The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-12-13


-tentta of the people read their
l-cent mall. I get as much mail as
the average man gets, and do not
throw away mail with l-cent postage
attached, / open 1t. said In that let
ter; We arc openin~. d restaurant here
which Will be completed about the first
of the month, and write to you as u
grocer 10 quote us prices on the fol-
what we shall need" We received over
800 replies. Why? Because ] approach.
ed them as gentleman said, from
the point of contuct." This telling a
man all about your business in the
two opening lines of your copy is like
standing in the doorway Of ~ clothing
store and saying. ~ am In the clothine
business. wont you come in2
SO | say we ought to use small.
words, ana sc ought to so express our
selves for this reason: No sale was
ever made until n man was convinced.
He is not convinced until he under
stands. He cannot understand unless
in the explanation he can understand
whatyou mean, and the average human
being has considerable amount OF
pride. We dislilte to own up to q
thing we don't understand. | have
had men explain things to me, and say
You understand that?"' and would
nod my head 1T would be reflec-
tion upon myself to do otherwise, and
so kept on nodding my head. and when
the explanation was fin shed changed
to d lateral instead of an up and down
motion. That was all.
You cannot sell to anybody unless
he understands what you are talking
about Be sure your explanation is
plain, and partially TO those who are
in a technical business, because half
the people do not know technical
terms.
The man in business is so close to
1t he does not take the other fellows
viewpoint SO we must give 1t from
his standpoint.
1t is hard TO analyze the success
full man, but after all the analysis gets
down really to the personal question,
personality.
Quality of Success.
There are certain qualities have
/ believe we should have in business
to be successful We arc all sales
men; every man is trying to sell his
own good qualities to his fellow-c
liens That is why he puts on clean
collar and a clean shirt and every
thing that goes with It, because he
wants to sell his good qualities.
The first essential Is to be healthy,
to have health. Most of us are paid
for having good livers, but unfor.I-
nothing helps a man SO much as to
take care of himself. Most of us have
injurious habits; we smoke too much,
we eat too much, or we drink too
IHuCN, we are handicapped III LldL way,
know men with good minds, but their
bodies are not healthy, and 1 would
rather take my chances with healthy
mind in a healthy body.
The next quality is honesty. 1 do
not refer to it in the baser sense, be-
cause man is fool nowaways I'M
less he is absolutely honest. There is
an old maxim, Honesty is the best
policy" There is nothing best" about
1t, honesty is the only policy. From
t1u1
leave it to you that in the last analysis
nobody knows whether a man is honest
but himself. You do not know whether
i am honest or not. Our wives think
we are honest, and whether we are
or not, it is a good thing to keep them
thinking that way. but they could not
prove 1t to save their lives. 1t is a
good thing some men are dishonest
/ have seen men with SO much ability
that II they were honest some of w
all the money. | believe, gentlemen.
you are honest men. Most men have
met have two arms, two legs Cunless
lost by accidenD, two eyes two ears,
their height, they weigh about the
same. What is the difference In men?
Power, ability: Some people may have
that developed more than others. but
| say nine tenths. yes, ninety-nine
hundredths could develop ability. Some
remind me very much of the parable of
the talents. We have one talent and
we wrap il up in napkin: we have
that one only and we have never add
ed anything to 1t. 1t is like a man
recommendation says: This man is
thoroughly honest" II he has no other
quality but honesty he does not de-
serve much credit; he was born that
way and he does not deserve much
credit for staying that way. 1t is what
we develop that counts
Speaking of letters OF recommended
ton, ! believe business men generally
make great mistake and are guilty
of gross cowardice in practice which
let man go, they do so on a sub.
terfuge, instead of telling him why.
And then, although he may have been
utterly worthless, or he may have
you write a letter of recommendation
praising him and his work to the skies.
to fool somebody else.
Three Kinds of Men.
| find just three kinds of men in
this world: The kind you tell once
to do a thing, and you can bet your
life 1t is done. The second class you
have to tell four or five or dozen
times to do it, because they do not
think The third class is the great
class of men who have made this coun-
try what 1t is-men with Initiatives:
men who do things, who do things be-
fore you have a chance to tell them
what to do. ] do not say this for any
star pangled banner" effect but
thank God that ] was born and reared
In country where poverty Is no bar
rier to success. but where it can often
be proven to mathematical certainty,
that it is help. Just in proportion
as we teach young men how to do
things, II nothing more than to shine
their own shoes, something that is of
value to themselves as well as to
others. they will make success In
life.
They call it skill in the surgeon; we
would call 1t initiative In the business
man. The surgeon gets you on the
table and operates for appendicitis
and finds you have not got it, as they
sometimes do; he cannot let you lie
on the table, and say, Wait. | will
read up In the books and see what he
has he has to act quickly,
he has to finish the lob
whether is is his finish or your
finish They call that skill--if he
gets through all right. In our case
we would call it initiative. We must
do things quickly, we must have initia-
tive, and that is the greatest quality
a man can possess.
Next to that / think man ought to
have thorough knowledge of his
business. 7 was at a convention in |
Berlin, Germany of 200 statesmen. |
There was a man there who had car
ried off the banner of four successive
years, and as we We're distributing the
nriZcS 7 said to him Mr. Hoffman /