opportunity to perpetuate your name by permitting you to build a new Hall out on the University grounds, and naming it after you. I would have offered you this opportunity long ago had it not been for the fact that one of the members of our Board wishes the honor to go to Mr. X_ (the street car head's enemy). Personally, however, I have always favored you and I still favor you, and if I have your permission to do so I am going to try to swing the opposition over to you.
"I have not come to ask for any decision today, however, as I was just passing and thought it a good time to drop in and meet you. Think the matter over and if you wish to talk to me about it again, telephone me at your leisure.
"Good day, sir! I am happy to have had this opportunity of meeting you."
With this he bowed himself out without giving the head of the street car company a chance to say either yes or no. In fact the street car man had very little chance to do any talking. Dr. Harper did the talking. That was as he planned it to be. He went into the office merely to plant the seed, believing that it would germinate and spring into life in due time.
His belief was not without foundation. He had hardly returned to his office at the University when the telephone rang. The street car man was on the other end of the wire. He asked for an appointment with Dr. Harper, which was granted, and the two met in Dr. Harper's office the next morning, and the check for a million dollars was in Dr. Harper's hands an hour later.
Despite the fact that Dr. Harper was a small, rather insignificant-looking man it was said of him that "he had a way about him that enabled him to get everything he went after."
And as to this "way" that he was reputed to have had - what was it?
It was nothing more nor less than his understanding of the power of Imagination. Suppose he had gone to the office of the street car head and asked for an appointment. Sufficient time would have elapsed between the time he called and the time when he would have actually seen his man, to have enabled the latter to anticipate the reason for his call, and also to formulate a good, logical excuse for saying, "No!"
Suppose, again, he had opened his interview with the street car man something like this:
"The University is badly in need of funds and I have come to you to ask your help. You have made lots of money and you owe something to the community in which you have made it. (Which, perhaps, was true.) If you will give us a million dollars we will place your name on a new Hall that we wish to build."
What might have been the result?
In the first place, there would have been no motive suggested that was sufficiently appealing to sway the mind of the street car man. While it may have been true that he "owed something to the community from which he had made a fortune," he probably would not have admitted that fact. In the second place, he would have enjoyed the position of being on the offensive instead of the defensive side of the proposal.
But Dr. Harper, shrewd in the use of Imagination as he was, provided for just such contingencies by the way he stated his case. First, he placed the street car man on the defensive by informing him that it was not certain that he (Dr. Harper) could get the permission of his Board to accept the money and name the Hall after the street car man. In the second place, he intensified the desire of the street car man to have his name on that building because of the thought that his enemy and competitor might get the honor if it got away from him. Moreover (and this was no accident, either), Dr. Harper had made a powerful appeal to one of the most common of all human weaknesses by showing this street car man how to perpetuate his own name.
All of which required a practical application of the Law of Imagination.
Dr. Harper was a Master Salesman. When he asked men for money he always paved the way for success by planting in the mind of the man of whom he asked it a good sound reason why the money should be given; a reason which emphasized some advantage accruing to the man as the result of the gift. Often this would take on the form of a business advantage. Again it would take on the nature of an appeal to that part of man's nature which prompts him to wish to perpetuate his name so it will live after him. But, always, the request for money was carried out according to a plan that had been carefully thought out, embellished and smoothed down with the use of Imagination. · · · · · · · ·
While the Law of Success philosophy was in the embryonic stage, long before it had been organized into a systematic course of instruction and reduced to textbooks, the author was lecturing on this philosophy in a small town in Illinois.
One of the members of the audience was a young life insurance salesman who had but recently taken up that line of work. After hearing what was said on the subject of Imagination he began to apply what he had heard to his own problem of selling life insurance. Something was said, during the lecture, about the value of allied effort, through which men may enjoy greater success by co-operative effort, through a working arrangement under which each "boosts" the interests of the other.
Taking this suggestion as his cue, the young man in question immediately formulated a plan whereby he gained the co-operation of a group of business men who were in no way connected with the insurance business.
