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Be a Self-Builder

“Don, do you know where I can get a job?”

Donald Moorhead hesitated, smiled, and said, “Yes, Jim. See me at my office at 8:30 tomorrow morning.”

That’s the way the conversation was closed. It began when Mr. Moorhead, an officer of the United States Casualty Company, met a friend one afternoon while walking down Wall Street.

And the next morning, when Jim came up to see him, Don suggested that an easy way to make a large income and render a service to the public was to sell accident and health insurance.

“But”, said Jim, “I’d be scared stiff. I wouldn’t know whom to call on. I’ve never sold a thing in my life.”

“That’s nothing to be worried about”, was the response. “I’ll tell you what to do. I’ll guarantee that you can’t fail...if you call on five persons a day. And I’ll give you the names of five prospects each morning, if you’ll make me a promise.”

“What’s the promise?”

“Promise me that you’ll call on each of them the same day I give you their names. It’s all right to mention my name if you want to. But don’t tell them I sent you.”

Jim needed a job badly, and it didn’t take very long for his friend to convince him that he should at least try. So Jim took the necessary literature and instructions home to study, and reported back to Mr. Moorhead’s office a few mornings later to get his five names and get started on a new career.

It’s in Your Mind

“Yesterday was a thrilling day!” he exclaimed, when he reported the next morning with two sales and lots of enthusiasm.

He had better luck the second day, for he sold three of the five prospects. The third morning he rushed out of Mr. Moorhead’s office, full of vim and vitality, with five more names. These were especially good leads–he sold four of the five prospects he called upon.

When the new, enthusiastic salesman reported to work the following morning, Mr. Moorhead was in an important conference. Jim waited in the reception room for about 15 minutes before Mr. Moorhead came out of his private office and said, “Jim, I’m in an exceedingly important meeting that will probably last all morning. Why don’t you save my time and yours? Get the five names for yourself from the classified telephone book. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last three days. Here–I’ll show you how I do it.”

Then Don opened the classified book at random, pointed to an ad, picked out the name of the president of the company, and wrote down the name and address. Then he said: “Now you try it.” Jim did. After he had written down his first name and address, Don continued: “Remember, success in selling is a matter of mental attitude–the attitude of the salesman. Your entire career may depend on whether you can develop the same right mental attitude when you call on the five names you select as you had when you called on the persons whose names I gave you.”

And thus started the career of a man who subsequently made a real success. For he realized the truth–it’s in your mind. In fact, he improved the system. To be certain that his prospect would be in, he telephoned and made an appointment. It’s true that he had to develop know-how in making appointments. But he got this with experience.

And that’s how you learn know-how–through experience.

Then there is the story of the banker who made one mistake and lost his position but got himself a better job when he took inventory of himself. It was recently told me by Edward R. Dewey, Director of The Foundation for the Study of Cycles.

Take Inventory of Yourself

“Mike Corrigan was a banker friend of mine,” said Mr. Dewey, “who misplaced confidence in a customer whom he liked. Mike made this man a substantial loan, and the loan went sour. Although Mike had been with the bank for many years, his superiors felt that, in view of his experience, he had made a stupid decision. So Mike was fired, and he was out of a job for some time.

“I have never seen a more beaten man: his walk...his face...his bearing...his speech... all showed complete discouragement and dejection. He had what you, Clem, term a negative mental attitude,” Ned Dewey said to me. Then he continued:

“Mike made several attempts to get a job, but they were futile. To me it was understandable, because of his attitude. I wanted to help him, so I gave him a book: Pick Your Job and Land It, by Sidney and Mary Edlund. The Edlunds tell how to show your business experience in an attractive manner to the prospective employer of your choice. ‘It’s a must,’ I told him. ‘After you have read it, I want you to see me.’

“Mike read the book and saw me the next day, for he needed a job badly.

“ ‘I’ve read the book,’ he said.

