Self Help
The man who blew up those useless hills of dirt
and stone and removed the surplus from where it was not needed
over to the low-land, where it was needed, gave that dirt and stone a
value that it did not have before.
A ton of pig-iron is worth but little. Add to that pig-iron carbon, silicon, manganese, sulphur and phosphorus, in the right proportions, and you have transformed it into steel, which is of much greater value. Add still other substances, in the right proportion, including some skilled labor, and that same ton of steel is transformed into watch springs worth a small fortune.
But, in all these transformation processes the one ingredient that is worth most is the one that has no material form - imagination! Here lie great piles of loose brick, lumber, nails and glass. In its present form it is worse than useless for it is a nuisance and an eyesore.
But mix it with the architect's imagination and add some skilled labor and lo! it becomes a beautiful mansion worth a king's ransom. On one of the great highways between New York and Philadelphia stood an old ramshackle, time-worn barn, worth less than fifty dollars.
With the aid of a little lumber and some cement, plus imagination, this old barn has been turned into a beautiful automobile supply station that earns a small fortune for the man who supplied the imagination. Across the street from my office is a little print-shop that earns coffee and rolls for its owner and his helper, but no more.
Less than a dozen blocks away stands one of the most modern printing plants in the world, whose owner spends most of his time travelling and has far more wealth than he will ever use. I KNOW I am here. I know I had nothing to do with my coming, and I shall have but little, if anything, to do with my going, therefore I will not worry because worries are of no avail.
Twenty-two years ago those two printers were in business together.
The one who owns the big print-shop had the good judgment to ally
himself with a man who mixed imagination with printing.
This man of imagination is a writer of advertisements and he keeps the printing plant with which he is associated supplied with more business than it can handle by analyzing its clients' business, creating attractive advertising features and supplying the necessary printed material with which to make these features of service.