Yawn and Grow Rich Course
By Paul Adams – The Yawn Guy
SECTION 5: SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE
- Text in black (after legend) = original text of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- Text in blue = paragraph numbers and course instructions to you, the student
- DEMO = draw out pictures of real-life situations on paper using stick figures for you, your partner, your boss etc. Demos will help considerably with your understanding. Do not use a lot of words in the demo. Demo the ideas as they apply to your own life. You can also do demos at your discretion to help with any "non-demo" paragraph too. If you are feeling "light-headed" from too much theory, do lots of real-life demos until the light-headedness goes away.
- PRACTICAL = an assignment for you to do now before continuing to read further in the text. Sometimes it will be something for you to do later in the day, or a continuing action, and if so this will be stated.
- Text in green = explanation, not written by Napoleon Hill
- Mark the radio buttons ( | ) honestly as you do each paragraph. Note that these buttons will clear when you close your browser. It is not a good idea to leave lots of "Hmmm"s behind you. (That doesn't mean close your browser often!)
- Look up any word or phrase you don't understand when you first encounter it. This is important—don't guess or slide by without getting it. Use it in sentences of your own until you fully get it. This might take a few or it might take ten or more sentences.
- If you really can't understand a paragraph and it does seems like you understand every word, click on the "Didn't get it" link at the end of that paragraph. Follow the instructions you find there. This is different to a "negative reaction". "Didn't get it" means you have gone foggy or blank and didn't understand the paragraph, either the whole of it or some part of it.
- If you understood the paragraph, but have a negative reaction to the text, first make sure you understand the words the author is using, and the idea he is trying to put across. In other words, make sure your reaction is to what the author is saying, not to what you misunderstand him to be saying. If the reaction persists, click on the "Negative reaction" link and follow the instructions there. An example of a negative reaction would be "Oh! I'll never be able to do that!"
CHAPTER 5: SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OR OBSERVATIONS
The Fourth Step toward Riches
5.1 THERE are two kinds of
knowledge. One is general, the other is specialized. General knowledge,
no matter how great in quantity or variety it may be, is of but little
use in the accumulation of money. The faculties of the great
universities possess, in the aggregate, practically every form of
general knowledge known to civilization. Most of the professors have but little or no money. They specialize on teaching knowledge, but they do not specialize on the organization, or the use of knowledge.
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5.2 KNOWLEDGE will not attract
money, unless it is organized, and intelligently directed, through
practical PLANS OF ACTION, to the DEFINITE END of accumulation of money.
Lack of understanding of this fact has been the source of confusion to
millions of people who falsely believe that "knowledge is power." It is
nothing of the sort! Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action, and directed to a definite end.
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5.3 This "missing link" in all
systems of education known to civilization today, may be found in the
failure of educational institutions to teach their students HOW TO
ORGANIZE AND USE KNOWLEDGE AFTER THEY ACQUIRE IT.
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5.4 Many people make the mistake
of assuming that, because Henry Ford had but little "schooling," he is
not a man of "education." Those who make this mistake do not know Henry
Ford, nor do they understand the real meaning of the word "educate."
That word is derived from the Latin word "educo," meaning to educe, to
draw out, to DEVELOP FROM WITHIN.
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5.5 An educated man is not,
necessarily, one who has an abundance of general or specialized
knowledge. An educated man is one who has so developed the faculties of
his mind that he may acquire anything he wants, or its equivalent,
without violating the rights of others. Henry Ford comes well within the
meaning of this definition.
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5.6 During the world war, a
Chicago newspaper published certain editorials in which, among other
statements, Henry Ford was called "an ignorant pacifist." Mr. Ford
objected to the statements, and brought suit against the paper for
libeling him. When the suit was tried in the Courts, the attorneys for
the paper pleaded justification, and placed Mr. Ford, himself, on the
witness stand, for the purpose of proving to the jury that he was
ignorant. The attorneys asked Mr. Ford a great variety of questions, all
of them intended to prove, by his own evidence, that, while he might
possess considerable specialized knowledge pertaining to the manufacture
of automobiles, he was, in the main, ignorant.
