The Washington herald., 1917-02-16
The Man Who Moves Up
By ORIsON SWEET MARDEN,

hem Steel Works whom l expect to
move up says. Charles M. Schwab.
"This is the reason: Last winter
there was an agitation at Washing
ton which, if successful, would have
smashed American shipping and
wounded American business. We
wanted to lay the matter before the
President. in its real significance.
While we were pondering over ways
and means to accomplish this we got
a message from the young man l
have mentioned, saying he had seen
the President, that the President un-
derstood the situation and had come
to agree with us. ~. ..-
81 wired for this young man to
come on to Bethlehem. | wanted to
see him. He had initiative; he had
been thinking; he had arranged an
interview with the President un-
prompted. In short, he was just the
type of man that gladdens the heart
of every employer"
The man with initiative is always
headed for the top. The power to
think and act independently is the
great lever that lifts the man who
has it head and shoulders above the
average.
No matter what you learn in school
or college, remember that it is the
ability to think for yourself and to
do things that counts. 1t is not the
great scholar who deals with the
ories only, but the practical man who
deals with conditions, who knows
what to do and does it, who can
bring about results, that is in de-
mand everywhere.
Thousands of college graduates,
who have won their diplomas legiti-
mately and honorably, fail hopelessly
when they attempt to grapple with
the practical side of life. They have
no qualities of leadership, no inde-
pendence of thought, and no self-re-
lance. They are stuffed with facts and
theories, but their executive faculties,
their powers Of combination and as
similation, the qualities which grasp
and hold and manipulate, all lie dor
mant within them. They were not
trained to depend upon their own
judgment. Their common sense has
never been put to the test. They do
not know how to be independent, ag-
gressive, or how to marshal their
facts and theories and reduce them to
working proportions.
1t is hard work to think indepen-
IDENTIFY. Very few people really do it.
1t is too much trouble They prefer
to let others think for them. They
follow others; are trailers, imitators.
1t is only now and then we run across
one who does his own thinking, a
man who doesn't follow the opinion
of others, but blazes his own way.
Magazines and newspapers have
often gone to the wall, even though
large amount of capital had been
invested in the effort to establish
them, simply because there was no
strong, original individuality, no
growing, commanding personality
behind them. Those who supplied
the money, thought that it would
make the publications, that it was an
easy matter to hire all the work done.
But all the money in the world could
never bring publication or busi-
ness to success without the driving
power OF a strong individuality.
Whatever else business man who
has made his mark may lack, or
whatever he may be deficient in, he
is always a man who thinks and acts
for himself He is a man with in
itiative.
1t is such men we need today. This
is the age of efficiency, the age of
the man who knows how. Everybody
is looking for the man who can do
things, who can make plan and put
it through. 1t is the achiever, not the
scholar, not the theorist, who is in
demand.
If you can start yourself to work
advantageously, and are not depen-
dent upon instructions, in other
words, if you are self-starter, you
will always be in demand.
1t is not a question Of the amount
of work man can do with his hands.
An automatic machine can turn out
more work in a given time than a
large number of men. The thing that
counts is initiative, intelligence, orig
inality, thinking and planning how to
improve on old methods. Every en-
ployer is always looking for new and
better ways of doing things.
If you want . succeed, young man,
cultivate initiative. Learn to think
and act indeDendently