many grades from the best to the worst,
but the loss of faith in the relative value of a machine is most
commonly due to a lack of full knowledge of the other types, and
it is this kind of loss of courage, confidence, or whatever it may
be, that this chapter is intended to offset.

Have Faith in Your Products.

What has been said regarding the optimist, the pessimist, and the
vacillating man, from the designing and manufacturing point of
view of a machine business, applies with equal force to the
business organization.

The business is pushed forward by men who have confidence in the
project and in the product. If these men lose their faith in their
own business, they not only lose their usefulness as pushers and
managers, but they become drags on the industry, and remain so
until restored to normality. The hazard of investment is greatly
increased by such conditions.

Instances without number have been observed in which men who have
been successful have become unsuccessful through loss of
confidence due to acquiring the "dangerous half-knowledge."

The man who has acquired the dangerous half-knowledge should take
a post graduate course in some institution where men are treated
by all the most powerful agencies known to science. There may be
no institutions of this kind in existence, but the great need will
doubtless bring the establishment of many.

The men who have lost faith in their own machinery should be told
that no company can survive the effects of weak-kneed advocates.
Any company is better for a certain amount of aggressive
competition. Any company can stand more or less opposition from
its friends the enemy, but no company can continue to exist under
the blighting effects of the men who have lost this confidence in
them or their product.

The post graduate course for restoration of the near-wise man
should include educational means of all kinds. The means should be
especially adapted to the need of each student or patient.

There might be a phonograph in each room, which should work all
night and all day. This machine should repeat over and over a few
short sentences like the following:

"The only perfect machine is the one you do not know."

"Study the machines offered by your competitors, just to get the
same degree of knowledge of the 'other' machines--not for the
purpose of slandering or even mentioning--but just to restore your
confidence in the relative value of your own machine."