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Show Author of "Row to Win Friends and Influence People," GETTINGS THINGS DONE Walter P. Chrysler wasn't always an automobile manufacturer. Far from it! He was a mechanic in the railroad yards in Salt Lake City, getting $3 for a ten-hour day, or thirty cents an hour. Not only that, but he was just one among hundreds. He didn't lopk different. What one thing do you suppose lifted him above the level of the others and started him up the ladder? It was his ability to get things done. Dozens of other men could tinker with a hot box just as well as, he could, but they didn't have the most important trait of being able to get things done in spite of every obstacle. To illustrate what I mean one day a crisis arose. The engine on the crack train between Salt Lake City and Denver went lame. It was operating on only one side. No other engine could be used. This meant that the train would not only be late, it meant it would not go at all. The famous flyer would have to stand idle in the station. sta-tion. Hundreds of people would be delayed, miss their appointments. The reputation of the railroad rail-road would suffer. The master mechanic was frantic.Twelve o'clock noon ! And the train had to leave at three. He told the best man in the yard that the back cylinder head had blown out. The man shook his head. That would take twenty burs. He consulted another man. Same answer. Then he saw young mechanic Chrysler. He asked him if he could put in a back cylinder head by three. Young Chrysler knew the engine. He knew intimately in-timately and expertly what had to be done. But he did not hesitate. "I'll do it if you give me two helpers." Two helpers! Great guns! He could have every helper in the railroad yards ! The engine was wheeled out to the roundhouse round-house pit, at ten minutes after twelve. Young Chrysler actually leaped onto the engine before it stopped rolling. The fire was raked from the boilers into the ashpit. But Chrysler didn't wait for it to cool. He hopped in. It burned his shoes. But he kept stripping off wrist-pins, nuts, bolts, and studs. He worked with a feverish intensity. That was for him the most important job in the world and he was going to do it! At last he called the master mechanic. "The job's finished." Ten minutes of three. The master mechanic was overjoyed. The crack train pulled out on time. This incident changed Walter Chrysler's whole life. It made him known. It raised him head and shoulders shoul-ders above the herd. He was immediately made foreman fore-man with ninety men under him. His ability to achieve what seemed impossible had started him upward. up-ward. He had drawn attention to himself by one outstanding out-standing accomplishment. He accomplished more in two hours and forty minutes than he had in all the other time he had spent in the shops put together ! |