Lesson Nine - The Habit of Doing More Than What You are Paid

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It is no abuse of confidences to enumerate here a few of the events which show that no labor of love is ever performed at a total loss, and that those who render more service and better service than that for which they are paid sooner or later receive pay for much more than they actually do.

 

As this lesson is ready to go to the publisher some of the following well known concerns are considering favorably the purchase of the Law of Success course for all their employees, while others have actually arranged for the purchase of the course:

• Mr. Daniel Willard, President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co.

• Indian Refining Company

• Standard Oil Company

• New York Life Insurance Company

• The Postal Telegraph

• Commercial-Cable Company

• The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company

• The Cadillac Motor Car Company

• And some fifty other concerns of a similar size.

 

In addition to this, a newly organized club for boys, similar in nature to the Y. M. C. A., has contracted for the use of the Law of Success course as the basis of its educational program, and estimates that it will distribute more than 100,000 courses of the philosophy within the next two years.

 

Quite aside from these sources of distribution, the Ralston University Press, of Meriden, Conn., has contracted to publish and distribute the course to individuals throughout the United States, and perhaps in some foreign countries. How many courses they will distribute cannot be accurately estimated, but when one stops to consider the fact that they have a mailing list of approximately 800,000 people who have faith in anything they offer for sale, it seems very reasonable to suppose that their distribution will place tens of thousands of courses in the hands of men and women who are earnestly searching for the knowledge conveyed by the Law of Success philosophy.

 

Perhaps it is unnecessary, but I wish to explain that my only object in here relating the story of how the Law of Success philosophy has gained the recognition described is to show how the law upon which this lesson is based actually works out in the practical affairs of life.

 

If I could have made this analysis without the use of the personal pronoun I would have done so.

 

With this background of history concerning the Law of Success philosophy as a whole, and this lesson in particular, you are better prepared to accept as sound the law on which this lesson is based.

 

There are more than a score of sound reasons why you should develop the habit of performing more service and better service than that for which you are paid, despite the fact that a large majority of the people are not rendering such service.

 

There are two reasons, however, for rendering such service, which transcend, in importance, all the others; namely,

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1. First: By establishing a reputation as being a person who always renders more service and better service than that for which you are paid, you will benefit by comparison with those around you who do not render such service, and the contrast will be so noticeable that there will be keen competition for your services, no matter what your life-work may be. It would be an insult to your intelligence to offer proof of the soundness of this statement, because it is obviously sound. Whether you are preaching sermons, practicing law, writing books, teaching school, or digging ditches, you will become more valuable and you will be able to command greater pay the minute you gain recognition as a person who does more than that for which he is paid.

2. Second: By far the most important reason why you should render more service than that for which you are paid; a reason that is basic and fundamental in nature; may be described in this way: Suppose that you wished to develop a strong right arm, and suppose that you tried to do so by tying the arm to your side with a rope, thus taking it out of use and giving it a long rest. Would disuse bring strength, or would it bring atrophy and weakness, resulting, finally, in your being compelled to have the arm removed? You know that if you wished a strong right arm you could develop such an arm only by giving it the hardest sort of use. Take a look at the arm of a blacksmith if you wish to know how an arm may be made strong. Out of resistance comes strength. The strongest oak tree of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun, but it is the one that stands in the open, where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.

 

It is through the operation of one of Nature's unvarying laws that struggle and resistance develop strength, and the purpose of this lesson is to show you how to harness this law and so use it that it will aid you in your struggle for success.

 

By performing more service and better service than that for which you are paid, you not only exercise your service-rendering qualities, and thereby develop skill and ability of an extraordinary sort, but you build reputation that is valuable.

 

If you form the habit of rendering such service you will become so adept in your work that you can command greater remuneration than those who do not perform such service. You will eventually develop sufficient strength to enable you to remove yourself from any undesirable station in life, and no one can or will desire to stop you.

 

If you are an employee you can make yourself so valuable, through this habit of performing more service than that for which you are paid, that you can practically set your own wages and no sensible employer will try to stop you.

 

If your employer should be so unfortunate as to try to withhold from you the compensation to which you are entitled, this will not long remain as a handicap because other employers will discover this unusual quality and offer you employment.

 

The very fact that most people are rendering as little service as they can possibly get by with serves as an advantage to all who are rendering more service than that for which they are paid, because it enables all who do this to profit by comparison.

 

You can "get by" if you render as little service as possible, but that is all you will get; and when work is slack and retrenchment sets in, you will be one of the first to be dismissed.

 

For more than twenty-five years I have carefully studied men with the object of ascertaining why some achieve noteworthy success while others with just as much ability do not get ahead; and it seems significant that every person whom I have observed applying this principle of rendering more service than that for which he was paid, was holding a better position and receiving more pay than those who merely performed sufficient service to "get by" with.

 

Personally I never received a promotion in my life that I could not trace directly to recognition that I had gained by rendering more service and better service than that for which I was paid. I am stressing the importance of making this principle a habit as a means of enabling an employee to promote himself to a higher position, with greater pay, for the reason that this course will be studied by thousands of young men and young women who work for others.