Going to the leading grocer in his town he made arrangements with that grocer to give a thousand dollar insurance policy to every customer purchasing no less than fifty dollars' worth of groceries each month. He then made it a part of his business to inform people of this arrangement and brought in many new customers. The groceryman had a large neatly lettered card placed in his store, informing his customers of this offer of free insurance, thus helping himself by offering all his customers an inducement to do ALL their trading in the grocery line with him.
This young life insurance man then went to the leading gasoline filling station owner in the town and made arrangements with him to insure all customers who purchased all their gasoline, oil and other motor supplies from him.
Next he went to the leading restaurant in the town and made a similar arrangement with the owner. Incidentally, this alliance proved to be quite profitable to the restaurant man, who promptly began...............
CHARLES CHAPLIN makes a million dollars a year out of a funny, shuffling walk and a pair of baggy trousers, because he does "something different." Take the hint and "invidualize" yourself with some distinctive idea.
...............an advertising campaign in which he stated that his food was so pure, wholesome and good that all who ate at his place regularly would be apt to live much longer, therefore he would insure the life of each regular customer for $1,000.00.
The life insurance salesman then made arrangements with a local builder and real estate man to insure the life of each person buying property from him, for an amount sufficient to pay off the balance due on the property in case the purchaser died before payments were completed.
The young man in question is now the General Agent for one of the largest life insurance companies in the United States, with headquarters in one of the largest cities in Ohio, and his income now averages well above $25,000.00 a year.
The turning-point in his life came when he discovered how he might make practical use of the Law of Imagination.
There is no patent on his plan. It may be duplicated over and over again by other life insurance men who know the value of imagination. Just now, if I were engaged in selling life insurance, I think I should make use of this plan by allying myself with a group of automobile distributors in each of several cities, thus enabling them to sell more automobiles and at the same time providing for the sale of a large amount of life insurance, through their efforts. · · · · · · · ·
Financial success is not difficult to achieve after one learns how to make practical use of creative imagination. Someone with sufficient initiative and leadership, and the necessary imagination, will duplicate the fortunes being made each year by the owners of Five and Ten Cent Stores, by developing a system of marketing the same sort of goods now sold in these stores, with the aid of vending machines. This will save a fortune in clerk hire, insure against theft, and cut down the overhead of store operation in many other ways. Such a system can be conducted just as successfully as food can be dispensed with the aid of automatic vending machines.
The seed of the idea has been here sown. It is yours for the taking!
Someone with an inventive turn of the mind is going to make a fortune and at the same time save thousands of lives each year, by perfecting an automatic railroad crossing "control" that will reduce the number of automobile accidents on crossings.
The system, when perfected, will work somewhat after this fashion: A hundred yards or so before reaching the railroad crossing the automobile will cross a platform somewhat on the order of a large scale platform used for weighing heavy objects, and the weight of the automobile will lower a gate and ring a gong. This will force the automobile to slow down. After the lapse of one minute the gate will again rise and the car may continue on its way. Meanwhile, there will have been plenty of time for observation of the track in both directions, to make sure that no trains are approaching.
Imagination, plus some mechanical skill, will give the motorist this much needed safe-guard, and make the man who perfects the system all the money he needs and much more besides.
Some inventor who understands the value of imagination and has a working knowledge of the radio principle, may make a fortune by perfecting a burglar alarm system that will signal police headquarters and at the same time switch on lights and ring a gong in the place about to be burglarized, with the aid of apparatus similar to that now used for broadcasting.
Any farmer with enough imagination to create a plan, plus the use of a list of all automobile licenses issued in his state, may easily work up a clientele of motorists who will come to his farm and purchase all the vegetables he can produce and all the chickens he can raise, thus saving him the expense of hauling his products to the city. By contracting with each motorist for the season the farmer may accurately estimate the amount of produce he should provide. The advantage to the motorist, accruing under the arrangement, is that he will be sure of direct-from-the-farm produce, at less cost than he could purchase it from local dealers.
The roadside gasoline filling station owner can make effective use of imagination by placing a lunch stand near his filling station, and then doing some attractive advertising along the road in each direction, calling attention to his "barbecue," "home-made sandwiches" or whatever else he may wish to specialize on. The lunch stand will cause the motorists to stop, and many of them will purchase gasoline before starting on their way again.