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5.7 Mr. Ford was plied with such questions as the following:
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5.8 "Who was Benedict Arnold?"
and "How many soldiers did the British send over to America to put down
the Rebellion of 1776?" In answer to the last question, Mr. Ford
replied, "I do not know the exact number of soldiers the British sent
over, but I have heard that it was a considerably larger number than
ever went back."
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5.9 Finally, Mr. Ford became
tired of this line of questioning, and in reply to a particularly
offensive question, he leaned over, pointed his finger at the lawyer who
had asked the question, and said, "If I should really WANT to answer
the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions
you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric
push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon
to my aid men who can answer ANY question I desire to ask concerning the
business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you
kindly tell me, WHY I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge,
for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men
around me who can supply any knowledge I require?"
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5.10 There certainly was good logic to that reply.
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5.11 That answer floored the
lawyer. Every person in the courtroom realized it was the answer, not of
an ignorant man, but of a man of EDUCATION. Any man is educated who
knows where to get knowledge when he needs it, and how to organize that
knowledge into definite plans of action. Through the assistance of his
"Master Mind" group, Henry Ford had at his command all the specialized
knowledge he needed to enable him to become one of the wealthiest men in
America. It was not essential that he have this knowledge in his own mind.
Surely no person who has sufficient inclination and intelligence to
read a book of this nature can possibly miss the significance of this
illustration.
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5.12 DEMO: Before you can be
sure of your ability to transmute DESIRE into its monetary equivalent,
you will require SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE of the service, merchandise, or
profession which you intend to offer in return for fortune. Perhaps you
may need much more specialized knowledge than you have the ability or
the inclination to acquire, and if this should be true, you may bridge
your weakness through the aid of your "Master Mind" group.
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5.13 Andrew Carnegie stated that
he, personally, knew nothing about the technical end of the steel
business; moreover, he did not particularly care to know anything about
it. The specialized knowledge which he required for the manufacture and
marketing of steel, he found available through the individual units of
his MASTER MIND GROUP.
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5.14 The accumulation of great
fortunes calls for POWER, and power is acquired through highly organized
and intelligently directed specialized knowledge, but that knowledge
does not, necessarily, have to be in the possession of the man who
accumulates the fortune.
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5.15 The preceding paragraph
should give hope and encouragement to the man with ambition to
accumulate a fortune, who has not possessed himself of the necessary
"education" to supply such specialized knowledge as he may require. Men
sometimes go through life suffering from "inferiority complexes,"
because they are not men of "education." The man who can organize and
direct a "Master Mind" group of men who possess knowledge useful in the
accumulation of money, is just as much a man of education as any man in
the group. REMEMBER THIS, if you suffer from a feeling of inferiority,
because your schooling has been limited.
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5.16 Thomas A. Edison had only
three months of "schooling" during his entire life. He did not lack
education, neither did he die poor.
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5.17 Henry Ford had less than a sixth grade "schooling" but he has managed to do pretty well by himself, financially.
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5.18 SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE is
among the most plentiful, and the cheapest forms of service which may be
had! If you doubt this, consult the payroll of any university.
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IT PAYS TO KNOW HOW TO PURCHASE KNOWLEDGE
5.19 DEMO: First of all, decide
the sort of specialized knowledge you require, and the purpose for which
it is needed. To a large extent your major purpose in life, the goal
toward which you are working, will help determine what knowledge you
need. With this question settled, your next move requires that you have
accurate information concerning dependable sources of knowledge. The
more important of these are:
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5.20 (a) |
One's own experience and education |
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5.21 (b) |
Experience and education available through cooperation of others (Master Mind Alliance) |
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5.22 (c) |
Colleges and Universities |
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5.23 (d) |
Public Libraries (Through books and periodicals in which may be found all the knowledge organized by civilization) |
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5.24 (e) |
Special Training Courses (Through night schools and home study schools in particular.) |
5.25 DEMO: As knowledge is
acquired it must be organized and put into use, for a definite purpose,
through practical plans. Knowledge has no value except that which can be
gained from its application toward some worthy end. This is one reason
why college degrees are not valued more highly. They represent nothing
but miscellaneous knowledge.
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5.26 If you contemplate taking
additional schooling, first determine the purpose for which you want the
knowledge you are seeking, then learn where this particular sort of
knowledge can be obtained, from reliable sources.
