PERSONAL EFFICIENCY 1. Energy, time and space.—Thruout this book, without having defined the word "efficiency," I have tried to point out the various ways in which busi ness men can make themselves more efficient. The word comes from the Latin efficio (ex-facio), which means "I do thoroly, completely, triumphantly." Generally speaking, a man is efficient in his business when he devotes his energies to its tasks with such wisdom that all are properly and successfully done.
To get a clear idea of efficiency let us think of man as a bundle of energy, mental and physical, which must expend itself subject to the laws of space nnd time, the highest degree of efficiency being attained when a given amount of energy is so wisely directed that a task is completed in the least possible space and after the lapse of the least possible time.
The essence of efficiency is the economy of energy, time and space. When any one of these three is wasted, or consumed without a desired result, we have loss of efficiency. A Yankee farmer's wife of sev enty-five years ago, having a multitude of tasks to perform and often being without help, aimed more or less consciously at efficiency. She kept the churn and cheese-press near the pantry where the milk was stored, thus saving steps; when she went down cellar to get butter or apples, she took. with her something that had to be returned to the cellar, again saving steps; and when her morning's work was done and she could rest, she sat down and braided straw hats or knitted stockings, thus saving time. In those old days, when women's work was much heavier than now, the word "efficiency" was unknown, but the house wife who took useless steps, either coming or going, or let any time pass without something done, was in ill repute as being lazy and shiftless.
Today efficiency is most talked of among engineers. They think of it in technical terms as the maximum of result produced by the minimum of energy. An engine which utilizes only 20 per cent of the energy in the coal constu-ned is said to be 20 per cent efficient, 80 per cent of the energy having been wasted. A ma
chine 100 per cent efficient has never yet been in vented, and probably never will be, but to reduce the waste of energy in industrial processes is a problem upon which the engineer must always be at work.
When one's store of energy is infinite or in excess of all possible needs, any loss or waste of energy is left out of account in the measurement of efficiency. From the human point of view nature is a prodigal in the use of energy. The sunlight and the rain which she pours upon the earth, the oxygen and the ni trogen with which she envelops it, might conceivably be utilized to keep a thousand earths fit for human and animal life. The human eye, one of nature's most wonderful mechanisms, is said by physicists to be much less than 100 per cent efficient. But nature's store of energy is infinite and she has directed its flow thru the countless ages of evolution with such marvelous wis dom that we find everywhere perfect adjustment of means to ends. She did not give us greater efficiency of the eye, simply because we did not need it.
In business human energy is the driving power, and the supply of it is limited. In measuring the effi ciency of a business man, therefore, we must take into account his waste of energy as well as his waste of space and time.
2. Know thyself .—Socrates, the Greek philosopher, held that a man took the first step toward knowl edge when he recognized the fact that he knew noth ing, and that the second step must be to study him self.
Socrates was right, but very few people know what he really meant. Most of us do much more idle thinking about ourselves tban is good for us ; what we would do if we were rich, how brave we would be if our 6ourage could only be dramatically tested, what great things we would accomplish if we only had op portunity, what fine and useful books we would write if we could only travel, how much good we would do in the world if we only had power. But all this is just dreaming and romancing about oneself. It is not studying ourselves.