BUSINESS LIFE.

Bush Advocate, Volume XX, Issue 1001, 13 April 1908, Page 7

BUSINESS LIFE.

IMPORTANCE OV METHOD. It is a modern idea that "method"' can be taught. The* old notion was that it was ;> sort of "inward that some people possessed ami others didn't. One man had lm liiortieal habits; the other hadn't. ! lie distinction was fundament:! 1 ., final; there was nothing further i-> hv .said. Nowadays we think differently. There lias been throughout the entire business community v remarkable hwakening in reference to this subject. A vivid consciousness of the importance of method as an economise!* . of time and toil pervades the entire mercantile world to-day. - The man who is not severely methodical "may easily neutralise much of bis value in an 'office. EASY TO TUMBLE— HARD TO CLIMB. It is not SUCh a long siop, after all, from the steady, responsible, self-re-specting man with a good position and good standing in business and socially to the bottom of the ladder. A man in good circumstances perhaps loses the position where he has been steadily employed for years. He has a grocery bill and a few other bills, none of which is large, but all of which amount to quite a sum. When lie loses his job lie has only a few pounds ready money. Times are a little hard, and ho does not readily find a position in liis line. The few pounds he has dwindle to a few shillings. The man has to do something. He has borrowed .as much money as he is able to' from friends. He gets to a place where he no longer has fuuds to advertise in the daily papers for a position) or to wait longer for prospects to .materialise. He has to earn a little money to-day so he can. live to-moi*-row. He gets a small job. His friends hear of it. He loses his self-respect, and soon lie doesn't care. Perhaps lie starts drinking to ex.cess to drown hik^s'orrow; and; jtjins weakens his mental power. He doesn't try to get back where he was, or if he does he finds it no easy proposition. He's on an entirely different level now than a few short months ago. It was a short and easy step down, but a long and difficult step back. It's too hard a struggle to get back, perhaps, and he gives up. v ; WRITING A BUSINESS LETTER. The writer's personality shows through his words. One man's letters convey an impression of a strong character, judicious, businesslike. Another man's letters are hurried, and full of repetitions, conveying the impression of lack of judgment and of a compact mental habit. Clear expression is the result of clear thinking; and clear thinking is the basis of business success. Thus, when a man resolves that no poor letter shall ever leave his office, ho resolves also that lie will develop his judgment by .giving enough,. thought' to his ideas to make them clear to himself. A good business letter is never com-mon-place, because a sound business judgment is not commonplace, for it involves interesting and important consequences. But when you read "Your favor of such a date received and contents noted," it is hard to believe that a real man or a man of any originality is behind that letter. A more silly vacuity was never written. Translated into common sense, it means this: "I received your letter of such a date, or I would not now be answering it. Having got your letter, I read it. :< Foolish, isn't it? But millions of moments of time and millions of drops of ink have been wasted on that silly and monotonous sentence. Again, a good letter is courteous. Courtesy makes friends. Much, of it may seem io be wasted on some people, but a firm that insists on unusual courtesy in all its correspondence will find instances of its value in places where it least expected appreciation of it. A business letter betrays to the discerning reader whether the writer takes a genuine personal interest in his business — whether he really cares for it, or is doing it only in a perfunctory way ; and every reader is far more discerning than the careless business man thinks. A man shows his character by his correspondence. —The World's Work.