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5.27 Successful men, in all
callings, never stop acquiring specialized knowledge related to their
major purpose, business, or profession. Those who are not successful
usually make the mistake of believing that the knowledge acquiring
period ends when one finishes school. The truth is that schooling does
but little more than to put one in the way of learning how to acquire
practical knowledge.
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5.28 With this Changed World
which began at the end of the economic collapse, came also astounding
changes in educational requirements. The order of the day is
SPECIALIZATION! This truth was emphasized by Robert P. Moore, secretary
of appointments of Columbia University.
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"SPECIALISTS MOST SOUGHT
5.29 "Particularly sought after
by employing companies are candidates who have specialized in some
field—business-school graduates with training in accounting and
statistics, engineers of all varieties, journalists, architects,
chemists, and also outstanding leaders and activity men of the senior
class.
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5.30 "The man who has been
active on the campus, whose personality is such that he gets along with
all kinds of people and who has done an adequate job with his studies
has a most decided edge over the strictly academic student. Some of
these, because of their all-around qualifications, have received several
offers of positions, a few of them as many as six.
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5.31 "In departing from the
conception that the 'straight A' student was invariably the one to get
the choice of the better jobs, Mr. Moore said that most companies look
not only to academic records but to activity records and personalities
of the students.
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5.32 "One of the largest
industrial companies, the leader in its field, in writing to Mr. Moore
concerning prospective seniors at the college, said:
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5.33 "'We are interested
primarily in finding men who can make exceptional progress in management
work. For this reason we emphasize qualities of character, intelligence
and personality far more than specific educational background.'
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"'APPRENTICESHIP' PROPOSED
5.34 "Proposing a system of
'apprenticing' students in offices, stores and industrial occupations
during the summer vacation, Mr. Moore asserts that after the first two
or three years of college, every student should be asked 'to choose a
definite future course and to call a halt if he has been merely
pleasantly drifting without purpose through an unspecialized academic
curriculum.'
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5.35 "Colleges and universities
must face the practical consideration that all professions and
occupations now demand specialists," he said, urging that educational
institutions accept more direct responsibility for vocational guidance.
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5.36 One of the most reliable
and practical sources of knowledge available to those who need
specialized schooling, is the night schools operated in most large
cities. The correspondence schools give specialized training anywhere
the U. S. mails go, on all subjects that can be taught by the extension
method. One advantage of home study training is the flexibility of the
study programme which permits one to study during spare time. Another
stupendous advantage of home study training (if the school is carefully
chosen), is the fact that most courses offered by home study schools
carry with them generous privileges of consultation which can be of
priceless value to those needing specialized knowledge. No matter where
you live, you can share the benefits.
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5.37 Anything acquired without
effort, and without cost is generally unappreciated, often discredited;
perhaps this is why we get so little from our marvelous opportunity in
public schools. The SELF-DISCIPLINE one receives from a definite
programme of specialized study makes up to some extent, for the wasted
opportunity when knowledge was available without cost. Correspondence
schools are highly organized business institutions. Their tuition fees
are so low that they are forced to insist upon prompt payments. Being
asked to pay, whether the student makes good grades or poor, has the
effect of causing one to follow through with the course when he would
otherwise drop it. The correspondence schools have not stressed this
point sufficiently, for the truth is that their collection departments
constitute the very finest sort of training on DECISION, PROMPTNESS,
ACTION and THE HABIT OF FINISHING THAT WHICH ONE BEGINS.
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5.38 I learned this from
experience, more than twenty-five years ago. I enrolled for a home study
course in Advertising. After completing eight or ten lessons I stopped
studying, but the school did not stop sending me bills. Moreover, it
insisted upon payment, whether I kept up my studies or not. I decided
that if I had to pay for the course (which I had legally obligated
myself to do), I should complete the lessons and get my money's worth. I
felt, at the time, that the collection system of the school was
somewhat too well organized, but I learned later in life that it was a
valuable part of my training for which no charge had been made. Being
forced to pay, I went ahead and completed the course. Later in life I
discovered that the efficient collection system of that school had been
worth much in the form of money earned, because of the training in
advertising I had so reluctantly taken.