 

However, the principle applies to the employer or to the professional man or woman

just the same as to the employee.

 

Observance of this principle brings a two-fold reward.

1. First, it brings the reward of greater material gain than that enjoyed by those who do not observe it; and,

2. Second, it brings that reward of happiness and satisfaction which come only to those who render such service.

 

If you receive no pay except that which comes in your pay envelope,

you are underpaid, no matter how much money that envelope contains.

 

My wife has just returned from the Public Library with a book for me to read. The book is entitled "Observation; Every Man His Own University," by Russell H. Conwell. By chance I opened this book at the beginning of the chapter entitled Every Man's University, and, as I read it through, my first impulse was to recommend that you go to the Public Library and read the entire book; but, upon second thought, I will not do this; instead, I will recommend that you purchase the book and read it, not once but a hundred times, because it covers the subject of this lesson as though it had been written for that purpose; covers it in a far more impressive manner than I could do it.

 

The following quotation from the chapter entitled Every Man's University will give you an idea of the golden nugget of truth to be found throughout the book:

 

"The intellect can be made to look far beyond the range of what men and women ordinarily see, but not all the colleges in the world can alone confer this power - this is the reward of self-culture; each must acquire it for himself; and perhaps this is why the power of observing deeply and widely is so much oftener found in those men and those women who have never crossed the threshold of any college but the University of Hard Knocks."

 

Read that book as a part of this lesson, because it will prepare you to profit by the philosophy and psychology upon which the lesson is built.

 

We will now analyze the law upon which this entire lesson is founded, namely

THE LAW OF INCREASING RETURNS!

 

Let us begin our analysis by showing how Nature employs this law in behalf of the tillers of the soil.

 

The farmer carefully prepares the ground, then sows his wheat and waits while the Law of Increasing Returns brings back the seed he has sown, plus a many-fold increase.

 

But for this Law of Increasing Returns, man would perish, because he could not make the soil produce sufficient food for his existence.

 

There would be no advantage to be gained by sowing a field of wheat if the harvest yield did not return more than was sown.

 

With this vital "tip" from Nature, which we may gather from the wheat fields, let us proceed to appropriate this Law of Increasing Returns and learn how to apply it to the service we render, to the end that it may yield returns in excess of and out of proportion to the effort put forth.

 

First of all, let us emphasize the fact that there is no trickery or chicanery connected with this Law, although quite a few seem not to have learned this great truth, judging by the number who spend all of their efforts either trying to get something for nothing, or something for less than its true value.

 

It is to no such end that we recommend the use of the Law of Increasing Returns, for no such end is possible, within the broad meaning of the word success.

 

Another remarkable and noteworthy feature of the Law of Increasing Returns is the fact that it may be used by those who purchase service with as great returns as it can be by those who render service, for Proof of which we have but to study the effects of Henry Ford's famous Five-Dollar-a-day minimum wage scale which he inaugurated some years ago.

 

Those who are familiar with the facts say that Mr. Ford was not playing the part of a philanthropist when he inaugurated this minimum wage scale; but, to the contrary, he was merely taking advantage of a sound business principle which has probably yielded him greater returns, in both dollars and good-will, than any other single policy ever inaugurated at the Ford plant.

 

By paying more wages than the average,

he received more service and better service than the average!

 

At a single stroke, through the inauguration of that minimum wage policy, Ford attracted the best labor on the market and placed a premium upon the privilege of working in his plant.

 

I have no authentic figures at hand bearing on the subject, but I have sound reason to conjecture that for every five dollars Ford spent, under this policy, he received at least seven dollars and fifty cents' worth of service. I have, also, sound reason to believe that this policy enabled Ford to reduce the cost of supervision, because employment in his plant became so desirable that no worker would care to run the risk of losing his position by "slacking" on the job or rendering poor service.

 

Where other employers were forced to depend upon costly supervision in order to get the service to which they were entitled, and for which they were paying, Ford got the same or better service by the less expensive method of placing a premium upon employment in his plant.

 

Marshall Field was probably the leading merchant of his time, and the great Field store, in Chicago, stands as a monument to his ability to apply the Law of Increasing Returns.

 

A customer purchased an expensive lace waist at the Field store, but did not wear it. Two years later she gave it to her niece as a wedding present. The niece quietly returned the waist to the Field store and exchanged it for other merchandise, despite the fact that it had been out for more than two years and was then out of style.

 

Not only did the Field store take back the waist, but, what is of more importance it did so without argument!

 

Of course there was no obligation, moral or legal, on the part of the store to accept the return of the waist at that late date, which makes the transaction all the more significant.

 

The waist was originally priced at fifty dollars, and of course it had to be thrown on the bargain counter and sold for whatever it would bring, but the keen student of human nature will understand that the Field store not only did not lose anything on the waist, but it actually profited by the transaction to an extent that cannot be measured in mere dollars.

 

The woman who returned the waist knew that she was not entitled to a rebate; therefore, when the store gave her that to which she was not entitled the transaction won her as a permanent customer.

