The "idee Axe" is a symptom of mental disorder. If you fear that one of your friends is falling a victim to it, do not argue with him,—that will make him worse. Keep him from solitude. Give him plenty of company and plenty of other things to talk and think about, so that his mind may recover its poise.
13. Vision at work.—The reader's own imagination or memory has doubtless already supplied him with illustrations of the way in which vision helps a man in business, and perhaps of instances in which failure has come because imagination had not done its part. Yet a few illustrations here may help to clear the reader's thought.
In the seventies, when the telephone was invented, most people could see in it nothing but a toy. It was just an interesting plaything, and capitalists saw little chance for profit in its exploitation, but the imagina tion of its inventor pictured it in every business house and in every residence, and heard the voices of people talking with their friends miles away, or arranging and closing a business negotiation in a few minutes, miles of travel and personal interviews no longer be ing necessary. He persevered, and lived to see his vision become reality.
Not many years ago the automobile was a luxury enjoyed only by the rich. Henry Ford's vision pic tured to him the automobile's appeal to men of ordi nary means, and found that appeal so strong that he at once began to build automobiles that could be sold at a price within the reach of the average man, and for several years he had no competitors in his field.
A man who had had some experience as a janitor in New York City was out of a job and came to a prosperous friend for advice. Said his friend: "If you saw a new apartment house lacking a janitor, could you imagine yourself in that house performing the services of janitor acceptably?" The man replied, of course, that he certainly could. "Then take a walk and find some new apartment houses, the owners are probably looking for janitors." The first delivery wagon carrying groceries from the store to the customers was born of imagination or vision. It added quite a sum to the expense account, and the critics predicted that the grocer would have to raise his prices and, hence, that he would lose trade, but the grocer's vision was correct. It was backed by sound judgment.
The advertiser who can picture the advantages or the charm of his article to his prospective customer wins him much more quickly than if he relied entirely on argument or pragmatical description.
A certain well-known and successful public speaker always carefully prepares and rehearses his speech in his room, and the speech he delivers seldom varies by so much as a word from the one he rehearses. A friend once expressed surprise to him that in com plete solitude illustrations should occur to him so pat that they seemed to be born of the occasion. "When I get up my speeches," he replied, "I am not alone; my audience is before me then just as clearly as when I am actually delivering the speech." A man out of a job, or one who is looking for a better position, must use his imagination. Knowing his own capabilities he must picture to himself the services he can render in different lines of business. Has he learned certain good methods that are not in general use in business houses? Then he should go forth and rouse the imaginations of employers by picturing to them the improvements he can make.
The imagination of some man connected with the American_ Sugar Refinery Company, picturing the universal dread of bacteria, devised a paper wrap for each individual piece of sugar.
But illustrations are not necessary. The reader of this book will find himself surrounded by ideas that have become realities—the alarm clock which wakes him in the morning, the reenforced heels of his stock ings, possibly the rubber heels on his shoes, his foun tain pen, his safety razor and shaving stick, his union suit of underwear, his encyclopedia in thin paper and flexible covers, the safety pin—if he is a married man —his dollar watch, his typewriter rubber keys, and so on ad infinitum. The reader may object that these are all inventions, and that they mean nothing to him because he is not an inventor. But every new idea is an invention. Taylor, the man who introduced new systems into industry, was an inventor. Pier pont Alorgan, who created the United States Steel Trust, was an inventor. The department store is an invention. The rural free delivery of mail is an in-. vention. The mail-order house is an invention.
All business progress is the result of invention, and imagination is the inventor.