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5.39 We have in this country
what is said to be the greatest public school system in the world. We
have invested fabulous sums for fine buildings, we have provided
convenient transportation for children living in the rural districts, so
they may attend the >best schools, but there is one astounding
weakness to this marvelous system—IT IS FREE! One of the strange things
about human beings is that they value only that which has a price. The
free schools of America, and the free public libraries, do not impress
people because they are free. This is the major reason why so
many people find it necessary to acquire additional training after they
quit school and go to work. It is also one of the major reasons why
EMPLOYERS GIVE GREATER CONSIDERATION TO EMPLOYEES WHO TAKE HOME STUDY
COURSES. They have learned, from experience, that any person who has the
ambition to give up a part of his spare time to studying at home has in
him those qualities which make for leadership. This recognition is not a
charitable gesture, it is sound business judgment upon the part of the
employers.
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5.40 There is one weakness in
people for which there is no remedy. It is the universal weakness of
LACK OF AMBITION! Persons, especially salaried people, who schedule
their spare time, to provide for home study, seldom remain at the bottom
very long. Their action opens the way for the upward climb, removes
many obstacles from their path, and gains the friendly interest of those
who have the power to put them in the way of OPPORTUNITY.
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5.41 The home study method of
training is especially suited to the needs of employed people who find,
after leaving school, that they must acquire additional specialized
knowledge, but cannot spare the time to go back to school.
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5.42 The changed economic
conditions prevailing since the depression have made it necessary for
thousands of people to find additional, or new sources of income. For
the majority of these, the solution to their problem may be found only
by acquiring specialized knowledge. Many will be forced to change their
occupations entirely. When a merchant finds that a certain line of
merchandise is not selling, he usually supplants it with another that is
in demand. The person whose business is that of marketing personal
services must also be an efficient merchant. If his services do not
bring adequate returns in one occupation, he must change to another,
where broader opportunities are available.
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5.43 Stuart Austin Wier prepared
himself as a Construction Engineer and followed this line of work until
the depression limited his market to where it did not give him the
income he required. He took inventory of himself, decided to change his
profession to law, went back to school and took special courses by which
he prepared himself as a corporation lawyer. Despite the fact the
depression had not ended, he completed his training, passed the Bar
Examination, and quickly built a lucrative law practice, in Dallas,
Texas; in fact he is turning away clients.
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5.44 Just to keep the record
straight, and to anticipate the alibis of those who will say, "I
couldn't go to school because I have a family to support," or "I'm too
old," I will add the information that Mr. Wier was past forty, and
married when he went back to school. Moreover, by carefully selecting
highly specialized courses, in colleges best prepared to teach the
subjects chosen, Mr. Wier completed in two years the work for which the
majority of law students require four years. IT PAYS TO KNOW HOW TO
PURCHASE KNOWLEDGE!
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5.45 DEMO: The person who stops
studying merely because he has finished school is forever hopelessly
doomed to mediocrity, no matter what may be his calling. The way of
success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge.
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5.46 Let us consider a specific instance.
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5.47 During the depression a
salesman in a grocery store found himself without a position. Having had
some bookkeeping experience, he took a special course in accounting,
familiarized himself with all the latest bookkeeping and office
equipment, and went into business for himself. Starting with the grocer
for whom he had formerly worked, he made contracts with more than 100
small merchants to keep their books, at a very nominal monthly fee. His
idea was so practical that he soon found it necessary to set up a
portable office in a light delivery truck, which he equipped with modern
bookkeeping machinery. He now has a fleet of these bookkeeping offices
"on wheels" and employs a large staff of assistants, thus providing
small merchants with accounting service equal to the best that money can
buy, at very nominal cost.
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5.48 Specialized knowledge, plus
imagination, were the ingredients that went into this unique and
successful business. Last year the owner of that business paid an income
tax of almost ten times as much as was paid by the merchant for whom he
worked when the depression forced upon him a temporary adversity which
proved to be a blessing in disguise.
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5.49 The beginning of this successful business was an IDEA!
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5.50 Inasmuch as I had the
privilege of supplying the unemployed salesman with that idea, I now
assume the further privilege of suggesting another idea which has within
it the possibility of even greater income. Also the possibility of
rendering useful service to thousands of people who badly need that
service.
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5.51 The idea was suggested by
the salesman who gave up selling and went into the business of keeping
books on a wholesale basis. When the plan was suggested as a solution of
his unemployment problem, he quickly exclaimed, "I like the idea, but I
would not know how to turn it into cash." In other words, he complained
he would not know how to market his bookkeeping knowledge after he acquired it.
