The Washington herald., 1917-03-12
Your Testing Time
BY oRIsoN SWEET MARDEN,

At a recent meeting of the New
York Salesmanship Club, we'll
known banker said some things in
regard to craftsmanship that young
Americans, no matter what their
business. would do well to think
over and assimilate.
an America in these days." he
said, eve need especial training in
craftsmanship because the war has
thrown open the world as market,
and-a most wonderful thing-the
world practically without competi-
ton. But are We bound to have the
ebb tido in this country some time,
and it is the ebb tide that will try
mems capacity. That time will bring
the test of salesmanship. 1t is easy
to sell goods when the tide of wealth
and comfort is full; when men are
making money and are able and will
ing to spend freely and buy heed
lessly. The best man in your business
is the man who can keep up sales when
profits are Topped off and the public
has become wary and critical and un-
certain-when times are becoming
hard. That is the testing time for
the expert"
The speaker did not predict hard
times" but that. just as prices have
risen to dizzy height. when the
war is over they are bound to come
down to normal again.
I'm any event." he said. "the period
Of ebb tide, whether long or short,
and whether its effects will be serious
or only temporary, will call for the
best that is in the business brains
and the business forces of the United
States"
The best investment you will ever
make is that which you make in
yourself. that which will enable you
to bring to your business and to
your life every bit of ability the
Creator implanted in you. Every bit
of broadening out of your mind, of
enlarging your vision, especially
along the line of your life work. are
seeds which will yield you an abun-
dant harvest.
Constant self-improvemcnt is the
key which will open the locked-up
forces within you.
In every department of human en-
deavor we find men and women
tripping, halting, hesitating, unable
to take the next step because of
ignorance or lack of training, be-
cause they did not got quite far
enough in the schools and did not
know how to, or would not study by
themselves. These very people are
the first to complain OF their hard
luck, the cruel fate which has fixed
their destiny at mediocrity when
others OF less ability have climbed
to the heights where excellence
dwells.
Thousands of girls and young
men are working for a small salary
and cannot understand why they do
not get on faster! They are dissatis-
fed and disappointed because with
the New Year they were not ad-
vsnced to better positions. They are
blind to the fact that they are held
back by their ignorance. If you ask
them the simplest question about the
most ordinary thing they will answer
81 don't know"
One of the most trying things an
employer has to contend with is the
ignorance of people working for him,
clerks and bookkeepers who are ig-
norant and poorly trained, stenogra-
pliers who are not well informed.
who know nothing about history or
politics, whose experience and knowl-
edge are so narrow that they are
constantly stumbling over words and
expressions of the simplest meaning,
employees who continually make mis-
takes in grammar, and who do their
work automatically. without intelli-
gence or much thought as to whether
it is properly done or not
The testing time for those ineffi-
cient employees comes when business
is slack, when the business world, so
proverbially timid. is facing a crisis,
or change of any sort. When re-
trenchment begins, when the clerical
staff is being reduced, they are the
first to go.
The only way one can make the
most of his life is to equip himself
mentally and physically for a great
career, to organize himself, to organ
ize his brain, back up his mental as
sets just as he would back up his
business capital.
One who would get only 25 per
cent efficiency out of his money
capital in business would soon 60
to the wall, but multitudes of men
L. - -