Evidently a personality which is the expression of desirable qualities or characteristics will help a young man to get a position, and will help him rise to higher positions. As a rule, business men care much less out letters of recommendation than the applicant *for a job imagines. Let ten men answer an adver tisement, all but one having excellent references, If the personality of the tenth man is the most attrac tive, the chances are that he will get the job, with the condition perhaps that upon investigation his statements about himself are confirmed.
The reader must not suppose that business men are guided altogether by first impressions, for they are not. But when they are looking for a man to fill any position, whether it be a humble one or a post of re sponsibility, the impression made by the applicant's personality is very important. It may be a good one and lead to further inquiry, or it may be a bad one and cause the applicant to be turned away without consideration.
It would be impossible to describe the many ways in which personality is helpful -to a man i_n business. Personality is in a sense only another name for char acter. It sums up the dominant, striking character istics of a man. If you say that a man has a strong personality, it is the same as saying that he has strength of character, that in certain positions be will be forceful, energetic, efficient. The opinions and suggestions of a man with strong personality are listened to with respect, but to the words of a man lacking personality, few men give a willing ear. Hence personality of the right kind is something that young men in business should take pains to cultivate.
6. Possibility of people are fatalists and will seriously question the ability of a man to change his character in any way as a result of his conscious efforts. A man born of weak-willed ancestors is certain in their opinion to be cursed by weakness of will thruout his life. If he is born timid and self-mistrustful, they think no amount of train ing will make him brave and self-reliant.
I refuse to subscribe to such a philosophy of pessimism. Resolute, purposeful, regular exercise of the brain or of the will produces definite and meas urable results. Every young man knows that he can build muscles by faithful exercise in a gymnasium.
Discipline of the mind and character perhaps is more difficult than discipline of the body, but the results, the strengthened will, the increase in intellectual power, are not one whit less certain. Most young men fail to realize the truth of this statement. If they are dull of intelligence and are ranked as dunces by their teachers, they envy their cleverer comrades and accept their own dulness and stupidity, either as a providential infliction, or fIS an inheritance from their ancestors. At any rate, it seems to them a natural handicap under which they must always labor.
Fortunately the writer has known young men who have not been crushed by their consciousness of in tellectual dulness. One such young man came to the New York University School of Commerce am bitious for a higher education. He was a machinist and by long and hard study at night had been able to pass the state examinations which gave him the standing of a high school graduate. In the Univer sity he failed again and again and became the subject of serious discussions in faculty meetings, some of the professors feeling that the youth was wasting his time. But he refused to give up or be discouraged. Finally, after six years of effort, he succeeded in ac complishing what the average youth does in three years without great effort. At the age of thirty lie had successfully passed the state examinations and become a certified public accountant. The last word from his employer is: Since the work of an accountant calls for much more than ordinary intellectual power, it is evident that this youth, by his own effort more than thru the aid of his teachers, developed mental power which be would otherwise not have possessed. At the same time he strengthened his will and personality.
7. Qualities a young man, should was pointed out in the chapter on "Personal Effi ciency," a, young man free to choose a career should seek to develop to the utmost his finest native char acteristics, and then to get into the occupation for which he seems best fitted. But if circumstances practically force him into a certain business, then he must seek to develop in-himself those qualities which his occupation especially calls for.