“Then you’ve noticed,’ I said, ‘that the book suggests you list your assets: all the things you have done to make money for your previous employer.’ And I asked him several questions, such as:

1. What profit increases did your bank experience year by year under your supervision as branch manager–increased profits because of something special that you did?

2. How much money did the bank save by eliminating waste through increased efficiency under your administration?

“Mike was smart...and he was ready. He got the idea. “After dinner that night he came over to my house. I was amazed at the transformation! He was a new man: a sincere smile...a firm and friendly handclasp...a voice of assurance–the very reflection of success.

“And I was equally amazed at what he had written on the several pages listing what he considered to be his real assets. For, in addition to outlining the value he had been to his former employer, he made a special listing under the heading: My True Assets.”

When Edward R. Dewey mentioned some of the assets listed by Mike Corrigan, I was unable to resist interrupting him with: “Mike Corrigan recognized the ingredients essential to becoming a self-builder!” And you will see what I meant when you read the chapter titled “The True Riches of Life.”

Mr. Dewey continued. “Among the true assets were:

A wonderful wife who meant the world to him.

An only daughter who brought joy, happiness, and sunshine into his life.

A healthy mind and body.

Many friends–good friends.

A religious philosophy and a church that were a source of inspiration to him.

The privilege of living in America.

A house and a car, each fully paid for.

A few thousand dollars in the bank.

Sufficient youth to have many good years ahead of him.

The respect and esteem of those who knew him.

“It was fun being with Mike that evening,” said Ned. “In fact, he was so enthusiastic that he made me enthusiastic, too. I felt that he was the kind of fellow I’d hire if I were an employer.

“For the next two days, I could hardly get Mike out of my mind. And when the telephone rang at dinner the second evening, I had a feeling it was Mike. It was.

“ ‘I want to thank you, Ned. I’ve got a good job,’ he exclaimed happily.

“And Mike did get a good job, as treasurer of a large hospital in a neighboring city, a position he has now held for many years,” Mr. Dewey concluded.

He Developed a Time Recorder...and Became a Self-Builder

You don’t have to be out of a job to take inventory of yourself. Those who engage in self-inspection are generally those who are seeking self-improvement–and find it. George Severance, who represents the Ohio National Life Insurance Company in Chicago, is such a man.

It was he who invented the Social Time Recorder, which helped him achieve success in reaching his many worthwhile objectives. The principle he used can be applied by anyone who will take the time to develop and follow his own time recorder.

And should you follow the instructions in designing your time recorder–and use it daily, as outlined in detail in Chapter 19–then you, like George Severance, will become a self-builder.

For you, like him, will use his technique to have peace of mind and happiness...get out of debt...save money...eliminate waste of time and money...acquire wealth...eliminate bad habits and develop good ones. Its daily use will motivate you to higher achievement. I guarantee it!

George is a friend of mine. I know his story well. He found his first excitement in sales when he began knocking on back doors selling industrial insurance. Here’s what he says:

“I believe I knocked on every back door in my neighborhood. In fact, I know that at one time or another I have canvassed in every section of the city. As time went on, my sales began to grow in volume; however, I found myself in very serious financial difficulties, for my debts were expanding faster than my income.

“One day, the total amount of these debts struck me like a bolt of lightning. I was faced with a real financial crisis. Then I recalled a statement I had read somewhere:

“If you cannot save money, the seed of success is not in you.

“I wanted desperately to succeed. I wanted to get out of debt. I felt I had the seed of success within me. Then and there, I decided to do something about it.”

If you cannot save money, the seed of success is not in you. This statement indicated that George Severance, like many persons who have achieved success, benefitted from memorizing and responding to self-motivators.

And, therefore, I once asked him: “In addition to the Bible, what self-help book played the most important part in your life?”

“Authors of Portraits and Principles,” he replied. (Designed and arranged by Wm. C. King, King Richardson & Co., Springfield, Mass., 1895)

Now, there is something more to success than reading self-help books and extracting the philosophy contained in them, and that is Action.

