Men who Sell Things: Observations and Experiences of Over Twenty Years as Travelling Salesman, European Buyer, Sales Manager, Employer

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A. C. McClurg & Company, 1907 - 282 pages

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Page 167 - MASTER of human destinies am I ! Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait. Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate Deserts and seas remote, and passing by Hovel and mart and palace — soon or late I knock, unbidden, once at every gate! If sleeping, wake — if feasting, rise before I turn away. It is the hour of fate, And they who follow me reach every state Mortals desire, and conquer every foe Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate, Condemned to failure, penury, and woe, Seek me in vain...
Page 156 - GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow will be dying. The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, The higher he's a-getting, The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he's to setting. That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer; But being spent, the worse and worst Times still succeed the former. Then be not coy, but use your time...
Page 50 - Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin to carry across the Niagara River on a rope, would you shake the cable or keep on shouting out to him, ' Blondin, stand up a little straighter; Blondin, stoop a little more; go a little faster; lean a little to the north; lean a little more to the south?
Page 59 - It is said that a lobster, when left high and dry among the rocks, has not instinct and energy enough to work his way back to the sea, but waits for the sea to come to him. If it does not come, he remains where he is, and dies, although the slightest effort would enable hi/r to reach the waves.
Page 50 - Blondin, stand up a little straighter — Blondin, stoop a little more — go a little faster — lean a little more to the north — lean a little more to the south?
Page 180 - I believe that a man gets what he goes after, that one deed done today is worth two deeds tomorrow, and that no man is down and out until he has lost faith in himself. I believe in today and the work I am doing, in tomorrow and the work I hope to do, and in the sure reward which the future holds.
Page 40 - I am not discouraged." The third time he said: "I am not discouraged. You lie!" The man walked down the street, his head up, going toward the light. The imp of discouragement returned to his master, crest-fallen. "I couldn't get him. Three times I told him he was discouraged. The third time he called me a liar, and that discouraged me.
Page 54 - No one of us can make the world move on very far, but it moves at all only when each one of a very large number does his duty." " Clean politics is simply one form of applied good citizenship." " A man should be no more excused for lying on the stump than for lying off the stump.
Page 37 - The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, "How lucky he is!
Page 70 - ... exterior seriousness in looks and motions, gives dignity, without excluding wit and decent cheerfulness, which are always serious themselves. A constant smirk upon the face, and a whiffling activity of the body, are strong indications of futility. Whoever is in a hurry, shows that the thing he is about is too big for him. Haste and hurry are very different things.

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