The successful business man has no more difficult problem to solve than what he will do with his son.
It is a fact that the greatest successes in the business world today are those men who had to start in the battle early, and fight their way to the front.
The successful business man usually tries to arrange matters so that his son will not require to go through the hard working school of experience he himself attended, and in this the business man rather goes to the other extreme in that he tries to make things easy for his boy.
As the twig is bent so the tree is inclined. The young mind is plastic and capable of receiving impressions, and we know that the impressions made in our youth are lasting all our days.
The problem in the country is not so difficult, for there are so many things to do about the home that the young country boy usually has plenty of ch.o.r.es and duties to perform.
Occupation is a decided blessing and a present benefit to a boy.
People in the cities have all creature comforts about the homes, transportation facilities are ample, the homes are heated by steam, stores are in abundance, people buy from day to day, and every little convenience is at hand to keep the scheme of living going along smoothly.
Because the city boy is surrounded with schools and the comforts of home he has much time on his hands. The boy is active, and if his activity is not turned on useful things, it will be turned on useless things. The young boy goes to the grammar school, and the daylight hours, outside of school hours, are devoted to play. This is right and as it should be, but when the boy gets along to twelve or fourteen years of age, the parents should arrange for him some little duties, some regular task to perform. The youngster will get accustomed to this, and it is decidedly beneficial. As the boy enters the high school he finds his hours shorter and his leisure hours longer.
The high school period is a most important one in the boy"s life, and the father should see to it that the high school boy is occupied for several hours each day, either in his own place of business or in some other establishment.
There is no way of teaching a boy the value of money like having him work for money.
Arrange to pay your boy so much an hour for the duties he performs.
Have his occupation regular, talk with him about what he has done during the day, be a companion to the boy, and soon you will notice that he evinces interest in the things he is doing, and as time pa.s.ses, ambition is fired in his breast, and when the time comes for him to enter the threshold of business he has been prepared for the work.
It is strange that while we parents realize the importance of education, we pay so little attention to the boy while he is going to school. We should keep in touch with the boy"s teachers and with the boy himself, taking an interest in his studies. The business man as a rule drifts apart from his son during his younger years.
There is nothing that will help the boy so much as being a companion to him, being interested with him in the things he does, whether work or study. Fathers and sons should be comrades.
A close companionship between father and son is not only a great satisfaction and source of happiness to each of them, but is decidedly beneficial to both.
By all means have some regular occupation for your boy while he is going to school. Keep in close touch with him. Explain to him the things he does not understand. Show him the great possibilities ahead of him if he does right, and the impossibility for him to succeed if he does wrong.
Pull
The young man who is expecting to get a fat job through pull is working on a false basis. The young man whose objective is to get a snap shows he has not ambition, and surely this young man will occupy inferior positions as long as he gets a job through pull.
There is a legitimate pull in business, and that is activity and ability. Don"t look for snaps. Snaps are merely traps. Men are not paid for snaps, but for snap.
The average young man just out of college looks for a job through the pull of his father or some relation, and in this he is making a great error. The best way to get a job is to get it without pull through your own energy and aggressiveness.
The best jobs are obtained through push and not pull.
The City Hall and Government buildings all have the word "pull" on the front door, and in direct contrast with this you will notice the front doors of the successful business inst.i.tutions are marked "push."
Gossip
It is surprising to see the extent to which gossip is carried on among business men. The funny papers always refer to women and the members of the sewing societies as gossips of the first cla.s.s, but if the gossip going around business circles could be tabulated, we are sure the sewing society would have the joke on us.
It is a footless thing to spend valuable time in idle gossip, for the gossip is seldom a successful business man.
Gossip takes hold of some men to such an extent that most of their waking hours are spent in finding out something to tell to someone else, and thus leaves but little time for business.
Bribes
Many business men seem to think that bribes are efficient helps. It is not so. The moment you bribe a person you acknowledge your dishonesty by paying for his dishonesty, and you may be sure that the bribe habit will grow; the demands of the men accepting the bribe will grow to alarming proportions. For every dollar you make by bribing someone, you are losing ten dollars in other ways, especially in your own self respect and satisfaction.
The moment you give a bribe you are under obligations, and some day or other the facts will be brought out and you will suffer the consequences of your own weakness.
Underhand, clandestine information you get is no more than dishonesty on your part. You can get better information and accomplish your purpose more surely by going direct to a compet.i.tor, stating your case plainly, and announcing your abhorrence of underhand methods. Your compet.i.tor will appreciate you more for your fairness, and he will go out of his way to give you information when you have shown you are square.
Stenographers
Few young men realize the advantage of learning stenography. We all know the young man who writes shorthand comes in touch with the boss at once, and while acting as amanuensis or secretary is getting a schooling that money could not buy. He is going through and becoming familiar with business as it actually exists.
He sees the decisions made by his employer, and he unconsciously absorbs methods which would be almost impossible for him to learn were it not for his proximity to the boss.
Shorthand is decidedly beneficial, first--because it is a good training for the mind; second--it is a help all through one"s life. It enables him to take down memoranda and keep notes of verbal transactions; it enables him to get in the private office, and to be in the middle of the nerve centers of business.
Some of the greatest men in this country were shorthand writers. The stenographer who is alert soon gets to the center of the business; he soon has responsibilities given him by the boss, and is in direct line for promotion.
Hypochondriacs
Here is a type we run across every day in business. We see the apparently well man taking out a pill box or a bottle of medicine as he sits down to lunch. We ask him what is the matter, and he proceeds to tell us about his bodily ills and infirmities.
Many men seem to take a keen delight in having something the matter with them. They go to a physician, though often the disease is practically mental.
You can"t get health out of a gla.s.s bottle. The man who is taking medicine all the time is going at things wrong end to. If his stomach is out of whack he should change his method of living rather than to try to cure his dyspepsia with stuff that comes in a bottle.
The man who needs a tonic before he can eat a lunch had better take plenty of air and exercise than to take poisonous drugs into his system.