These are simple suggestions, involving no particular amount of complication in connection with their use, yet it is just such uses of imagination that bring financial success.
The Piggly-Wiggly self-help store plan, which made millions of dollars for its originator, was a very simple idea which anyone could have adopted, yet consider able imagination was required to put the idea to work in a practical sort of way.
The more simple and easily adapted to a need an idea is, the greater is its value, as no one is looking for ideas which are involved with great detail or in any manner complicated.
· · · · · · · ·
Imagination is the most important factor entering into the art of selling. The Master Salesman is always one who makes systematic use of imagination. The outstanding merchant relies upon imagination for the ideas which make his business excel.
Imagination may be used effectively in the sale of even the smallest articles of merchandise, such as ties, shirts, hosiery, etc. Let us proceed to examine just how this may be done.
I walked into one of the best known haberdasheries in the city of Philadelphia, for the purpose of put chasing some shirts and ties.
As I approached the tie counter a young man stepped forward and inquired:
"Is there something you want?"
Now if I had been the man behind the counter I would not have asked that question. He ought to have known, by the fact that I had approached the tie counter, that I wanted to look at ties.
I picked up two or three ties from the counter, examined them briefly, then laid down all but one light blue which somewhat appealed to me. Finally I laid this one down, also, and began to look through the remainder of the assortment.
The young man behind the counter then had a happy idea. Picking up a gaudy-looking yellow tie he wound it around his fingers to show how it would look when tied, and asked:
"Isn't this a beauty?"
Now I hate yellow ties, and the salesman made no particular hit with me by suggesting that a gaudy yellow tie is pretty. If I had been in that salesman's place I would have picked up the blue tie for which I had shown a decided preference, and I would have wound it around my fingers so as to bring out its appearance after being tied. I would have known what my customer wanted by watching the kinds of ties that he picked up and examined. Moreover, I would have known the particular tie that he liked best by the time he held it in his hands. A man will not stand by a counter and fondle a piece of merchandise which he does not like. If given the opportunity, any customer will give the alert salesman a clue as to the particular merchandise which should be stressed in an effort to make a sale.
I then moved over to the shirt counter. Here I was met by an elderly gentleman who asked:
"Is there something I can do for you today?"
Well, I thought to myself that if he ever did anything for me it would have to be today, as I might never come back to that particular store again. I told him I wanted to look at shirts, and described the style and color of shirt that I wanted.
The old gentleman made quite a hit with me when he replied by saying:
THE man who is afraid to give credit to those who help him do a piece of creditable work is so small that Opportunity will pass by without seeing him some day.
"I am sorry, sir, but they are not wearing that style this season, so we are not showing it."
I said I knew "they" were not wearing the style for which I had asked, and for that very reason, among others, I was going to wear it providing I could find it in stock.
If there is anything which nettles a man -especially that type of man who knows exactly what he wants and describes it the moment he walks into the store - it is to be told that "they are not wearing it this season."
Such a statement is an insult to a man's intelligence, or to what he thinks is his intelligence, and in most cases it is fatal to a sale. If I were selling goods I might think what I pleased about a customer's taste, but I surely would not be so lacking in tact and diplomacy as to tell the customer that I thought he didn't know his business. Rather I would prefer to manage tactfully to show him what I believed to be more appropriate merchandise than that for which he had called, if what he wanted was not in stock.
One of the most famous and highly paid writers in the world has built his fame and fortune on the sole discovery that it is profitable to write about that which people already know and with which they are already in accord. The same rule might as well apply to the sale of merchandise.
The old gentleman finally pulled down some shirt boxes and began laying out shirts which were not even similar to the shirt for which I had asked. I told him that none of these suited, and as I started to walk out he asked if I would like to look at some nice suspenders.
Imagine it! To begin with I do not wear suspenders, and, furthermore, there was nothing about my manner or bearing to indicate that I might like to look at suspenders.
It is proper for a salesman to try to interest a customer in wares for which he makes no inquiry, but judgment should be used and care taken to offer something which the salesman has reason to believe the customer may want.
I walked out of the store without having bought either shirts or ties, and feeling somewhat resentful because I had been so grossly misjudged as to my tastes for colors and styles.
