284 ^^^ Psychology of the Business Man 



of it. His friends are astonished at this sudden exhibition of 

 "will power"; but this was his first really own idea, hitherto 

 his ideas had been made by his family for him. The idea of 

 putting his house rent into buying his own home occurs to a 

 wholesale clerk with a growing family ; he has to twist and 

 turn by all kinds of plans to make some cash payment and see 

 his way through the extra-sized rent payments, but he does 

 it. This epochal family event gives him stimulus toward his 

 idea of making himself so useful to his firm that they will 

 give him some share in their stock, — all of W'hich he in time 

 accomplishes. 



Because most plans of business men a'fe quite compli- 

 cated, involving many preliminary and side activities before 

 the final compound end can be reached, a strong tenacity to 

 the ultimate end is developed. Such a far-reaching persist- 

 ence has also developed a complicated self-control. The busi- 

 ness man is master of his muscles and expressions under sud- 

 den and new conditions. How far is this developed above 

 the child with its primitive motor reaction of immediately 

 grasping or wanting everything that attracts its attention ! 



When we observe how the business man gets the ideas 

 and plans which he acts out, the first evident principle is imi- 

 tation. Just as all follow the tailor's fashion plates and the 

 changes in collars, hats and shoes, so the lowering and enlarg- 

 ing of show windows spreads up and down the retail streets. 

 Just as the first bicycle or automobile is immediately length- 

 ened out into a universal procession by all the live business 

 men, so the advertising by one house furnishing firm of ''Your 

 credit is good at the Chip of the Old Block" is followed by all 

 the other furnishing houses offering ''Good Credit," "Your 

 Own Terms," "We take care of our customers," «&c., &c. The 

 first cheap grade department store is followed by the enlarging 

 of the old dry goods and carpet stores into selling everything 

 from potatoes to pans, flowers and drugs. The magic spread 

 of the typewriter, cash register and computing scales cannot 

 be accounted for by their usefulness alone : many a small office 

 or store is forced to go in prematurely for these machines "be- 

 cause the others do." . The smoking, drinking, club and lodge 

 habits, the winter fiying trip to California or the South, the 

 summer exodus to the mountains or the lakes, the shooting 

 or trout fishing trip of the fall and spring and the occasional 



