Show f getting G I 1 TING A TART START I 1 by NATHANIEL C FOWLER jr j V copyright 1915 by the mcclure newspaper syndicate GETTING A BETTER POSITION tile tho stagnant pool Is useless and a monace to health its water Is unlit unfit to drink and its sluggishness will not turn a water wheel it either cither dries up or it remains a blot on the land geace the man mad ajio stays where he Is without thinking of bf bettering his ls condition la is like the stagnant pool for sooner or later unless lie he attempts to create a current he will like the pool dry up or else remain an unwelcome member of society conversely however there Is always as much danger in attempting to rush as there Is in remaining placid the mountain torrent although active does not have the body or the quantity ot of energy noc necessary essary for utilization iza tion Ilo however wever profitable your position way may be you have a right to consider advancement but when you carry this consideration beyond the lines of ordinary caution and plunge leap and run you are likely to dash yourself to pieces and to bo be no better off perhaps ape worse ott off than you would have been had you remained at a standstill do not be dissatisfied with your lot to tile the extent of making yourself miserable er ablo do be dissatisfied only in so far as it will enco encourage you to look ahead and to attempt with the use of your coar coro rj j sense to better your condition do not make a move until you are reasonably sure that it will lead to improvement and further do not take undue chances it you have a family or others dependent upon you you have no right to jeopardize their interests and your own by taking speculative chances plant ybur yourself self firmly upon the rock of your present position reach out into the unknown with both your hands look tor for opportunity when you think you have found it subject it to every reasonable est for halt half of that which masquerades under the name of opportunity la is no firmer than tho the idle wind which ikimis scorns to come from nowhere and to go nowhere now hero halt of tile the failures allures of the world are due to stagnation to placidity to a refusal to move when suggests it and the other halt half Is made up of those men who tire are forever dissatisfied discontented and avor abbl bious who without thought jump tor for the first line that dangles danglea before them without waiting to see bee whether whet her the other end Is firmly fastened thousands of young men have thrown up present positions because something else boomed better they know knew how badly oft off they wore were where they were and they tid lid not investigate the future or attempt to analyze apparent or real opportunity they plunged ahead leaving a good founds tion that thoy they might reach what appeared to bo be higher ground around hild and many of them floundered in ili the between keep your feet firmly planted upon tile the foundation of the present always looking ahead and upward hut dut took look and keep on looking for days and weeks and months find and years before you allow this looking to influence your action 0 until you have reasonable proof that what seems to be is a renIl reality ty tho the ship without an anchor was Is as unsafe to navigate as ono with torn and battered rigging DONT antagonize nobody asks you to shelve your independence or to forget your individuality vi you have a right to your opinion and there Is no reason why you should not express lt it and live up to your convict convictions fons there Is a vast difference however between displaying manly courage and carrying a chip on your shoulder if you fire are in business your success will bo be dependent not wholly upon your trading ability but upon your personality and tile the way you treat your customers and those with whom you come in fit contact millions of dollars worth of trade has been lost because salesmen have vented their spleen upon their custom customers have annoyed them in little as well as in big ways and aroused in ili them a feeling of antagonism which Is sure to react against the store as well as against the salesman in fit it A great many people will tell awu tou that they avoid certain stores and certain salespeople simply because hoy are not treated with common courtesy and because the sellers do not seem tobe to be interested in them no as buyers few salesmen seem to realize that courtesy plain and simple politeness Is one of the greatest soiling assets i and that it contributes largely to su success ccase one may not bo be by nature a good seller of goods and lie he may be den dent aleut in many other respects but af it hels uniformly courteous it if lie he shows a marked interest in the customer and Is obliging he Is likely to sell more goods than Is an all expert salesman who falls to realize the importance of courtesy I 1 the popular salesman not on only ly makes but holds customers thousands of buyers wali w wait waita a quarter of an hour or even lon longer lingerin gerIn in order to trado trade with their favorite favorit salesman salaman they feel at home with him ile ho meets meats them with a smile and Is or appears to bo be interested in their affairs although lie he 11 I 1 not obtrusive the customer instinctively tools feels hla friendship courtesy Is valuable able in every every walk of life in business and out of it the polite man mail or wo woman manla la always popular provided ho he does not carry his courtesy into flattery the popular man Is not always the man of great intellect but lie knows how low to make friends by a charm at 0 manner by a kindliness of spirit which Is readily felt by a real or ap parent unselfish interest in those with whom he Is associated popularity counts in business and counts mightily popularity makes friends and friends jn n the mart of 0 trade mean customers those little things chmay seem to be of at no account frequently stand between success and fal failure luva the great trouble with people nowadays Is that they look into the clouds and prepare themselves to handle matters of importance forgetting that things of consequence are but collections of little things thin gsand and that nothing great can be accomplished until the accomplisher has perfected himself in the small matters which collectively produce the finished product not what you do it if you are on the firing line of business but how you yon do it counts |