The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-14
Sincerity Chief Asset In Daily
 Business
By SOPHIE IRENE LOEB

By SUfHlE IRENE LUEb IN TALKING with a business man
 the other day he gave me his idea
 of the greatest quality in all deal ings with employees and business con cerns-sincerity.
 "The first thing I do is to try to find out whether a man is sincere" he said. If he is, any faults he may have can be adjusted, because when a man is sincere it follows that he is faith ful-faithful to his trust and to those to whom he owes allegiance and help but when he is sincere only on the sur. face he is never reliable.
 There are many people who are ap- parently interested in your work" he continued, ''those who merely work for money. But the one who usually works his way into the concern and gets to the top has been sincere right from the start. The goal that he finally reaches has not been what he has thought about as general thing.
 ''In other words, he has given close attention and sincere interest to that which he was given to do and has not had his eye on the boss chair. It is always the complacent fellow, the one who camouflagss his real self, who never get higher and he wonders why he concluded.
 Oh, yes, sincerity is the soundest attribute in this workaday world You can forgive many shortcomings when you know a person tries his best; you can overlook his mistakes and misun- derstandings because your heart goes out to one who is honest ill what he does.
 As Carlyle puts it. "A great man is always sincere as the first condition of him. But a man need not be great in order to be sineere:' So that it is not always the great who are sincere. In small ways, in little lives, this splen- did element in the makeup of man is found on all sides.
 The way to find out whether you impress others with your sincerity is to learn if you are sincere with yourself. That is the first requisite-in proving your own worth.
 ''To thine own self be true," is the best kind of a motto. If you try to fool yourself how can you ever hope to impress others with the fact that you are not fooling them?
 The way to be sincere with yourself is to do everything that you do for yourself and others the very best way you can do it, no matter how much ef- fort it costs.
 It may take patience and perserver- ance, but that is the way to be sin cere with yourself. When you are con scious that you have done your utmost then you have been sincere with your self, and the rest follows.
 The way to begin is to stop covering up mistakes; quit throwing off respon- sibility lightly and take things to heart. It is not necessary to grieve or worry or be sorrowful, but when you have done something that you know is not right, correct it.
 Don't let it go by. Let no wrong be excused by the common expression, Well. it's done now" That is the easiest way to throw off your own mis- deeds.
 If a thing is done and it has not been adjusted right then your con- science is not clear until it is and you have not been sincere with yourself. Above all, the greatest sign of lnsin- cerity is to make the same mistake or do the same wrong more than once.
 Those who do so are the iight-weights in the world of work and, in fact, in social relationships as well. In short, the sincere one is reliable because he holds himself liable for everything ID which he is concerned.