A little further down the street I went into a small, one-man shop which had shirts and ties on display in the window.
Here I was handled differently!
The man behind the counter asked no unnecessary or stereotyped questions. He took one glance at me as I entered the door, sized me up quite accurately and greeted me with a very pleasant "Good morning, sir!"
He then inquired, "Which shall I show you first, shirts or ties?" I said I would look at the shirts first. He then glanced at the style of shirt I was wearing asked my size, and began laying out shirts of the very type and color for which I was searching, without my saying another word. He laid out six different styles and watched to see which I would pick up first. I looked at each shirt, in turn, and laid them all back on the counter, but the salesman observed that I examined one of the shirts a little more closely than the others, and that I held it a little longer. No sooner had I laid this shirt down than the salesman picked it up and began to explain how it was made. He then went to the tie counter and came back with three very beautiful blue ties, of the very type for which I had been looking, tied each and held it in front of the shirt, calling attention to the perfect harmony between the colors of the ties and the shirt.
Before I had been in the store five minutes I had purchased three shirts and three ties, and was on my way with the package under my arm, feeling that here was a store to which I would return when I needed more shirts and ties.
I learned, afterwards, that the merchant who owns the little shop where I made these purchases pays a monthly rental of $500.00 for the small store, and makes a handsome income from the sale of nothing but shirts, ties and collars. He would have to go out of business, with a fixed charge of $500.00 a month for rent, if it were not for his knowledge of human nature which enables him to make a very high percentage of sales to all who come into his store.
· · · · · · · ·
I have often observed women when they were trying on hats, and have wondered why salespeople did not read the prospective buyer's mind by watching her manner of handling the hats.
A woman goes into a store and asks to be shown some hats. The salesperson starts bringing out hats and the prospective buyer starts trying them on. If a hat suits her, even in the slightest sort of way, she will keep it on a few seconds, or a few minutes, but if she does not like it she will pull it right off her head the moment the salesperson takes her hands off the hat.
Finally, when the customer is shown a hat that she likes she will begin to announce that fact, in terms which no well informed salesperson will fail to understand, by arranging her hair under the hat, or pulling it down on her head to just the angle which she likes best, and by looking at the hat from the rear, with the aid of a hand-mirror. The signs of admiration are unmistakable. Finally, the customer will remove the hat from her head, and begin to look at it closely; then she may lay it aside and permit another hat to be tried on her, in which event the clever salesperson will lay aside the hat just removed, and at the opportune time she will bring it back and ask the customer to try it on again.
By careful observation of the customer's likes and dislikes a clever saleswoman may often sell as many as three or four hats to the same customer, at one sitting, by merely watching what appeals to the customer and then concentrating upon the sale of that.
The same rule applies in the sale of other merchandise. The customer will, if closely observed, clearly indicate what is wanted, and, if the clue is followed, very rarely will a customer walk out without buying.
I believe it a conservative estimate when I say that fully seventy-five per cent of the "walk-outs," as the non-purchasing customers are called, are due to lack of tactful showing of merchandise.
· · · · · · · ·
Last Fall I went into a hat store to purchase a felt hat. It was a busy Saturday afternoon and I was approached by a young "extra" rush-hour salesman who had not yet learned how to size people up at a glance. For no good reason whatsoever the young man pulled down a brown derby and handed it to me, or rather tried to hand it to me. I thought he was trying to be funny, and refused to take the hat into my hands, saying to him, in an attempt to return his compliment and be funny in turn, "Do you tell bed-time stories also?" He looked at me in surprise, but didn't take the cue which I had offered him.
If I had not observed the young man more closely than he had observed me, and sized him up as an earnest but inexperienced "extra," I would have been highly insulted, for if there is anything I hate it is a derby of any sort, much less a brown derby.
One of the regular salesmen happened to see what was going on, walked over and snatched the brown derby out of the young man's hands, and, with a smile on his face intended as a sort of sop to me, said, "What the hell are you trying to show this gentleman, anyway?"
That spoiled my fun, and the salesman who had immediately recognized me as a gentleman sold me the first hat he brought out.