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5.52 So, that brought up another
problem which had to be solved. With the aid of a young woman typist,
clever at hand lettering, and who could put the story together, a very
attractive book was prepared, describing the advantages of the new
system of bookkeeping. The pages were neatly typed and pasted in an
ordinary scrapbook, which was used as a silent salesman with which the
story of this new business was so effectively told that its owner soon
had more accounts than he could handle.
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5.53 There are thousands of
people, all over the country, who need the services of a merchandising
specialist capable of preparing an attractive brief for use in marketing
personal services. The aggregate annual income from such a service
might easily exceed that received by the largest employment agency, and
the benefits of the service might be made far greater to the purchaser
than any to be obtained from an employment agency.
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5.54 The IDEA here described was
born of necessity, to bridge an emergency which had to be covered, but
it did not stop by merely serving one person. The woman who created the
idea has a keen IMAGINATION. She saw in her newly born brain-child the
making of a new profession, one that is destined to render valuable
service to thousands of people who need practical guidance in marketing
personal services.
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5.55 Spurred to action by the
instantaneous success of her first "PREPARED PLAN TO MARKET PERSONAL
SERVICES," this energetic woman turned next to the solution of a similar
problem for her son who had just finished college, but had been totally
unable to find a market for his services. The plan she originated for
his use was the finest specimen of merchandising of personal services I
have ever seen.
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5.56 When the plan book had been
completed, it contained nearly fifty pages of beautifully typed,
properly organized information, telling the story of her son's native
ability, schooling, personal experiences, and a great variety of other
information too extensive for description. The plan book also contained a
complete description of the position her son desired, together with a
marvelous word picture of the exact plan he would use in filling the
position.
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5.57 The preparation of the plan
book required several week's labor, during which time its creator sent
her son to the public library almost daily, to procure data needed in
selling his services to best advantage. She sent him, also to all the
competitors of his prospective employer, and gathered from them vital
information concerning their business methods which was of great value
in the formation of the plan he intended to use in filling the position
he sought. When the plan had been finished, it contained more than half a
dozen very fine suggestions for the use and benefit of the prospective
employer. (The suggestions were put into use by the company).
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5.58 One may be inclined to ask,
"Why go to all this trouble to secure a job?" The answer is straight to
the point, also it is dramatic, because it deals with a subject which
assumes the proportion of a tragedy with millions of men and women whose
sole source of income is personal services.
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5.59 The answer is, "DOING A
THING WELL NEVER IS TROUBLE! THE PLAN PREPARED BY THIS WOMAN FOR THE
BENEFIT OF HER SON, HELPED HIM GET THE JOB FOR WHICH HE APPLIED, AT THE
FIRST INTERVIEW, AT A SALARY FIXED BY HIMSELF."
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5.60 Moreover—and this, too, is
important—THE POSITION DID NOT REQUIRE THE YOUNG MAN TO START AT THE
BOTTOM. HE BEGAN AS A JUNIOR EXECUTIVE, AT AN EXECUTIVE'S SALARY.
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5.61 "Why go to all this trouble?" do you ask?
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5.62 Well, for one thing, the
PLANNED PRESENTATION of this young man's application for a position
clipped off no less than ten years of time he would have required to get
to where he began, had he "started at the bottom and worked his way
up."
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5.63 This idea of starting at
the bottom and working one's way up may appear to be sound, but the
major objection to it is this—too many of those who begin at the bottom
never manage to lift their heads high enough to be seen by OPPORTUNITY,
so they remain at the bottom. It should be remembered, also, that the
outlook from the bottom is not so very bright or encouraging. It has a
tendency to kill off ambition. We call it "getting into a rut," which
means that we accept our fate because we form the HABIT of daily
routine, a habit that finally becomes so strong we cease to try to throw
it off. And that is another reason why it pays to start one or two
steps above the bottom. By so doing one forms the HABIT of looking
around, of observing how others get ahead, of seeing OPPORTUNITY, and of
embracing it without hesitation.
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5.64 Dan Halpin is a splendid
example of what I mean. During his college days, he was manager of the
famous 1930 National Championship Notre Dame football team, when it was
under the direction of the late Knute Rockne.
