3. Strong a man is,strikingly different from most people we know, we say that he has a strong personality. That is our way of recog nizing the fact that he is not just a person. He is a person plus something extraordinary, and this ex traordinary quality is somehow expressed in his bear ing or speech. All of us know men who could not walk into a hall containing an audience of entire strangers without at once attracting attention, every body feeling that here is a man of unusual quality.
"Who is that young fellow? I want to laiow him." That question was asked by a successful business man who was about to address a class of colleov stu b dents. The face and walk and bearing of a student going to his seat had given rise to the question. The young man had personality-. He was ambitious, eager for work, tireless.
Mere physical bulk is not essential to the possession of' a strong personality. Moral and mental charac teristics are much more important. Yet the tall, broad-shouldered, well-muscled man, vigorous of health, has undoubtedly a certain advantage over a smaller man. Most people are impressed bv mere size. Of two men possessing practically the same moral and mental qualities, the six-footer usually makes a better first , impression than the man who stands only five feet six. But on a very short ac quaintance we discover that the two personalities are practically on a par.
Nevertheless, there is a prejudice in favor of size and there is a reason for the prejudice. It is a com mon remark that the successful business men of Amer ica are as a rule physically strong and energetic. En vious and unsuccessful people are sometimes heard to explain this fact by saying that the successful business man is big merely because his success has given him a chance to be well fed, well housed and free from worry, and that if he bad failed in business, he would be as lean and physically unfit as Cassius.
A young man need not worry about his stature. His success in business does not depend on that. He may develop a strong personality tho he be only five feet tall. Let him remember that Napoleon was be low medium height, and that Jay Gould, Russell Sage and E. H. Harriman were slender men. At the same time, a man to make the most of his person ality must take the best possible care of his body.
4. Disagreeable personalities.—It goes without saying that a strong personality may be either at tractive or repellent, and that in business a repellent personality is a serious handicap. There are many different types of disagreeable personalities, but we will consider only a few that are commonly found in business.
First, there is the big "I," the pompous man who seeks to impress you with his own importance. He mav be suave and dignified, or he may be over-gruff and dictatorial. He may make you feel small or he may just disgust you. At any rate you go away hoping that you will never have to meet him again. In the language of the street, he is the "chesty" man.
Then there is the opposite type, the wheedler, the flatterer, the man who professes to think you are "it" and that he is nothing. He is in the Uriah Heep class. Self-respecting, sensible people do not like to do business with such men.
Then there is the egotist, the man of such naive and boundless conceit that he incessantly boasts of the great things Ile has accomplished. We laugh at him, but be bores us. His abnormal conceit gives him per sonality, but it costs him many dollars if he is in trade.
Finally, there is the ultra-suspicious man. He is an animated question mark and insists upon all sorts of information before he will do business. He prides himself upon his intelligence and far-sightedness, and always acts as if afraid that you are trying to deceive him. When a business man lets his fear of trickery completely dominate his character and conduct, he acquires a most objectionable personality.
Whether a disagreeable personality is strong or not depends upon the will and determination with which the disagreeable qualities are exercised. The man of weak will cannot have a strong personality.
5. V alue of personality in we have seen, personality is the outward expression of a man's real self. If the man is weak, vacillating and with out ambition, he is said to lack personality. In other words his nature is drab, having no qualities that attract attention. On the other hand, if he has cer tain strong qualities, being, we will say, very self reliant or positive in his opinions or intensely inter ested in his work, Ile has personality.