The customer generally feels complimented when a salesman takes the time to study the customer's personality and lay out merchandise suited to that personality.
· · · · · · · ·
I went into one of the largest men's clothing stores in New York City, a few years ago, and asked for a suit, describing exactly what was wanted, but not.......................
HOT HEADS" go with "cold feet." He who loses his temper is usually a bluffer and when "called" is a quitter.
..................mentioning price. The young man, who purported to be a salesman, said he did not believe they carried such a suit, but I happened to see exactly what I wanted hanging on a model, and called his attention to the suit. He then made a hit with me by saying, "Oh, that one over there? That's a high-priced suit!"
His reply amused me; it also angered me, so I inquired of the young man what he saw about me which indicated that I did not come in to purchase a high-priced suit? With embarrassment he tried to explain, but his explanations were as bad as the original offense, and I started toward the door, muttering something to myself about "dumb-bells." Before I reached the door I was met by another salesman who had sensed by the way I walked and the expression on my face that I was none too well pleased.
With tact well worth remembering, this salesman engaged me in conversation while I unburdened my woes and then managed to get me to go back with him and look at the suit. Before I left the store I purchased the suit I came in to look at, and two others which I had not intended purchasing.
That was the difference between a salesman and one who drove customers away. Moreover, I later introduced two of my friends to this same salesman and he made sizable sales to each of them. · · · · · · · ·
I was once walking down Michigan Boulevard, in Chicago, when my eye was attracted to a beautiful gray suit in the window of a men's store. I had no notion of buying the suit, but I was curious to know the price, so I opened the door, and, without entering, merely pushed my head inside and asked the first man I saw how much the suit in the window was.
Then followed one of the cleverest bits of sales maneuvering I have ever observed. The salesman knew he could not sell me the suit unless I came into the store, so he said, "Will you not step inside, sir, while I find out the price of the suit?"
Of course he knew the price, all the time, but that was his way of disarming me of the thought that he intended trying to sell me the suit. Of course I had to be as polite as the salesman, so I said, "Certainly," and walked inside.
The salesman said, "Step right this way, sir, and I will get the information for you."
In less than two minutes I found myself standing in front of a case, with my coat off, getting ready to try on a coat like the one I had observed in the window.
After I was in the coat, which happened to fit almost perfectly (which was no accident, thanks to the accurate eyes of an observing salesman) my attention was called to the nice, smooth touch of the material. I rubbed my hand up and down the arm of the coat, as I had seen the salesman do while describing the material, and, sure enough, it was a very fine piece of material. By this time I had again asked the price, and when I was told that the suit was only fifty dollars I was agreeably surprised, because I had been led to believe that it might have been priced much higher. However, when I first saw the suit in the window my guess was that it was priced at about thirty-five dollars, and I doubt that I would have paid that much for it had I not fallen into the hands of a man who knew how to show the suit to best advantage. If the first coat tried on me had been about two sizes too large, or a size too small, I doubt that any sale would have been made, despite the fact that all ready-to-wear suits sold in the better stores are altered to fit the customer.
I bought that suit "on the impulse of the moment," as the psychologist would say, and I am not the only man who buys goods on that same sort of impulse. A single slip on the part of the salesman would have lost him the sale of that suit. If he had replied, "Fifty dollars," when I asked the price I would have said, "Thank you," and have gone my way without looking at the suit.
Later in the season I purchased two more suits from this same salesman, and if I now lived in Chicago the chances are that I would buy still other suits from him, because he always showed me suits that were in keeping with my personality.
· · · · · · · ·
The Marshall Field store, in Chicago, gets more for merchandise than does any other store of its kind in the country. Moreover, people knowingly pay more at this store, and feel better satisfied than if they bought the merchandise at another store for less money.
Why is this?
Well, there are many reasons, among them the fact that anything purchased at the Field store which is not entirely satisfactory may be returned and exchanged for other merchandise, or the purchase price may be refunded, just as the customer wishes.
An implied guarantee goes with every article sold in the Field store.
