Imperial Valley press. (El Centro, Calif.) 1907-current, 1936-02-16
By |. STRASSBURGER
CAS- Told to Staff WRITER

LAS Told to Staff WRITER
LIUM THE ten demandents of success-and
] ] large order that. I can tell you right away
that none of them will be the stock and bond bust
ness!
I've never liked that business. AS matter of
fact l made what have in oil and real estate
When started the San Francisco Exchange 1t
for matter of convenience. We were running
around each day trying to contact other business
to sell to and so we all decided to meet twice
each day in a certain spot. 1t was successful and
then we arranged better meeting place. Soon the
seats" were selling for $50 apiece-today the
seats are worth $4,000 l gave mine to my son
than 30 years ago.
I'll tell you honestly there isn't any rule for sue
cess Often see who successful and when
l look back over their lives l can't but feel that
getting ahead with them has been largely an ac-
cident Of they must keep and hold what
they get after they get it.
Success begins almost in infancy actually be-
cause one of the ten demandments would be good
health The ability to carry under stress of cir
cumstances sometimes depends upon strength. Yes
I think could list good health good en-
vironment, time for play and recreation while IN
the formative period, high moral standard suffi-
cien mental capacity courage, willingness to work
spirit of cooperation, plenty of education and OPP
portunity.
| EMPHATICALLY warn against playing the
] market 1t is no business. Far better is it to get
into something real and then if money is made and
the inclination present to want to take chance on
the market to do it with reserve cash that can be
risked without injury to the income
Education is very important Every human being
should get all the education he can in every way.
THE MORE A MAN KNOWS THE MORE DOES
HIS CAPACITY TO APPRECIATE AND SEE
OPPORTUNITY INCREASE.
do not approve of college boys coming out of
school and starting in the stock and bond business
r,+o ,Io,o h,Ciyo
second because they have not the fully developed
mental powers needed in the financial arena.
The ability to cooperate and see opportunity is
very great ability and although it sounds trite,
JUST BEING A GOOD FRIEND OFTEN LEADS
TO GREAT WEALTH.
got into the oil business by being good friend.
In 1899 when it being nosed about that oil
was seeping out of the ground along the bank of
the Kern River Bakersfield, l just be-
ginning to make little Roadway with my stock
and bond business California street. l had
moved from my first cubby hole in basement
Montgomery street between Pine and California
and was becoming pretty we'll acquainted in fnan-
cial circles.
There was man named Roman who went broke
in the book store business and day he
into my place and said
"Strassburger, I've got something want to tell
you about" and then he told be about organizing
SIS par value They had asked him to sell stock. He
told me about the oil showing along the banks of
the river and how l could make lot of money.
The price he offered stock to was at 81 share.
"How much will it mean to you Roman, if l take
a thousand shares?" l asked.
'Ill get $3.50 my commission out of the
81 000' he answered.
A LII l knew about the oil business was that oil
- came out of the ground and that the Standard
Oil Company refined it into kerosene for lamps and
stoves-but San Franciscans have way of help
ing fellow toWnsman down on his luck. l told
Roman to see Tom Brown, cashier of the Bank of
California, and Christian Refs, treasurer of San
Francisco Each of them took thousand shares
for much the same reason that bought mine.
My memory of the situation is that none of us
mentioned our purchase to the other until the news
that oil had been discovered in we'll on
Kern River by named Jonathan Ewood
and his brother jim. We heard word from
the men at Fresno and Brown said to me, "Why
don't you go down and have look at that Kern
River Companys oil land?t
That seemed like a good idea and so l went
down. That trip started my financial career in oil!
We had to reorganize this company and when we
did we started on a long train of business ventures
which were romantic and interesting as the de-