George told me that his Social Time Recorder helped him to take inventory of himself–to organize his thinking time, set definite objectives, and select the right track to run on–and motivated him to action. And he also said:

“After I had developed the Social Time Recorder, I found that I had been spending as much as 32 hours in a single month drinking coffee with my friends. I was amazed, for I realized that this was equivalent to four working days. And then I realized that my lunch hours were sometimes a full hour longer than they should have been.” He continued:

“Travel–like a jack rabbit I hopped here, there, and everywhere, rather than working one territory thoroughly.

“Late hours–I used to go to many night meetings. And when he meetings broke up at eight or nine o’clock, a group of us played cards or engaged in idle chatter that would often last past midnight. Now I go home and enjoy the evening with my family. I get a good night’s sleep. I have more time to read self-help books.

“Sports–sometimes I used to go to ball games or play golf during selling time. I hate to think of the income lost during this valuable earning time.

“Family duties–I’d take time to run chores for the family during business hours, instead of using my time profitably to do the job expected of me as a wage earner.

‘When I looked back, I found that in many respects I was a social success during business hours. But when I developed my Social Time Recorder, I realized:

“If a business day is a social success, it has been a business failure.”

So George completed his Social Time Recorder daily. The officials of his company were amazed. For the records indicate that after inventing his Social Time Recorder, George accomplished wonders:

He wrote over four million dollars’ worth of life insurance in a single year.

He established a company record by submitting over a million dollars’ worth of new business in one day.

“He consistently sold enough life insurance to become a life member of the Million Dollar Round Table–an achievement every life insurance man seeks, but relatively few attain.

With justifiable pride, George said, “I began to pay off my debts, and eventually, when these were paid, I started a savings account. Finally, I had saved $6,000. A friend of mine and I each invested $6,000 in an enterprise that our bank helped us finance. Within a year, we each received $50,000 out of this project. This was a big step forward in acquiring wealth.”

Would you like to see a facsimile of George Severance’s Social Time Recorder? Read a detailed report on how it works? Develop a time recorder for your own special use?

You’ll have your opportunity when you get to Chapter 19: “The Success Indicator Brings Success.” But it takes will power to begin the habit–to take inventory of yourself daily. And an inspirational self-help book will help.

Power of Will

Authors of Portraits and Principles and other self-help books inspired George Severance. Power of Will helped me. (Frank Channing Haddock, Ralston Publishing Co., Cleveland, Ohio)

Perhaps when you read of my experience cold-canvassing in the Dime Bank Building in the last chapter, you may have questioned how a teenage salesman on his first assignment built sales techniques based on the functioning of the human mind when older and more experienced salesmen in all fields often failed to do this.

But don’t sell the teenager short. As a high school freshman, I had problems that motivated me to purchase Power of Will, by Frank Channing Haddock. For one thing, I wanted to develop will power. In addition, I was president of the Debating Club at Senn High, where we debated such topics as, “Is the will free?” It was necessary to engage in research, and Power of Will is a good reference book for such a subject.

This training in debating and public speaking gave me self-assurance and confidence. And the necessity to develop quick and convincing rebuttal arguments made effective rebuttal arguments in sales come naturally to me, for the principles are the same. Debater or salesman, you must think logically and be sensitive to every statement that you can turn to your advantage. You must be persuasive to win.

I have often wondered why schools don’t expose teenagers to self-help books. They’re at the age where they are seeking truths and personal help. The Constitution prohibits the teaching of religion in public schools, but there is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits the teaching of the proper attitude toward work, honesty, courage, the building of a noble life, thinking good thoughts, and doing good deeds.