Another reason why people will pay more at the Field store is the fact that the merchandise is displayed and shown to better advantage than it is at most other stores. The Field window-displays are truly works of art, no less than if they were created for the sake of art alone, and not merely to sell merchandise. The same is true of the goods displayed in the store. There is harmony and proper grouping of merchandise throughout the Field establishment, and this creates an "atmosphere" that is more - much more - than merely an imaginary one.
Still another reason why the Field store can get more for merchandise than most other merchants is due to the careful selection and supervision of salespeople. One would seldom find a person employed in the Field store whom one would not be willing to accept as a social equal, or as a neighbor. Not a few men have made the acquaintance of girls in the Field store who later became their wives.
Merchandise purchased in the Field store is packed or wrapped more artistically than is common in other stores, which is still another reason why people go out of their way and pay higher prices to trade there.
· · · · · · · ·
While we are on the subject of artistic wrapping of merchandise I wish to relate the experience of a friend of mine which will not fail to convey a very definite meaning to those engaged in the business of selling, as it shows how imagination may be used even in wrapping merchandise.
This friend had a very fine silver cigarette case which he had carried for years, and of which he was very proud because it was a gift from his wife.
Constant usage had banged the case up rather badly. It had been bent, dented, the hinges warped, etc., until he decided to take it to Caldwell the jeweler, in Philadelphia, to be repaired. He left the case and asked them to send it to his office when it was ready.
About two weeks later a splendid-looking new delivery wagon with the Caldwell name on it drew up in front of his office, and a nice-looking young man in a neat uniform stepped out with a package that was artistically wrapped and tied with a ribbon tape string.
The package happened to be delivered to my friend on his birthday, and, having forgotten about leaving the cigarette case to be repaired, and observing the beauty and size of the package that was handed to him, he naturally imagined that someone had sent him a birthday present.
His secretary and other workers in his office gathered around his desk to watch him open up his "present." He cut the ribbon and removed the outer covering. Under this was a covering of tissue paper, fastened with beautiful gold seals bearing the Caldwell initials and trade-mark. This paper was removed and behold! a most beautiful plush-lined box met his eyes. The box was opened, and, after removing the tissue paper packing, there was a cigarette case which he recognized, after careful examination, as the one he had left to be repaired, but it did not look like the same case, thanks to the imagination of the Caldwell manager.
E. M. STATLER
BECAME
THE
MOST
SUCCESSFUL
HOTEL
MAN IN
THE
WORLD
BY RENDERING MORE
SERVICE
and
BETTER
SERVICE
THAN HIS
GUESTS
WERE
ASKED
TO PAY FOR.
Every dent had been carefully straightened out. The hinges had been trued and the case had been polished and cleaned so it shone as it did when it was first purchased.
Simultaneously a prolonged "Oo-o-o-o-o-o-Oh!" of admiration came from the onlookers, including the owner of the cigarette case.
And the bill! Oh, it was a plenty, and yet the price charged for the repair did not seem too high. As a matter of fact everything that entered into the transaction from the packing of the case, with the fine tissue paper cover, the gold seals, the ribbon tape string, the delivery of the package by a neatly uniformed boy, from a well appointed new delivery wagon, was based upon carefully calculated psychology which laid the foundation for a high price for the repair.
People, generally, do not complain of high prices, providing the "service" or embellishment of the merchandise is such as to pave the way for high prices. What people do complain of, and rightly so, is high prices and "sloppy" service.
To me there was a great lesson in this cigarette case incident, and I think there is a lesson in it for any person who makes a business of selling any sort of merchandise.
The goods you are selling may actually be worth all you are asking for them, but if you do not carefully study the subjects of advantageous display and artistic packing you may be accused of overcharging your customers.
· · · · · · · ·
On Broad Street, in the city of Philadelphia, there is a fruit shop where those who patronize the store are met at the door by a man in uniform who opens the door for them. He does nothing else but merely open the door, but he does it with a smile (even though it be a carefully studied and rehearsed smile) which makes the customer feel welcome even before he gets inside of the store. This fruit merchant specializes on specially prepared baskets of fruit. Just outside the store is a big blackboard on which are listed the sailing dates of the various ocean liners leaving New York City. This merchant caters to people who wish baskets of fruit delivered on board departing boats on which friends are sailing. If a man's sweetheart, or perhaps his wife or a very dear friend, happens to be sailing on a certain date he naturally wants the basket of fruit he purchases for her to be embellished with frills and "trimmings." Moreover, he is not necessarily looking for something "cheap" or even inexpensive.
