with what we have done for them.

I am quite often asked about investments. Well, there are times, about
once in three or four years--during panics, when every one is scared to
death--that I invest in stocks. There are other times when I advise the
purchase of bonds. The fact is, however, that I have not made my money
investing either in stocks or bonds. What money I have made has come
from investing in boys and girls, young men and young women.

There is a common belief current to-day that only people with experience
are worth while. But I say: Quit looking for the experienced salesmen
and trying to make a man out of him; get a _man_, and then make a
salesman of him. I have a young man in my business who was delivering
trunks for an express company twelve years ago. To-day he is my sales
manager and has built our gross from $100,000 to $1,000,000. One of my
best experts, a man who is sought for by the leading Chambers of
Commerce all over the land, was a carpenter on my garage nine years ago.
Another one of my experts, a man the demand for whose services I cannot
supply, never acquired recognition until he was over forty-five years of
age. I found him keeping hens at Wellesley Farms! A young lady in my
office to whom I pay $200 a week and who is worth, to me, $1,000 a week,
I picked up at $4 a week twelve years ago.

Such cases exist everywhere. You men yourselves know them. You look over
your own organizations. Who are the men who are really doing things? Are
they the men you acquired ready-made from other concerns? No! They are
the men that have been taken up and developed. These are the men that
have made money for you and have created the business enterprise of
which you are the head. Yet when we have reached a point of prestige,
and have a big business, we are tempted to say: "I haven't time to
develop any more people, I have got to get them already made." This is a
big mistake.

* * * * *

I beg my readers--those who have them--to get your foremen together. Say
to the partners or the officials of your concern: "Haven't we given too
much thought to developing the structure? Aren't we piling too many
stories one upon another with too little thought to the foundation?"
Then go out and look over your plant and select a few people in each
department to whom you will give a real opportunity. Start in to develop
them and thereby strengthen the foundation of the business and the
prospe