Personal Development

It is a well known fact that Carnegie so ably directed the efforts of those who constituted his personal staff that he made many wealthy men of those who would never have become wealthy without the directing genius of his brain.

The same may be said of practically all great leaders in the field of industry and business - the gain is not all on the side of the leaders. Those under their direction often profit most by their leadership. It is a common practice for a certain type of man to berate his employers because of their opposite stations in a financial sense. It is usually true that such men would be infinitely worse off without these employers than they are with them.

In the first lesson of this course the value of allied effort was particularly emphasized for the reason that some men have the vision to plan while others have the ability to carry plans into action although they do not possess the imagination or the vision to create the plans they execute. It was his understanding of this principle of allied effort that enabled Andrew Carnegie to surround himself with a group of men that was made up of those who could plan and those who could execute.

Carnegie had in his group of assistants some of the most efficient salesmen in the world, but if his entire staff had been made up of men who could do nothing but sell he could never have accumulated the fortune that he did. If his entire staff had been made up of salesmen only he would have had action in abundance, but action, in the sense that it is used in this lesson, must be intelligently guided.

One of the best-known law firms in America is made up of two lawyers, one of whom never appears in court. He prepares the firm's cases for trial and the other member of the firm goes to court and tries them. Both are men of intense action, but they express it in different ways. There can be as much action in preparation, in most undertakings, as in execution.

In finding your own place in the world, you should analyze yourself and find out whether you are a "dynamo" or a "balance wheel," and select a definite chief aim for yourself that harmonizes with your native ability. If you are in business with others, you should analyze them as well as yourself, and endeavor to see that each person takes the part for which his temperament and native ability best fit him.