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| Office Boy 1917, Boston, Massachusetts--Photo by Lewis Hine (courtesy of Library of Congress) |
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The following passages are taken from the 1894 edition of a business handbook called
The Business Guide; Or Safe Methods of Business by J.L. Nichols, A.M., Principal of the North-Western Business College, Naperville, Illinois.This fascinating little book is intended as a practical guide for a young person getting started in business. It is beautifully written, and full of wisdom.
In this business handbook, Mr. Nichols emphasizes that
success in business is not only about making money. It's an important message, especially in today's world, where so many people believe that the means justify the end, and getting rich is the ultimate goal. A successful
business person, according to Mr. Nichols, is one who has a strong sense
of self, supported by a solid ethical foundation, with a desire to help
others less fortunate and to make the world a better place. He
addresses issues that we also face today, such as stress management,
work-life balance, dealing with others, and finding the right career,
and offers practical advice that applies to people in any career or
calling. Because of the times in which this book was written, the author
most often references young men, but these guiding principles can be
applied to men and women of any age or generation.
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| J. L. Nichols |
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This amazing book offers advice on aspects of business practice as varied as etiquette, letter writing, applying for a job, writing contracts, accounting, legal matters, avoiding being swindled, securing patents, the rights of married women, election laws and the responsibilities of owning a dog. It contains sample alphabets, and writing and drawing exercises to practice the beautiful penmanship that was essential in that era. There are also tables for compounding interest and calculating wages, determining time differences between cities, "short rules of arithmetic," weights and measures, adding up the cost of smoking cigars, as well as a business dictionary. Other topics covered by this book include determining the carrying capacity of freight cars, how to measure plots of land, "how to estimate the contents of a pile of grain, potatoes, hay or wood" and "how to find the number of heaped bushels of ear corn, apples or potatoes in a crib or bin," how to mix paints of various colors and how to write names on iron tools and glass.
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| Handwritten Business Alphabet |
The book begins with advice on how to succeed in business--the foundation of everything else. Energy, hard work and ambition to get ahead are essential, but there is also great emphasis placed on ethical conduct, including honesty, generosity, good manners, self-reliance, protecting one's reputation, preserving good credit and building character. There is also advice on cultivating good habits for health and life balance, including taking time for leisure and avoiding worry.
I find this book to be interesting and inspiring, because much of the advice given is still relevant today. In our times, greed is almost seen as a virtue: there is so much emphasis on making money above all else. Wealth, power and bluster often trump fairness, honesty, courtesy, logical thought, strength of character, concern for other people and responsibility to one's community. It is refreshing to remember that business does not have to be conducted with ruthlessness and amorality. Being grounded in solid values is a good foundation for all human endeavors. It is not a sign of weakness; rather it is a way to build and maintain true strength and success throughout life.
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| Office Worker, Boston, 1917--photo by Lewis Hine, (Courtesy of Library of Congress) |
Doing Good
The
same feeling pervades our common humanity. The poorest man, the daily
worker, the obscurest individual, shares the gift and the blessing of
doing good--a blessing that imparts no less delight to him who gives
than to him who receives. If God blesses you with riches, remember your
fellow man in need of bread.
Your Reputation
Learn to be a man of your word. One of the most disheartening of all things is to be compelled to do business with a person whose promise is not to be depended upon. There are plenty of people in this wide world whose promise is as slender a tie as a spider's web. Let your given word be as hempen cord, a chain of wrought steel that will bear the heaviest strain.... The man who does not honorably meet his promises is not only dishonest but is also a coward. Do not be a lump of moist putty molded and shaped by the influence and impressions of those whom you last met. Your reputation is made up by your conduct. Cultivate force, energy, self-reliance and be a positive quantity that can be calculated upon at all times and at all places. Be a man whose word is worth a hundred cents on a dollar and your reputation will be as good as gold.
Thrifty in Order to be Generous
Man must be thrifty in order to be generous.Thrift does not end with itself, but extends benefits to others. It founds hospitals, endows charities, establishes colleges, and extends educational influences. Benevolence springs from the best qualities of mind and heart. Its divine spirit elevates the benefactors of the world.
Eager To Be Richer
Men go on toiling and moiling, eager to be richer; desperately struggling, as if against poverty, at the same time that they are surrounded by abundance. They scrape and scrape, add shilling to shilling, and sometimes do shabby things in order to make a little more profit, though they may have accumulated far more than they actually enjoy. And still they go on, worrying themselves incessantly in the endeavor to grasp an additional increase of superfluity...They become miserly, think themselves daily growing poorer, and die the deaths of beggars. We have known several instances. They have nothing to think of but money, and of what will make money. They have no faith but in riches.
It Is No Disgrace to Be Poor
The praise of the honest poverty has often been sung. When a man will not stoop to do wrong, when he will not sell himself for money, when he will not do a dishonest act, then his poverty is most honorable. But a man is not poor who can pay his way and save something besides. He who pays cash for all that he purchases is not poor but well off. He is in a happier condition than the idle gentleman who runs into debt, and is clothed, shod and fed at the expense of his tailor, shoemaker and butcher.
Riches No Proof of Worth
Worldly success, measured by the accumulation of money, is no doubt a very dazzling thing, and all men are naturally more or less the admirers of worldly success. But though men of persevering, sharp, dexterous and unscrupulous habits, ever on the watch to push opportunities, may do and "get on" in the world; yet it is quite possible that they may not possess the slightest elevation of character, nor a particle of real greatness....Neither a man's means nor his worth are measurable by his money. If he has a fat purse and and a lean heart, a broad estate and narrow understanding, what will his "means" do for him--what will his "worth" gain him? Let a man be what he will, it is the mind and heart that make a man poor or rich, miserable or happy; for these are always stronger than fortune.
