Success

His salary was above the average from the start, for the reason that he was capable and had a record of successful achievement that made him a valuable man. He was assigned to a private office that was equipped with a fine mahogany desk and an easy chair. On the top of the desk was an electric push button that led to a secretary's desk outside. The first day went by without any work coming to his desk.

The second, and third, and fourth days went by without any work. No one came in or said anything to him. By the end of the week he began to feel uneasy. (Men of action always feel uneasy when there is no work in sight.)

The following week Mr. Vanderlip went into the president's office and said, Look here, you are paying me a big salary and giving me nothing to do and it is grating on my nerves! The president looked up with a lively twinkle in his keen eyes. Now I have been thinking, Mr. Vanderlip continued, while sitting in there with nothing to do, of a plan for increasing the business of this bank.

The president assured him that both thinking and plans were valuable, and asked him to continue with his interview. I have thought of a plan, Mr. Vanderlip went on, that will give the bank the benefit of my experience in the bond business. I propose to create a bond department for this bank and advertise it as a feature of our business.

What! this bank advertise? queried the president.

Why, we have never advertised since we began business. We have managed to get along without it. Well, this is where you are going to begin advertising, said Mr. Vanderlip, and the first thing you are going to advertise is this new bond department that I have planned.

Mr. Vanderlip won! Men of action usually win - that is one of their distinctive features. The National City Bank also won, because that interview was the beginning of one of the most progressive and profitable advertising campaigns ever carried on by any bank, with the result that the National City Bank became one of the most powerful financial institutions of America.

There were other results, also, that are worth naming. Among them the result that Mr. Vanderlip grew with the bank, as men of action usually grow in whatever they help to build, until finally he became the president of that great banking house.