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5.65 DEMO: "NOT MISTAKE …FOR FAILURE" Perhaps
he was inspired by the great football coach to aim high, and NOT
MISTAKE TEMPORARY DEFEAT FOR FAILURE, just as Andrew Carnegie, the great
industrial leader, inspired his young business lieutenants to set high
goals for themselves. At any rate, young Halpin finished college at a
mighty unfavorable time, when the depression had made jobs scarce, so,
after a fling at investment banking and motion pictures, he took the
first opening with a potential future he could find—selling electrical
hearing aids on a commission basis. ANYONE COULD START IN THAT SORT OF
JOB, AND HALPIN KNEW IT, but it was enough to open the door of
opportunity to him.
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5.66 DEMO: "[Placing oneself] high enough …SEE HIM." For
almost two years, he continued in a job not to his liking, and he would
never have risen above that job if he had not done something about his
dissatisfaction. He aimed, first, at the job of Assistant Sales Manager
of his company, and got the job. That one step upward placed him high
enough above the crowd to enable him to see still greater opportunity,
also, it placed him where OPPORTUNITY COULD SEE HIM.
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5.67 He made such a fine record
selling hearing aids, that A. M. Andrews, Chairman of the Board of the
Dictograph Products Company, a business competitor of the company for
which Halpin worked, wanted to know something about that man Dan Halpin
who was taking big sales away from the long established Dictograph
Company. He sent for Halpin. When the interview was over, Halpin was the
new Sales Manager, in charge of the Acousticon Division. Then, to test
young Halpin's metal, Mr. Andrews went away to Florida for three months,
leaving him to sink or swim in his new job. He did not sink! Knute
Rockne's spirit of "All the world loves a winner, and has no time for a
loser," inspired him to put so much into his job that he was recently
elected Vice-President of the company, and General Manager of the
Acousticon and Silent Radio Division, a job which most men would be
proud to earn through ten years of loyal effort. Halpin turned the trick
in little more than six months.
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5.68 DEMO: "[W]e rise to …CONTROL THEM." It
is difficult to say whether Mr. Andrews or Mr. Halpin is more deserving
of eulogy, for the reason that both showed evidence of having an
abundance of that very rare quality known as IMAGINATION. Mr. Andrews
deserves credit for seeing, in young Halpin, a "go-getter" of the
highest order. Halpin deserves credit for REFUSING TO COMPROMISE WITH
LIFE BY ACCEPTING AND KEEPING A JOB HE DID NOT WANT, and that is one of
the major points I am trying to emphasize through this entire
philosophy—that we rise to high positions or remain at the bottom
BECAUSE OF CONDITIONS WE CAN CONTROL IF WE DESIRE TO CONTROL THEM.
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5.69 DEMO: "[B]oth success …HABIT!" I
am also trying to emphasize another point, namely, that both success
and failure are largely the results of HABIT! I have not the slightest
doubt that Dan Halpin's close association with the greatest football
coach America ever knew, planted in his mind the same brand of DESIRE to
excel which made the Notre Dame football team world famous. Truly,
there is something to the idea that hero-worship is helpful, provided
one worships a WINNER. Halpin tells me that Rockne was one of the
world's greatest leaders of men in all history.
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5.70 DEMO: "CLOSE ASSOCIATION …MONEY." My
belief in the theory that business associations are vital factors, both
in failure and in success, was recently demonstrated, when my son Blair
was negotiating with Dan Halpin for a position. Mr. Halpin offered him a
beginning salary of about one half what he could have gotten from a
rival company. I brought parental pressure to bear, and induced him to
accept the place with Mr. Halpin, because I BELIEVE THAT CLOSE
ASSOCIATION WITH ONE WHO REFUSES TO COMPROMISE WITH CIRCUMSTANCES HE
DOES NOT LIKE, IS AN ASSET THAT CAN NEVER BE MEASURED IN TERMS OF MONEY.
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5.71 The bottom is a monotonous,
dreary, unprofitable place for any person. That is why I have taken the
time to describe how lowly beginnings may be circumvented by proper
planning. Also, that is why so much space has been devoted to a
description of this new profession, created by a woman who was inspired
to do a fine job of PLANNING because she wanted her son to have a
favorable "break."