 

But the effect of the transaction did not end here; it only began; for this woman spread the news of the "fair treatment" she had received at the Field store, far and near. It was the talk of the women of her set for many days, and the Field store received more advertising from the transaction than it could have purchased in any other way with ten times the value of the waist.

 

The success of the Field store was built largely upon Marshall Field's understanding of the Law of Increasing Returns, which prompted him to adopt, as a part of his business policy, the slogan,

"The customer is always right."

 

When you do only that for which you are paid, there is nothing out of the ordinary to attract favorable comment about the transaction; but, when you willingly do more than that for which you are paid, your action attracts the favorable attention of all who are affected by the transaction, and goes another step toward establishing a reputation that will eventually set the Law of Increasing Returns to work in your behalf, for this reputation will create a demand for your services, far and wide.

 

 

Carol Downes went to work for W. C. Durant, the automobile manufacturer, in a minor position. He is now Mr. Durant's right-hand man, and the president of one of his automobile distributing companies.

 

He promoted himself into this profitable position solely through the aid of the Law of Increasing Returns, which he put into operation by rendering more service and better service than that for which he was paid.

 

In a recent visit with Mr. Downes I asked him to tell me how he managed to gain promotion so rapidly. In a few brief sentences he told the whole story.

 

"When I first went to work with Mr. Durant," said he.

 

"I noticed that he always remained at the office long after all the others had gone home for the day, and I made it my business to stay there, also.

 

No one asked me to stay, but I thought someone should be there to give Mr. Durant any assistance he might need.

 

Often he would look around for someone to bring him a letter file, or render some other trivial service, and always he found me there ready to serve him.

 

He got into the habit of calling on me; that is about all there is to the story.

 

He got into the habit of calling on me!"

 

Read that last sentence again, for it is full of meaning of the richest sort.

 

Why did Mr. Durant get into the habit of calling on Mr. Downes? Because Mr. Downes made it his business to be on hand where he would be seen. He deliberately placed himself in Mr. Durant's way in order that he might render service that would place the Law of Increasing Returns back of him.

 

Was he told to do this? No! Was he paid to do it? Yes! He was paid by the opportunity it offered for him to bring himself to the attention of the man who had it within his power to promote him.

 

 

We are now approaching the most important part of this lesson, because this is an appropriate place at which to suggest that you have the same opportunity to make use of the Law of Increasing Returns that Mr. Downes had, and you can go about the application of the Law in exactly the same way that he did, by being on hand and ready to volunteer your services in the performance of work which others may shirk because they are not paid to do it.

 

Stop! Don't say it-don't even think it if you have the slightest intention of springing that old timeworn phrase entitled, "But my employer is different."

 

Of course he is different. All men are different in most respects, but they are very much alike in this - they are somewhat selfish; in fact they are selfish enough not to want a man such as Carol Downes to cast his lot with their competitor, and this very selfishness may be made to serve you as an asset and not as a liability if - You have the good judgment to make yourself so useful that the person to whom you sell your services cannot get along without you.

 

One of the most advantageous promotions I ever received came about through an incident which seemed so insignificant that it appeared to be unimportant.

 

One Saturday afternoon, a lawyer, whose office was on the same floor as that of my employer, came in and asked if I knew where he could get a stenographer to do some work which he was compelled to finish that day.

 

I told him that all of our stenographers had gone to the ball game, and that I would have been gone had he called five minutes later, but that I would be very glad to stay and do his work as I could go to a ball game any day and his work had to be done then.

 

I did the work for him, and when he asked how much he owed me I replied, "Oh, about a thousand dollars, as long as it is you; if it were for anyone else, I wouldn't charge anything."

 

He smiled, and thanked me. Little did I think, when I made that remark, that he would ever pay me a thousand dollars for that afternoon's work, but he did).

 

Six months later, after I had entirely forgotten the incident, he called on me again, and asked how much salary I was receiving. When I told him he informed me that he was ready to pay me that thousand dollars which I had laughingly said I would charge him for the work I had performed for him and he did pay it by giving me a position at a thousand dollars a year increase in salary.

 

Unconsciously, I had put the Law of Increasing Returns to work in my behalf that afternoon, by giving up the ball game and rendering a service which was obviously rendered out of a desire to be helpful and not for the sake of a monetary consideration.

 

It was not my duty to give up my Saturday afternoon, but - It was my privilege! Furthermore, it was a profitable privilege, because it yielded me a thousand dollars in cash and a much more responsible position than the one I had formerly occupied.

 

It was Carol Downes' duty to be on hand until the usual quitting time, but it was his privilege to remain at his post after the other workers had gone, and that privilege properly exercised brought him greater responsibilities and a salary that yields him more in a year than he would have made in a life-time in the position he occupied before he exercised the privilege.

 

I have been thinking for more than twenty-five years of this privilege of performing more service and better service than that for which we are paid, and my thoughts have led me to the conclusion that a single hour devoted each day to rendering service for which we are not paid, can be made to yield bigger returns than we received from the entire remainder of the day the day during which we are merely performing our duty.

 

(We are still in the neighborhood of the most important part of this lesson,

therefore, think and assimilate as you pass over these pages.)

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Lesson Nine - The Habit of Doing More Than What You are Paid

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