CHAPTER III. 



MAKING A SUCCESSFUL START. 



A Modest Beginning. With every business enterprise, a suc- 

 cessful beginning that is, organizing and planning the character 

 and scope of the work to be followed is of the utmost importance. 

 Ultimate success will depend largely on the method of making the 

 start. A modest beginning is likely to bring good results in much 

 quicker time than a start on a larger scale. The tendency too 

 often is for the beginner to lay a foundation beyond his experience. 

 Many mistakes and great disappointments can be avoided by 

 taking a little longer time for development and to allow the busi- 

 ness to rest on safe and sure principles. Such a course is better 

 than to begin with the handicap of too much stock and too little 

 experience. 



Mistakes are made by those who have had years of experience, 

 as well as by the amateur. Many instances might be cited wherein 

 poultry keepers, even with years of experience, have taken false 

 steps in the way of increasing their plants, in changing their 

 methods, or in reorganization. Such examples tend to prove the 

 advisability of a modest start, followed by normal development 

 each year until the maximum efficiency of the plant is reached. 

 This point will vary with different poultry keepers and in different 

 locations even under the same methods of management. So many 

 factors are to be considered that it will be impossible to foretell 

 the exact extent to which a business can be safely developed until 

 careful trials and comparisons have been made. 



Importance of Personality. Both experience and training are 

 essential; but another factor which overreaches either of them in 

 the matter of insuring success is the personality of the poultryman 

 himself. In other words, he must be sure of himself first. He 

 must submit to a careful self-examination and analyze his own 

 feelings and manner of living and thinking in order to know whether 

 he is suited to his chosen work. The first requisite is to have a 

 personal liking for the business ; and if his ancestors have been 

 lovers of the work and have succeeded in it, so much the better. 

 If this analysis shows factors which would tend to hinder him, 

 the step should by all means be avoided. There is perhaps no 

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