You Reach the Soul Through the Mind

The history of man has taught us that the best thoughts that are very new are the best thoughts that are very old. That’s the way another friend of mine, Nate Lieberman, expresses it. Countless persons have thought good thoughts and done good deeds to build a noble life through the influence of the church. The moral teachings of the church are to be found in the Bible and other religious writings. In seeking self-improvement, expose yourself to religious philosophy and go to the Bible–the self-help book that has inspired more persons to desirable action than any book written. And when you read the Bible, be encouraged, even though you don’t at first have the know-how of relating, assimilating, and using its principles. For know-how is the product of experience.

Through the Bible and the influence of your church, you reach your soul through your mind. And because of the importance of a healthy mind and the curative powers of religion, ministers of all denominations are beginning to recognize the need for cooperation between the minister and the psychiatrist to obtain most effective results in providing individuals with physical, mental, and moral health.

For 25 years, Dr. Smiley Blanton and the Reverend Dr. Norman Vincent Peale have proved the value of the psychiatrist and the minister working as partners while fulfilling their separate vocations. But most of all, through the American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry (which they established) with headquarters in New York City, they have trained ministers of all denominations in many parts of the world to better fulfill the mission to which they are dedicated.

I mention this philosophy because, as a sales manager, I have taken men who have failed with other companies and, by motivating them to become self-builders, have prepared them for outstanding success. Anyone who wishes to be a self-builder can achieve his objectives by constantly striving to develop physical, mental, and moral health, provided he doesn’t build unseen walls.

Tear Down the Unseen Walls

In the third century B.C., Chin Shih Huang Ti, the first emperor of the China Dynasty, built two walls–the famous Great Wall of China and, simultaneously, an “unseen wall.”

The Great Wall, with its 25,000 watchtowers, stretched 2500 miles. For more than 2000 years, it prevented the barbarians from coming in and the world’s oldest civilization, with its advanced knowledge and culture, from getting out.

In the third century B.C., China was self-sufficient; it didn’t need the rest of the world. But the rest of the world needed what China had to share with it: the art of printing, the use of coal, water clocks, bronze casting, gunpowder, astronomical instruments, the naval compass, drugs, spices...and more.

As the centuries passed, the barbarians gained inspiration, knowledge, and know-how and advanced their civilization so far beyond that of Chin Shih Huang Ti that China today is primitive by comparison.

For like the leaders of nations who fear the freedom of religion, education, and the press, and who have built bamboo or iron curtains around their peoples, the Emperor stultified progress by destroying whatever literature did not correspond to his ideas, concepts, and philosophy.

Now you may not appear to be an emperor, king, or leader in the eyes of others, but you are an absolute monarch when it comes to the control of what you think, feel, believe, and try to do. And the literature that you don’t explore is as useless to you as if it were burned or destroyed.

So now may be the time to ask yourself: “What unseen walls have I built?

“Since leaving school, have I exposed myself to ideas, concepts, and philosophies that are different from those I had at the time?

“Am I keeping pace with economic, social, religious, scientific, political, and other important developments of our times?

“Do I read a self-help book as if the author were a personal friend and writing to me and me alone?

“Or have I already learned every fundamental principle that I will ever learn?”

Be a Self-Builder

Build your own life. Be a benefit to yourself and to all mankind. Build from within. But get help from without. You can do this as you search for, find, and follow your success system that never fails.

To get help from without, extract the good where you can find it. And this starts from within: the right mental attitude toward persons, places, things, knowledge, customs, beliefs–be they your own or others.

Is your future behind you because of an unseen wall that you have built so strongly within you that it prevents enlightened ideas from breaking through?

Perhaps it is ... perhaps it isn’t. You can tear down these unseen walls if they do exist. The next chapter, “Don’t Leave Your Future Behind You,” tells you how.Little Hinges That Swing Big Doors

At this moment, do you know exactly what your assets are? Are you aware of your true abilities, your potential for growth, your successes of the past, no matter how small? If you’re not, take inventory of yourself. To know where you’re going and how to get there, you must first know yourself.