The farmer who moves in town to live on his income is a sorry individual unless he has a garden and chickens, or buys and sells farms, or occupies his time with work of some kind.
The retired, non-working farmer who has moved to town gets up in the morning, goes to see the train come in, whittles a stick, loafs at the hotel or store, goes to the next train, talks of his rheumatism, goes to bed at eight o"clock, and the next day goes through the same rigmarole.
We have all seen these old codgers who have retired. They are not happy because they have quit their life"s habit of work, and are rusting out.
Occupation is the plan of nature to keep man happy, so when you have all the money you need, have some occupation or hobby to occupy your time.
The man who retires from any active work is merely counting the days until he dies.
When old age comes and your body or brain won"t let you do or care for as much as you could in your younger days, then get lighter work or lighter cares.
Keep busy if it is only raising chickens or gardening, or studying astronomy or botany.
Keep at it as long as you can. Die in the harness instead of fading slowly away.
Cultivate the reading habit in your younger days that it may be a pleasant occupation when your legs and hands grow feeble with age.
When you quit work or occupation of some sort then life has no beauty for you.
Stand When Selling
You can make your point clearer, you can talk with more force, you can impress and convince your customer better if you stand while he is seated.
Have you ever noticed that when you are seated and the other fellow is standing it puts you at a disadvantage? Try it some time.
Have you not noticed that if you are seated and your adversary is standing, when you get enthusiastic and wish to combat his argument, it is impossible for you to get in your best licks while you are seated?
You involuntarily rise when you make your strong points and are full of your subject.
How far would a life insurance man or an advertising man get if he sat down and leaned back and relaxed while talking to you?
You will observe that the good solicitor declines with thanks your proffered chair. He stands up, he knows the value of standing.
By the relation between his standing and you sitting it makes him a positive and you a negative force. He forces--you receive.
How much would an orator impress his audience if he delivered his lecture in a sitting posture?
You cannot combat argument very well if you are sitting, nor can you convince others as well sitting as standing.
When you call on a customer carry a busy air with you. Stand up. Talk straight from the shoulder. Make your point and claims clear. Place your position or proposition definitely, forcefully and quickly before your customer. Make a good get-away when you have accomplished your purpose.
If you don"t land him the first time, get away anyway. Let him see that your time is money, and that you appreciate that his time is money, too.
Don"t visit. Gracefully and politely decline the chair that is offered; say that your limit of time and disinclination to trespa.s.s require your stay to be brief.
Stand. Keep busy and active. Get away quickly, and you will be welcome next time.
The short stayer is a welcome guest. He may not land his customers as quickly, but in the end he will land more customers, and hold them closer and retain them longer than the tedious, visiting, social bore who sits and sits and sits.
The Best Vantage Ground
In closing a contract or settling a dispute it makes considerable difference whether you are in the other fellow"s office or in your own.
The man in whose office the transaction takes place has the decided advantage.
If you have a disputed bill, or if you wish to make a contract for material or merchandise use every effort to get the other man in your office. When you go to another office you are on the aggressive, when another man comes to your office you are on the defensive.
It is great diplomacy to get the man you deal with to come to you instead of going to him. In proportion as you are diplomatic you will be able to benefit.
If you meet the other man in a club, hotel or a place outside of your office or the other man"s office, then the vantage ground is even and neither has the best of it so far as location is concerned.
Starting from an even vantage ground the advantage shifts greatly one way or the other according to whether you go or the other man comes.
Railroad officials, bankers and great merchants realize the importance of having the vantage ground in their favor.
The merchant, for instance, has private rooms and regular office hours for his buyers, and he lets the manufacturers come to him.
Stop a moment and look over your own experience, and you will recall numerous instances where it has been to your advantage to close a deal in your own office.
There is nothing in what we have written in this series of talks that has less theory in it than this particular chapter.
There is no point we have made more surely proven by experience.
The army that attacks the enemy in the enemy"s country has the odds against it, as all wars have proven. Men fight best at home on their own vantage ground.
Whether you are buying or selling try to close the deal in your own place of business.
If you have travelers on the road let it be part of their business and duty to invite and persuade customers to call at your place of business when they are in town.
Ambition
A man without ambition had better content himself with learning a trade. A good mechanic is fairly sure of three dollars a day, and fifty-two weeks" employment in the year.
The mechanic does not have many worries. He does not have notes to meet at the bank. He does not have to face the ingrat.i.tude of employes and petty jealousies, for he has no employes working for him.
He lays down his tools when the bell rings and goes home to his family.
His ambition is to have a good place to sleep, plenty to eat, money enough to buy clothing for his family and to send his children to school, and extra spending money enough over his fixed charges to allow him to take his family to the circus when it comes to town.