Good Manners
An old saying, "Politeness costs nothing, and accomplishes wonders," is a good one. Of course, politeness without sincerity is simply a refined form of hypocrisy, and sincerity without politeness is but little better. A savage, a barbarian can be honest, but is not likely to be very polite. So politeness of speech and manners is a distinguishing trait between the civilized and the uncivilized.
A coarseness and roughness of speech, a studied effort to say things that grate upon or wound the feelings of a person possessing ordinary refinement, is utterly, inexcusably and wholly indefensible.
There are many persons, however, who seem to have the idea that because they are honest, sincere and sympathetic, after a fashion, they are excusable for being impolite, and consequently justified in cultivating boorish manners, and indulging in rough speech; but this is a mistake. It pays to regard the feelings of others, especially when it costs us nothing. It does not follow because a man is polite that he is therefore insincere. Politeness and sincerity can go together, and the man or woman who possesses both will get along much better than the individual who has either without the other.
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Store Interior, 1917 or 1918--Photo by Harris and Ewing (Courtesy of Library of Congress)
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The Effects of Worry In Business
Worrying is one of the great drawbacks in business. Most of it can be avoided if we only determine not to let trifles annoy us; for the largest amount of worrying is caused by the smallest trifles. A worrying, fretting, peevish business man is never a success.
The effects of worry are more to be dreaded than those of simple hard work... More business men are wrecked by worry than by work.
The case-book of the physician shows that it is the speculator, the betting man, the railway manager, the great merchant, the superintendent of large manufacturing or commercial works, who most likely exhibit the symptoms of cerebral exhaustion....Suppressed emotion, occupations liable to great vicissitudes of fortune, and those which involve the bearing on the mind of a multiplicity of intricate details, eventually break down the lives of the strongest.
In estimating what may be called the staying powers of different minds under hard work, it is always necessary to take early training into account. A young man, cast suddenly into a position involving great care and responsibility, will break down; whereas, had he been gradually habituated to this position, he would have performed his duties without difficulty...
Safeguards: Call upon your friends often. Keep up all your social relations. Hunt or fish, or take other active out-door exercise. Take a brisk walk before retiring. Read entertaining books and periodicals, and never let your mind settle on one thing and brood over it. Don't sour your mind and disposition by over-doses of business. "Worry" is worse than sickness.
Self-Cultivation
Great men have ever been men of thought as well as men of action. As the magnificent river, rolling in the pride of its mighty waters, owes its greatness to the hidden spring of the mountain nook, so does the wide-sweeping influence of distinguished men date its origin from hours of privacy, resolutely employed in efforts after self-development. The invisible spring of self-culture is the source of every great achievement... Be determined to dig after knowledge as men search for concealed gold!
Set a high price on your leisure moments. They are sands of precious gold. Properly expended, they will procure for you a stock of great thoughts--thoughts that will fill, stir and invigorate, and expand the soul. Seize also on the unparalleled aids furnished by steam and type in this unequaled age.
Business Qualifications
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| The Village Clock Maker by Abbot Fuller Graves |
The young man should, first of all, study himself. He should consider well the comparative development of the various faculties of his mind, his temperament, the powers of his physical constitution, and the tendency given to his mind by his early training. Let him ask himself, "What am I best fitted to do? What can I do best? What pursuit would be most attractive to me?" Let him avail himself of every opportunity to become acquainted with the various trades and professions, and then observing carefully the impression they make upon him and looking again at his own mental and physical character with reference to each, let him make his selection.
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| Miss Remington, 1908 (Courtesy of Library of Congress) |
Get into the right place. How many poor physicians who would have made masterly mechanics; how many wretched merchants, who would have made noble, athletic farmers...No wonder the old philosopher said, "God has made in this world two kinds of holes: round holes and three-cornered holes, and also two kinds of people: round people and three-cornered people. But almost all the round people are in the three-cornered holes and the three-cornered people are in the round holes." Hence the uneasiness and unhappiness of society and the failure of so many enterprises. Get into the right place, stay there and master your situation, and success is yours.
Business Manners
- Be cheerful, and show proper civility to all with whom you transact business.
- There are many who have failed in business because they never learned to respect the feelings or opinions of others.
- Kindness of manners is the best capital to invest in a business, and will bear a higher rate of interest than any other investment.
- Be accomplished, polite, refined, civil, affable, well-behaved and well-mannered, and you will never lose by it.
- Manners make the business man, and give him the art of entertaining and pleasing all with whom he has business relations.
- If you wish to change a man's views in reference to some business transaction or other negotiations, respect his opinions, and he will be respectful and listen to your arguments.
- There are a thousand easy, engaging little ways, which we may put on in dealing with others, without running any risk of over-doing it.
What To Do
Young men, you are the architects of your own fortunes. Rely upon your own strength of body and soul. Take for your star, self-reliance. Don't take too much advice--keep at the helm and steer your own ship, and remember that the great art of commanding is to take a fair share of the work. Think well of yourself. Strike out. Assume your own position... Rise above the envious and jealous. Fire above the mark you intend to hit. Energy, invincible determination, with a right motive, are the levers that move the world. Be in earnest. Be self-reliant. Be generous. Be civil. Read the papers. Advertise your business. Make money, and do good with it. Love your God and fellow men. Love truth and virtue. Love your country and obey its laws. Take (U.S. Presidents) Garfield, Lincoln, Hayes, Grant and other self-made men for your models and aim high, and your success is a certainty.
