HUSTLERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 5 August 1931, Page 10

HUSTLERS

DO NOT GET THINGS DONE It is a matter of common experience that hustlers newer get anything clone (writes the Medical Correspondent of the Trade and Engineering Supplement of “The Times”). When a hustler takes command of a business the office hums with energy; everyone runs about on errands of apparent urgency; there is noise; there is dust; but there is little productive output. And this for tlie reason that people who are being hustled at once lose the power of production. That power is never exerted at its full strength except in an atmosphere of calm. Soldiers discovered this long ago and invented discipline, which is a form of routine designed to allay excitement even at moments of extreme crisis. An unruffled, unliustled army is a victorious army; hustling generals lose battles as certainly as hustling business men lose business.

The great businesses are always distinguished by method, by discipline, and by calmness. Care is taken to avoid disturbing that balance of the mind on which success in every department depends. The silly sneers of hustlers make i\o impression upon the captains of these enterprises, who have seen too many of. these noisy, disturbing people led away to the bankruptcy court. Hustling, in short, and the inclination to hustle are signs not of energy but of the want of it. They reveal instability of mind and lack of judgment, and show that those inclining to them are without experience of solid success. This is true' of the human organism as well as of businesses. One of the first signs of exhaustion is restlessness. When a man begins to desert his habits in order to run about and fuss and interfere he is, usually, at the end of his physical tether.

This unwonted restlessness is accompanied, often by Switchings and tremblings of the muscles, by stimulation of the emotions, and by .upsets of the digestion.! In some eases placid people

are transformed into what unobservant people call human volcanoes, in others visions of tremendous new enterprises begin to haunt minds accustomed to small scale work of high efficiency; in others', again, leadership degenerates by rapid stages into mere interference. The victim, in each instance, shows obvious signs of wear and tear and will soon break down if his false exuberance is not checked.

It is a good rule for those inclined to hustle to go away on holiday and stay away until completely cured of their disease. Those who follow this advice can be guaranteed in advance the saving of health and wealth —to say nothing of friendships which would have been strained or broken had they remained at work.

The whole story of the hustler can he seen by anyone who cares to watch an athlete in training. If all is going well the muscles of an athlete display that admirable firmness and “calmness” of action which are so effective. But if all is not going well, if training has been too severe and exhaustion has begun to, exert its influence, there is confusion in the muscular field, a kind of explosive energy at once violent and ineffective. Men in this latter condition never succeed and are wise if they remove themselves from the arena before crushing' defeat robs them of self-respect. The truth needs emphasising at times of crisis more • than at other times, for the illusion haunts many minds that the way to tide over a crisis is to “get a move on.” The opposite is true. Those who win through are those whose discipline remains unimpaiiecl, who continue resolutely and quietly in their accustomed ways, and who resist with all their strength the temptation to abandon the proved for the unproved. HappjfrCh’c business, in these days, which is delivered from hustlers.