KNOW WHERE TO START
DON'T PUT THE cart before the horse.
First before you can catch fish, you must know where to
get the bait, know where to find the row boat, know where
to cast the line.
Knowing where to start to make your dream come true,
is the next logical step after getting the dream on paper.
You must put your dream into logical sequence into
proper order.
Being in proper sequence means no lost motion.
You blueprint the building, then plot the foundation, then
dig the foundation, then put up the siding all before you
begin to put on the root
There is a logical order, also, to building your Castle in
Spain.
So Take Your Dream Apart
Put it on the dissecting table. On a planning board, if
only the kitchen table, a work bench in the garage, or on the
back of a blank page in your sales book.
Ask yourself, "What now is the logical order in which to
go about making my dream come true? What must I do
first?"
Suppose as a salesman, for example, you want to become
president of the firm. Step one would be to analyze your
present job. Does it warrant extension of territory?
"If I made a good record on my present job, would the boss
give me a larger territory? When he does, can I then shoot
for junior executive ?
"If I prove, then, I can handle men as I can handle sales
accounts, might I then be in line for salesmanager? Perhaps
then my job would be to train manpower.
"Being successful in this, perhaps the Board would make
me vice-president. Then as time went on, and my job was
successful, I would be in line for the president's job as he
moved upward or retired."
That is how to analyze the dream. Only in this way can
you make it logical.
Dreams seem illogical in the mind, but on your blueprint
they can become very practical and orderly.
To help you in your blueprinting I have put a wheel of
fortune in the inside cover of this book* Use it to analyze
your dream.
The Reader's Digest Story
DeWitt Wallace was wounded in World War I. That's a
long time ago.
In the hospital he took to reading, but found so much to
read and so little time, he wondered, "How about a digest
of news?"
He toyed with the idea. He even wrote a few "dummy
magazines."
Back at home he returned to the publicity department of
Western Electric Company in Pittsburgh, but still spent his
spare time with the idea*
He was trying to find Step Three; "Know Where To
Start."
Then in the panic of 1921 he lost his job. With his wife
Lila Bell Acheson Wallace he cut up clippings, pasted them
into articles.
He borrowed $1,300 and in February 1922 he started the
Readers Digest.
It took time more time. Success is ageless though, and
today these two people employ 74 editors!
Their American edition alone has nearly 10,000,000 circu-
lation!
A Boy and a Dream Comes True
Gene Goss used to wash dishes for $8.50 per week.
He didn't like the way the boss yelled, "Hey, boy, wash up
some more glasses."
So Goss dreamed of buying out that boss.
He put that dream on paper, and set it in motion by
knowing where to start.
He invested his small savings in a small cafe himself. Then
in a used-car lot.
On one of the three cars he had on his lot he put a sign,
"A Steal Take it Away." A thief did. Fortunately, the
insurance firm paid off.
It took more than luck and pull to parlay those three cars
he bought from his cafe savings, into a huge lot.
The other day in Dallas where this boy and his dream all
took place, he purchased the old cafe building.
A recent story on him in the Dallas News told how he
turned $10 into three used car lots, a Cadillac and a $65,000
home!
Another twist of fate: The former boss became a book-
keeper for Goss, "the hoss trader" as he calls himself.
"Case" Your Dream
Trying to become salesmanager by skipping the other
steps of getting more territory, becoming a junior executive,
is putting the cart before the horse.
"Case" your dream like a Jimmy Valentine cases a "joint"
for a robbery.
Hoping to get a fur coat just by hoping won't work.
You must figure, "How can I improve my appearance? If
I can do that, then maybe I will attract the right man with
money to buy a mink coat."
Or you might say, "I am no beauty. But I have talent. I
will become an assistant buyer in my store. Then buyer. I
will learn all about dresses. Then I will study designing.
Soon I will be meeting manufacturers. I will be in a position
to help them design better clothing because as a store buyer
I know what women like."
This is putting the dream in logical order. Knowing where
to start. Casing the dream.
