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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