The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-10-11

man without giving offense. A sto-
~ ! heard some time ago illustrates
this matter OF tact better than any
thing else can tell you. There was
man IN Detroit who was sending his
son to Harvard college, and just be-
fore Christmas he got letter from
this boy. and this is what he read:
Dear father, am broke. Please send
me $50 at once. Your loving son.
John" He could hardly wait until he
got home to show this letter to his
wife, because he had always fought
against college education for the
boy. So he took 1t home and said to
his wife, Sarah, look at this impu-
dent letter I received from John to-
day. Didn't tell you 1t wouldn't pay
to send that boy to college? Didn't
| tell you we were wasting our money ?"
| She saids Hold on a minute father,
don't be so excited: let me read the
letter" And this is what she read:
Dear father. i am broke Please
send me $50 at once. Your loving
son, John" His wife said, why,
father, i don't see anything wrong
with that letter" He said, Neither
do I and I believe will send him the
money" Now / don't tell you this
to make you laugh. There is a ser
ious lesson in that story. We BUSH
ness men should remember that hot
words dictated become cold type when
received, and man can understand
what we say only in so far as he can
read the English language and know
the meaning of the words he reads.
So let's have tact; let's cultivate tact.
Industry Needed.
| Now the next quality we need is in
dustry. The man who coined the
phrase Always on the job" did a
good days work when he did that
Now the next quality we want is
sincerity. This quality not only
makes friends. but holds them. / am
talking to you gentlemen now and 1
am throwing thoughts from my mind
into your minds. and just in proper
ton as you catch those thoughts and
are impressed with their sincerity
will convince you of the truthful
ness Of my statements. Now you can
not see these thoughts, and neither
can T. but they are just as effective
| as tangible things Now / contend
that 1t Is impossible to throw thoughts
of inslncerity at man and have him
catch thoughts of sincerity, just as
| II is impossible for me to throw this
water glass at one of you gentlemen
and have you catch water pitcher.
If you catch anything at ali you will
catch the water glass It is not trans
formed in the throwing One motto /
learned a long while ago that has al
ways remained with me is, that 1t is
your friend who criticizes you and
your enemy who fiatters you. Your
friend tells you where he thinks you
are wrong, because he wants you to
improve, and when a man hatters you
unduly he is your enemy, because he
is giving you false impression of
yourself and causing you to place a
false value upon yourself.
Now the next quality we want is
open mindedness-the willingness to
accept suggestions. No man or set c.
men ever reached a point where he or
they knew 1t all. 1t isn't best now
adays to say that anything is impossi-
BILE, because We may have to take back
those words before we are very many
| years, or even months older than we
are when we make the statement. /
am no more democratic than the rest
of you in the conduct of my business,
/ but l would just as soon be stopped by
janitor as by general manager If
| he wanted to talk TO me. because /
have found that nine times out Of ten
the janitor knows more about the
thing he wants to talk TO me about
| than the general manager does. Open
mindedness is the willingness to grow.
Every man ought to grow with his
business. and particularly every young
man should grow with his business.
But some grow while others swell"
There is a difference between growing
and swelling have found.
Enthusiasm.
Now the next and last quality that
/ would say would be necessary for
successful salesman, or successful
man, II you please, Is the quality of
enthusiasm. A. man might have all
the other qualities ! have mentioned
| and have them in proper proportion,
but without enthusiasm he would be
/ a mere statue. Enthusiasm is the
white heat that fuses all of those 9TH
er qualities into one effective mass.
1 can illustrate this best by the sap
phire and the blue piece of glass. II
YOU will take a piece of plain blue
glass and sapphire, and you polish
the blue glass until it has a surface
as hard as the sapphire. and then put
| these two together on piece OF white
paper, and you look down into the
sapphire and you will see a thousand
little lights dazzling up at you that
you cannot get out of that piece of