Now as a famous designer you can buy all the mink coats
you want.
The horse is then where it belongs pulling the cart.
1,000 Successes Did This
That is how these 1,000 people in my column Success
Secrets made their dreams come true.
Four years ago Lawrence Helms had $17, according to
a recent business magazine report on him. Today he is on
his first million.
As a poor boy he picked berries and sold them, but always
dreamed of being rich.
He noticed a big market for radiator grills for autos. He
took his $17 and borrowed $500.
Plotting his dream, he opened up a hole-in-the-wall shop
and made grills. Success was on the way but he went broke
because of a poor design, then broke his back but not his
spirit.
He kept his dream forward in his mind. He fooled the
doctors, and got back on his feet
Now he is on that first million from selling grills to auto-
mobile manufacturers, all of whom know Lawrence Helms.
Ride "Lady Luck" to Success
Remember there isn't enough luck to go around, nor
"pull" either. But you can ride luck when you make it your-
self.
Even a beggar can manufacture a hobby horse if he so
wills it.
"Lady Luck," it seems, is always on the side of the person
who knows where to start making a success on the side of
the determined person with a definite plan of putting the
horse bejore the cart.
Allison J. Seymore, of Valley City, N.D., actually took a
dream a pipe dream and made a fortune.
As a Major in the last war he took to carving pipes to pass
the time away. He dreamed about fitting pipes to your
personality.
At the end of the war his buddies had placed many orders
with him. He then plotted how to make the dream really
come true.
He dreamed right. For today his pipes are sold world wide.
First, though, he developed the idea of "original" pipes.
Then he learned how to carve them, then sold to buddies,
then city wide in Valley City, then state wide in North
Dakota, then U.S. wide.
Now world wide. See how knowing Where to Start is
important in making a dream come true!
Often one good way to start is to ask others for advice and
to listen carefully to what they say.
Sometimes a person can turn troubles into triumphs by
just having an open mind. There's a large factory producing
microphones and other electronic equipment in Buchanan,
Mich., which wouldn't be there today if Albert R. Kahn,
president, hadn't been an open-minded listener.
The business faced a crisis at the beginning of World War
II when civilian microphone production was about to be
stopped. It was necessary to find a new line which would be
of military value.
At this time Mr. Kahn lunched with a friend who was
advertising manager of a radio magazine. The advertising
man dreamed of a new type of microphone. He had tried to
explain it to other technically trained acquaintances but they
had brushed it off. What would an advertising man know
about such things ?
Mr. Kahn didn't brush it off. He followed carefully while
his friend sketched his idea on the tablecloth, (Step Two).
The manufacturer saw a military use the design would
make it possible to transmit a voice from a clattering tank,
picking up the voice but not noise.
A great deal of work went into the project before the
differential or lip microphone was adopted by the Armed
Forces. When it was finally approved, the factory had to add
one annex and then another.
At the war's end, Mr. Kahn was ready with new ideas for
civilian production and the business continued to grow. He
still dreams and puts them on paper and into action.
Keep the Horse Before the Cart
Anybody can wish for a fortune. That is easy. But to find
the starting place requires a little ingenuity and good
thought.
To have a definite blueprint is the secret ingredient of
riches.
In order for dreams to mature they must be in orderly
fashion. That is a law of Nature.
Joe Press had his neck broken during World War II.
During two years of doctoring at Gushing Veterans Hospital
in Massachusetts he couldn't move but he could think.
He had a dream of importing the perfumes he found in
France.
He Thought What He Wanted, (Step One). When he
was able, he Put It On Paper, (Step Two). Then began to
think Where To Start, (Step Three).
Right now Joe has half a million dollars in orders. He is
the sole agent for a popular French perfume in America
and is still in his hospital bed.
That is knowing how to add one and one and get two.
Knowing not to say, "If I were only out of here but how
can I have a business and still be in the hospital."
I'll give you many more true success stories, as we proceed,
of men and women who have become rich since World War
II.
Nothing Can Beat Us But Ourselves
