ion with us yet. But the great trouble with some
fellows is that a little success goes to their heads. Instead of hiding
their authority behind their backs and trying to get close to their men,
they use it as a club to keep them off. And a boss with a case of
big-head will fill an office full of sore heads.

I don't know any one who has better opportunities for making himself
unpopular than an assistant, for the clerks are apt to cuss him for all
the manager's meanness, and the manager is likely to find fault with him
for all the clerks' cussedness. But if he explains his orders to the
clerks he loses his authority, and if he excuses himself to the manager
he loses his usefulness. A manager needs an assistant to take trouble
from him, not to bring it to him.

The one important thing for you to remember all the time is not to
forget. It's easier for a boss to do a thing himself than to tell some
one twice to do it. Petty details take up just as much room in a
manager's head as big ideas; and the more of the first you store for
him, the more warehouse room you leave him for the second. When a boss
has to spend his days swearing at his assistant and the clerks have to
sit up nights hating him, they haven't much time left to swear by the
house. Satisfaction is the oil of the business machine.

Some fellows can only see those above them, and others can only see
those under them, but a good man is cross-eyed and can see both ends at
once. An assistant who becomes his manager's right hand is going to find
the left hand helping him; and it's not hard for a clerk to find good
points in a boss who finds good ones in him. Pulling from above and
boosting from below make climbing easy.

In handling men, your own feelings are the only ones that are of no
importance. I don't mean by this that you want to sacrifice your
self-respect, but you must keep in mind that the bigger the position the
broader the man must be to fill it. And a diet of courtesy and
consideration gives girth to a boss.

Of course, all this is going to take so much time and thought that you
won't have a very wide margin left for golf--especially in the
afternoons. I simply mention this in passing, because I see in the
Chicago papers which have been sent me that you were among the players
on the links one afternoon a fortnight ago. Golf's a nice, foolish game,
and there ain't any harm in it so far as I know except for the
balls--the stiff balls at the beginning,