All of which the fruit merchant capitalizes! He gets from $10.00 to $25.00 for a basket of fruit which one could purchase just around the corner, not more than a block away, for from $3.00 to $7.50, with the exception that the latter would not be embellished with the seventy-five cents' worth of frills which the former contains.
This merchant's store is a small affair, no larger than the average small fruit-stand store, but he pays, a rent of at least $15,000.00 a year for the place and makes more money than half a hundred ordinary fruit stands combined, merely because he knows how to display and deliver his wares so they appeal to the vanity of the buyers. This is but another proof of the value of imagination.
The American people - and this means all of them, not merely the so-called rich - are the most extravagant spenders on earth, but they insist on "class" when it comes to appearances such as wrapping and delivery and other embellishments which add no real value to the merchandise they buy. The merchant who understands this, and has learned how to mix IMAGINATION with his merchandise, may reap a rich harvest in return for his knowledge.
And a great many are doing it, too.
The salesman who understands the psychology of proper display, wrapping and delivery of merchandise, and who knows how to show his wares to fit the whims and characteristics of his customers, can make ordinary merchandise bring fancy prices, and what is more important still, he can do so and still retain the patronage of his customers more readily than if he sold the same merchandise without the "studied" appeal and the artistic wrapping and delivery service.
In a "cheap" restaurant, where coffee is served in heavy, thick cups and the silverware is tarnished or dirty, a ham sandwich is only a ham sandwich, and if the restaurant keeper gets fifteen cents for it he is doing well; but just across the street, where the coffee is served in dainty thin cups, on neatly covered tables, by neatly dressed young women, a much smaller ham sandwich will bring a quarter, to say nothing of the cost of the tip to the waitress. The only difference in the sandwiches is merely in appearances; the ham comes from the same butcher and the bread from the same baker, whether purchased from the former or the latter restaurant. The difference in price is very considerable, but the difference in the merchandise is not a difference of either quality or quantity so much as it is of "atmosphere," or appearances.
People love to buy "appearance" or atmosphere! which is merely a more refined way of saying that which P. T. Barnum said about "one being born every minute."
It is no overstatement of fact to say that a master of sales psychology could go into the average merchant's store, where the stock of goods was worth, let us say, $50,000.00, and at very slight additional expense make the stock bring $60,000.00 to $75,000.00. He would do nothing except coach the salespeople on the proper showing of the merchandise, after having purchased a small amount of more suitable fixtures, perhaps, and re-packed the merchandise in more suitable coverings and boxes.
A man's shirt, packed one to the box, in the right sort of a box, with a piece of ribbon and a sheet of, tissue paper added for embellishment, can be made to bring a dollar or a dollar and a half more than the same shirt would bring without the more artistic packing. I know this is true, and I have proved it more times than I can recall, to convince some skeptical merchant who had not studied the effect of "proper displays."
Conversely stated, I have proved, many times, that, the finest shirt made cannot be sold for half its value if it is removed from its box and placed on a bargain counter, with inferior looking shirts, both of which examples prove that people do not know what they are buying - that they go more by appearances than they do by actual analysis of the merchandise they purchase.
This is noticeably true in the purchase of automobiles. The American people want, and DEMAND, style in the appearance of automobiles. What is under the hood or in the rear axle they do not know and really do not care, as long as the car looks the part.
Henry Ford required nearly twenty years of experience to learn the truth of the statement just made, and even then, despite all of his analytical ability, he only acknowledged the truth when forced to do so by his competitors. If it were not true that people buy "appearances" more than they buy "reality" Ford never would have created his new automobile. That car is the finest sort of example of a psychologist who appeals to the tendency which people have to purchase "appearance," although, of course, it must be admitted that in this particular example the real value of the car actually exists.
GREAT ACHIEVEMENT IS USUALLY BORN OF GREAT SACRIFICE, AND IS NEVER THE RESULT OF SELFISHNESS.
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