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all: my son John's a very good boy on
the whole."
METHOD, MANNERS, AND PERSONALITY
Method is a necessity to business "getting
on." It is the outcome of the orderly
spirit operating through the ages
and applying the lessons of experience
to the economizing of time and effort in
any department of business action. To
master the
be one of man's first endeavors.
Business manners are also an important
matter. A man can be and ought to be
polite and considerate, no matter how
great his hurry. Even with panting
motors waiting to bear one away, with
telephone calls sounding incessantly
around one, and the endless stir and hubbub
of modern activities assailing at
every point, the habit of courtesy should
never be laid aside. Office manners are
one thing, however, and workshop manners
another; but the principle and the
effect should be the same in both.
"There is always time enough for
courtesy," said Emerson. It requires
personality and character, however, to
BEST METHODS 553
rise to the best on all business occasions;
but with these to his equipment a man
can go forward with a good heart, and
he will not fail.
Yesterday you have done with, except
to remember its lessons. Today is yours:
make the best of it. Think always how
you can employ it to the best advantage
to yourself and your employers. Today
is your present direct, assured concern;
if you make the
best of it you score
a success and
every successful day is a stepping-stone
to higher successes. There can be no
happier feeling at the end of a day than
to know that you have put all your duty
into it: it will be pleasurable to recall it,
and will make of tomorrow a bright
today, for the light of good achievements
extends far into the future. It may be.
as the poet has it, that "tomorrow never
comes ;" still, it is well always to be looking
forward to and preparing for it. He
who is a slacker today cannot expect a
commission tomorrow, whether his field
of endeavor be the army or the ranks of
business; this is a stern truth and a comforting
motto, for preparedness is bound
to win recognition as surely as chronic
laziness is bound to fail.