The mirror., 1922-04-20

imagine the race is run the moment the
cheers are heard.
Now, in the illustrative case of the rail-
road which we are using, it is very easy
to see how praise and the sense of success
works upon the minds and energies of
men.
If the manager has kept his head at all,
he knows that though much has been done
in lifting the old system out of its rut, il
is not to be compared with what is yet to
be done. And just there is one of the diff
ferences that mark men: you find one type
of men standing still, complacently enjoy
ing the little good work they have already
done, smiling over it, receiving congratu-
lations upon it, simply sucking it dry of all
that can minister to their sense of pride
and personal satisfaction.
If the manager is of that type, he has
reached the end of his achievement he is
through, so far as making progress is con-
cerned. The man who thinks he has
done something, hasn't many more things
to do
But there is the other type of manager
who is so busy with the things yet to be
done that he cannot stop to enthuse over
what has already been done. His is
long-range program. What he has done
ha r1c
mighty good beginning, but only be-
ginning after all. His eye is far ahead
on plans yet to be realized, new ideas yet
to be introduced. He spends no time con-
graduating himself. Of course, he misses
lot of the soft enjoyment of the other
type; he misses lot of that enervation
which comes from basking in praise and
adulation he seems rather callous to pub
lie opinion-but all that is because he has
not yet done the thing for which he will
perhaps deserve praise.
Now, this man sees defects that the
satisfied crowd of men don't see. He sends
for his railroaders, and points out what is
wrong. He brings them to book on this
dereliction of duty or that failure of alert
ness. He talks to them in tone which
reveals none of the self-satisfaction which
they supposed was the constant atmosphere
of the inside ofice-satisfaction with all
the praise and buzzing which was going
around.
"Why, boss," they seem to say, "what
difference does little thing like that
make? See how well we are doing. Why
here is newspaper clipping which says
." and they go down into their
rocketbooks for the cherished bit of paper.
Don't you see what the air of success
does? Don't you see how it has seduced
these men2 Don't you see that after fight
ing failure through, they are now ready to
surrender to little success?
Success is the enemy 1t brings those
elements with it that minister to our soft
ness. There are more people desiring to
enjoy life than to contribute something to
life. A man wants recognition and re-
ward; we say these are natural DESIRES
and so they are. But when a man gains
recognition, the temptation is very great
to stop and enjoy the recognition. And
when he gains reward the temptation is to
think that he has arrived" Who can
count the number of the men who have
been halted and beaten by recognition and
reward!
Make your program SO long and so
hard that the people who praise you will
always seem to- you to be talking about
something very trivial in comparison with.
what you are really trying to do.
If success comes you will have to work
twice as hard ito keep on top of it; once
it gets on top of you, then success becomes
your failure.
People at large will never be convinced