THE DAY OF HORATIO ALGER IS
NEVER OVER
Many -fortunes have been made since World War II, from
people who live on both sides of your street, and here
are a few of their success stories and secrets.
I HAVE FROM time to time hinted that you don't have to be a
second Ford, Edison, Macy, Wanamaker or one of the
Wright Brothers to make a fortune.
Only too often, people are prone to sit back and say, "Aw,
you can't make a million any more. We've all the cars and
stores and gadgets we need. The day of making a million is
over."
That is not true.
Here are even more success secrets of men and women who
have and are making fortunes today this very minute up
and down the very street you live on:
In 1936 not too long ago Woodrow Miller of Colton,
California, was a civil service employee in Washington. But
he wasn't satisfied.
He started working for a company in the honey business.
His salary was $50 per month.
He put the Master Formula to work. He knew what he
wanted, knew where to start, put his plan on paper, got it
into motion, didn't settle for less until lie had his own bee
business.
Besides now being the world's largest producer of honey,
he is president of the National Federation of Beekeepers in
America and director of the Bank of America in Colton, a
city councilman, member of the Colton Chamber of Com-
merce.
What a "honey" of a success story!
The Story of Merlet
Carl F. Merlet was employed as a junior executive in an
Atlanta bank. He saw the booklets banks pass out lying hit-
and-miss on a display table, says a recent banker's magazine
in describing his success.
He wanted a display rack for them. No manufacturer
made them. So Carl made one himself of plastic.
A visiting banker liked the rack. Ordered one. Now Carl
is making them as fast as his new business can work.
Carl didn't say, "If I had a rack, the display would be more
effective than as it now is lying around hit-and-miss."
He knew that if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
So he said, "How can I make a good rack, since no manu-
facturer has thought of the idea?"
So in this day of no Henry Ford, no Edison, no Macy, no
Wanamaker, he is making a fortune.
There's Money Around Your Feet
And if you don't watch out you'll step on it.
Just like youthful Ed Budd, president of the Budd Com-
pany. When he became president in 1943 they said, "Budd
makes everything but money."
But lie changed that. He makes automobile bodies, plows,
food equipment, heating equipment, airplane parts, and even
the Burlington Zephyr,
Last year he made three times as much money as ever
before by knowing what he wanted, then blueprinting his
plans, having the "know-how" on where to start, setting his
plans into motion, and not settling for less than the best in
his field yet always knowing when success had arrived so
that he could relax and enjoy his prosperity.
Gold in Your Back Yard
In 1942 James B. Scott and Duane T. Brady borrowed $125
and went into a business they long had dreamed about.
Today they employ 32 people in a business worth $100,000.
They didn't say the day of Ford is over with. They said
the day of Scott and Brady "is on the way."
They figured out a way to save money for a manufacturer
of diesel engine cooling systems; they figured out a way to
improve a chicken feeder.
They didn't have fancy ideas like inventing a new car, a
new electric light, or going into competition with Sears &
Roebuck.
They didn't deal in fancy theories but relied on plain
common sense using the Master Formula to turn their
Castles in Spain into real, every-day brick and mortar.
He Used the Six Steps
C. C. Steed started a school of business training in two
rooms over a small theater in Bristol, Term. This was in
1940.
Ten years later, in 1950, he had ten acres of land in nearby
Johnson City, with a $200,000 business school!
All in ten years since World War II in America, the
"Land of Opportunity."
A dream come true for Carlo C. Steed and wife!
After my talk recently before his students, he said to me,
"In building this real life dream castle, from a Castle in
Spain, I certainly did use your famous Six Steps.
"Maybe I wasn't conscious of them in so many words as
you have expressed them to my students, but now that you
have made me aware of them/ \nou/ I used them.
"In fact, I am now teaching the Six Steps to Success to my
students, to help them climb faster the ladder of success
when they get their first jobs in life."
Horatio Alger Still Lives
D. A. Hulcy is further proof the day of Horatio Alger
(from plowboy to President) is never over with.
He started out in life a poor boy, and was elected president
of the United States Chamber of Commerce (1951).
In fact, the Horatio Alger Award Committee of the Ameri-
can Schools and Colleges, gave him their 1952 honorable
mention. Truly a great award and proof that success is still
possible.
Bob Williford is another Horatio Alger "character." He
went from key clerk to head of the great Hilton Hotel
chain, and if you ask him he will tell you these Six Steps to
Success made his daydream come true!
P. S. His boss, Conrad Hilton, is also a "Six Step Success"
man, who set the example for Williford by making the grade
to top man himself in the hotel field!
Bob Thornton, farmer boy, had a daydream, not of bigger
plows, of a larger barn but to be president, not of the
country, but of a bank.
He used the Six Steps to Success, he tells me, and today is
chairman of the board of the Mercantile Bank in Dallas
tallest building in the city.
He is also president of the State Fair of Texas biggest
state fair in the world!
Plotvboy to President, an old Horatio Alger book title, sure
fits Bob Thornton.
Ed Shelton's Story
A young fellow was standing in front of a hotel one day
in 1915. His eyes rested upon a young woman across the
street.
"Who is that girl?", he asked a clerk who was standing
nearby.
"Faye Loving," replied the clerk.
"Arrange a date for me," the fellow said. "Fm going to
marry her."
On April 12, 1916 about a year later Faye Loving be-
came Mrs. Edward Shelton. Her husband was the man who
had first seen her while he was standing in front of the
hotel.
That story typifies the determination of Ed Shelton, sales-
man, banker and president of a Texas savings and loan
association.
Like so many other successful men, Ed Shelton learned
early in life to set a goal and then to stick to his plan until
he attained it.
Heads His Own Business
When he started the business that he now heads, Shelton
had only f 10,000 some of it borrowed from associates or
friends. He set his goal. He was determined to succeed. He
worked at his plan. And today his firm has assets valued at
over $26,000,000.
During the years as- he built his business, Shelton became
known as a man who inspired his associates, who was
friendly and cheerful even when things did not look so
good.
In the depression years, for instance, Shelton's own zeal for
success and his determination to build his business was so
great that his company never missed a dividend while, at
the same time, it had one of the lowest foreclosure rates in
the country.
But there's more to Ed Shelton's success secret than just
determination to succeed. I never think of his story, particu-
larly the way in which he first met his wife, that Fm not
reminded of an asset most of us possess.
A friend of mine, Ted Dean, says it this way: "No man
need worry much about what is ahead of him, if he has a
good woman behind him!"
One Plus One Equals Two
Yep, one plus one still equals two.
That is, if you have a plan and know how to make it come
true.
One thousand of the people in my Success Secrets column
have proved this.
You, too, can prove it to yourself.
Just make up your mind that your dream will come true
and it will.
It has been said this way, "Where there is a will, there is a
way/'
It is merely the law of mechanics.
You need no crystal ball, nor gypsy fortune teller all you
need is the Master Formula of one and one equals two.
The day of the new Horatio Algers lies ahead of you.
Success Today Is Your Dream of Yesterday
