The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1914-04-09
Fred Murphey Applies Hunch
For General Application

Tobacco Leaf, and not only that, but
have The Tobacco Leaf going to
every one of my stores. For l know
that If trade paper is good for me
it is good for my managers.
| Il observed that Whenever a sue
cessful cigarist saw chance to get
a good location, he grabbed it. l did
the same,
] Whom l opened my second store
in Pocatello people laughed at me.
They thought it was a joke for a
man to enter into competition with
himself. You could stand in the door
OF one store and throw stone into
the other; but they are both paying
propositions, and the smile has dis
appeared.
| When began to add to my little
chain my friends out thsre said that
was making a mistake because
could not get assistants to take the
same interest that l, myself, had
taken in the first establishment.
believed that could. and l did. l
made it my business to develop the
personal interest Of every man l en-
ployed. figured that it was only
necessary to impress upon a man that
If the employer prospers he prosp,rs
l saw that it was necessary to give
him sense Of direction And that's
true
Yesterday I was out walking un-
der the escort of one of your New
York manufacturers; He took me
along Broadway a few blocks and
then turned, and then few blocks
more, and turned again l put my
hand on his arm and stopped tho
parade.
(Which way are we pointed
now?' inquired.
"What difference docs it make
to your he asked, laughing. You
don't know anything about the town
anyway
"That's all right said I, but
walking never interests me unless l
know exactly where am, which way
am pointed and where the trip is
going to end
And that's the way it is with
a cigar clerk or the manager of q
store.
IF you simply stick him behind
the counter and tell him to give the
people what they call for and take
the amount of change indicated on
the price card, you can't expect him
to show any enthusiasm. Il
If you do that you are treating
him as though he were a machine
and the result is that he feels like q
machine-and he is machine.
'You must show him a goal, you
must give him destinations; for 1t
is the glimpse of something definite
ahead that creates interest and in
spires ambition.
Il give my clerks and my man.
ayers an objective point; and l get
results.
"Some Of my riends out in Idaho
said:
whats tho use, Murphy? Some
day one OF the big concerns will reach
out into Idaho and wipe you off the
map
"L-t them come told them;
and when they get here I'll have
something to SELL
"That was a joke, of course, but
it only goes to show how many peo-
pie are always taking hold of the
wrong end of the problem.
They look at the world through
smoked goggles.
Everything that looms up big is
a bogey-man.
They invite trouble by talking
about. it and arc beaten before tho
fight begins.
Adt . uO my way VI uSiuS
things.
Il believe that there is good bust
ness anywhere in the United States
for any man who goes aftr it right
"Of course, l haven't set the world
Oh fire, and l don't expect to. You
may be thinking right now
that l am pik-r compared with
some of the real big institutions in
the cigar game.
But the real big men in the cigar
business don't think so. For if they
are really big they know that a piker
is man who docs little thinking
and grows less. They know that a
man is not piker who thinks deep
ly, secs with a constantly broadening
vision, reads widely, observes keenly.
feels optimistic and continually tries
to improve his condition.