Of course in judging the mental ability of any young man, one must always make allowance 'for his training, whether at home or in school. A youth coming from a poor family, whose playmates have been rough and ill-bred and whose "book-learning" has been got in night schools, will not do himself justice on a written test, and will suffer by comparison with young men v,vho have had the advantage of a refined home and excellent teachers.
7. discussed the will in the chap ter on "Personality" and found it to be a complex faculty which keeps us driving toward the object of our desire. A man is constantly getting returns from his emotions or feelings, his imagination, his memory and his intellect, and is making decisions which the will must execute. When a man insists upon carry ing out a purpose upon which he has decided, or upon which, as we say, he has set his heart, and cannot be turned back by persuasion or unforeseen obstacles, we call him a man of strong will. Such a man gets a reputation of doing whatever he sets out to do.
But if a man is pertinacious and contumacious merely about trifling matters, whether of conduct or of opinion, we call him stubborn or obstinate rather than strong willed. Vanity, pride, self-conceit are the parents of obstinacy; they are not evidences of strong will.
Will is an expression of a nian's whole self and is strong only when the personality behind it is strong. The man who knows positively what he wants and whose intellect gives its approval or disapproval in no uncertain terms, so that he does not wabble or re consider his course, is a man of strong will. If he is a bad man he is dangerous; if he is a good man, he does a lot of fine things that weak people think im possible.
A business man of strong will is invaluable, but your small obstinate man, however intellectual, is a nuisance. So in selecting employes we should give preference, other things being equal, to the men who show sig,ns of will power.
The phrenologists locate will in the rear apex of the cranium at the spot where most men begin to get bald. The physiognomists discover it in the large nose, firm thin lips and square jaw, but we do not need these signs in order to recognize the man of will. The applicant for a job will unconsciously tell us what kind of will he has. Does he enter our office
in a: hesitating, uncertain manner? Does he tell us what he wants clearly and positively? Does he look as tho he were determined to get this job? Or is his manner dejected and hopeless? Does he sit upright in his chair and come back at us with definite answers to all questions? Does his face bear marks of dissipa tion? Does be spend his leisure at parties, dances, theaters and ball-games? If not, why does he employ any part of his leisure otherwise than in having pleas ure? When he leaves your office, having been told that his name will be put on file, is his head up on his shoulders or do his shoulders droop and does his head hang in discouragement? The man of strong will does not give up. Nowhere in the world has he a better chance to prove his will than in that toughest of all jobs, namely, looking for a job. A man who can walk the streets for several days, answering this advertisement and pursuing that clue without landing a position, and yet preserve his nerve and his resolution to keep on until he succeeds, has will and will finally "get there." The man who has never had to walk the streets in search of a job has missed a very important if not essential discipline. It helps build the will and to make character.
8. Stability and reliability.—There is a certain type of man who is comparatively useless in business be cause no employer ever feels certain just what to expect from him. Such a man may have the best intentions in the world, being honest and honorable, yet every now and then, for some reason or other, he falls down and gives his employer a painful shock of disappointment. Why should such a good man prove a fizzle in this particular emergency? Sometimes this type of man will work overtime willingly and prove a regular Hercules. At another time, just when you need him most, you may not be able to get a full day's work out of him.
Instability of character originates either in the emo tions or in the liver. Some men, as we all know, are much more sensitive than others. They are called thin-skinned and are easily wounded, while others are said to have the hide of a rhinoceros, absolutely im pervious to ordinary verbal bullets.