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5.72 With the changed conditions
ushered in by the world economic collapse, came also the need for newer
and better ways of marketing PERSONAL SERVICES. It is hard to determine
why someone had not previously discovered this stupendous need, in view
of the fact that more money changes hands in return for personal
services than for any other purpose. The sum paid out monthly, to people
who work for wages and salaries, is so huge that it runs into hundreds
of millions, and the annual distribution amounts to billions.
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5.73 Perhaps some will find, in
the IDEA here briefly described, the nucleus of the riches they DESIRE!
Ideas with much less merit have been the seedlings from which great
fortunes have grown. Woolworth's Five and Ten Cent Store idea, for
example, had far less merit, but it piled up a fortune for its creator.
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5.74 Those seeing OPPORTUNITY
lurking in this suggestion will find valuable aid in the chapter on
Organized Planning. Incidentally, an efficient merchandiser of personal
services would find a growing demand for his services wherever there are
men and women who seek better markets for their services. By applying
the Master Mind principle, a few people with suitable talent, could form
an alliance, and have a paying business very quickly. One would need to
be a fair writer, with a flair for advertising and selling, one handy
at typing and hand lettering, and one should be a first class business
getter who would let the world know about the service. If one person
possessed all these abilities, he might carry on the business alone,
until it outgrew him.
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5.75 The woman who prepared the
"Personal Service Sales Plan" for her son now receives requests from all
parts of the country for her cooperation in preparing similar plans for
others who desire to market their personal services for more money. She
has a staff of expert typists, artists, and writers who have the
ability to dramatize the case history so effectively that one's personal
services can be marketed for much more money than the prevailing wages
for similar services. She is so confident of her ability that she
accepts, as the major portion of her fee, a percentage of the increased pay she helps her clients to earn.
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5.76 It must not be supposed
that her plan merely consists of clever salesmanship by which she helps
men and women to demand and receive more money for the same services
they formerly sold for less pay. She looks after the interests of the
purchaser as well as the seller of personal services, and so prepares
her plans that the employer receives full value for the additional money
he pays. The method by which she accomplishes this astonishing result
is a professional secret which she discloses to no one excepting her own
clients.
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5.77 If you have the
IMAGINATION, and seek a more profitable outlet for your personal
services, this suggestion may be the stimulus for which you have been
searching. The IDEA is capable of yielding an income far greater than
that of the "average" doctor, lawyer, or engineer whose education
required several years in college. The idea is saleable to those seeking
new positions, in practically all positions calling for managerial or
executive ability, and those desiring re-arrangement of incomes in their
present positions.
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5.78 There is no fixed price for sound IDEAS!
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5.79 Back of all IDEAS is
specialized knowledge. Unfortunately, for those who do not find riches
in abundance, specialized knowledge is more abundant and more easily
acquired than IDEAS. Because of this very truth, there is a universal
demand and an ever-increasing opportunity for the person capable of
helping men and women to sell their personal services advantageously.
Capability means IMAGINATION, the one quality needed to combine
specialized knowledge with IDEAS, in the form of ORGANIZED PLANS
designed to yield riches.
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5.80 If you have IMAGINATION
this chapter may present you with an idea sufficient to serve as the
beginning of the riches you desire. Remember, the IDEA is the main
thing. Specialized knowledge may be found just around the corner—any
corner!
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5.FDS PRACTICAL: Skim over the chapter again to refamiliarize yourself with the main ideas, then check over the False Data Stripping questions with regard to it, using the PaulsRobot3 FDSing module. Remember the idea is to FIND and deal with False Data, not to confirm that of course you don't have any. :). Once you have found and dealt with any false data, study this chapter once more before going on to the next one. You can decide which demos and practicals you should do again.
5.LEC FINAL PRACTICAL: Deliver a 3-5 minute
lecture (by the clock) on the main points of this chapter, without using
any notes at all. You don't have to use people for an audience; use
the dog or the wall if you prefer. If you don't know the subject well
enough to do this, do the entire section again, paragraphs 5.1 to 5.FDS,
including all demos. This is a test of your understanding, not your
ability to remember a collection of words or phrases. Working out how
to explain the main points to someone else—IN SPOKEN WORDS, ALOUD—is
usually a very valuable aid to your own understanding.
CONGRATULATIONS! END OF SECTION 5