HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8306, 12 July 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE.

HINTS BY MR. ANDREW CARNEGIE. ' Mr. Cv.nsr.RlK having already, in his I articles on the Gospel of Wealth, told us what to do with fortunes when we have got them, now turns to tell us how to get them. i His hints on this subject, are published in I the New York Tribune, from which wo takethe following extracts :-- I THE CAPTAIN'S OK INDUSTRY RISK FltOM THE KAN'KM. As an initial encouragement, Mr. Carnegie reminds us that the present captains of industry all rose from the ranks. He enumerates the best, known industrial establishments in the .States, and says :—" Every one of these great works was founded and managed by mechanics, men who served their apprenticeship. The list could bo greatly extended, and if we were to include those which were created by men who entered life -is oiiiee-boys or clerks, we should embrace almost every famous manufacturing concern in the country. Edison, for instance, was a telegraph operator. Corliss, of Corliss engine ; Cheney, of Cheney silk ; Roebling, of wire fame ; Speckles, in sugar refining—all and many more captains of industry — were poor boys with natural aptitude, to whom a regular apprenticeship was scarcely necessary. In banking and finance it is an oft-repeated story that our Stanfords, Rockefellers, Goulds, Sages, Fields, Dillons, Holigmnns, Wilsons, and Huntingtons came from the ranks. The millionaires who are in active control started as poor boys, a< d were trained in that sternest but most efficient of all schools —poveity." HOW TO KAIL IN MTBINKSS -TO ISO TO UOUjKUK. Mr. Carnegie is full of encouragement for hose who can manage to start as ollice-boys; but for those of us who have been consigned to schools and colleges he is less hopeful : — " 1 asked a city banker to give me a few name.-- of presidents and vice- presidents and cashiers of our groat New York city banks who had begun as boys or clerks. The total absence of the college graduate in ovary department of a flair* should be deeply weighed. I have inquired and searched every where in all quarters, but tind scarcely a trace of him. Nor is this surprising. The prize-takers have too many years the start of tin: graduate; they have entered for the race invariably in their teens —in the most, valuable of all the yens for learning anything—from fourteen to twenty while the college student, has been learning a little about the barbarous and petty squabbles of afar-distant past, or trying to master languages which are dead—such knowledge as seems adapted for life upon another planet than this, as tar as business affairs are concerned— future captain of industry is hotly engaged in tho school of experience, obtaining the very knowledge required for his future triumphs, 1 do not speak of the effect of college education upon young men training for the learned professions, but the almost total absence of the graduate from high position in the business world seems to justify the conclusion that college education as it exists is fatal to success in that domain. The graduate has not the slightest chance, entering at twenty, against the boy who swept the office, or who begins as shipping clerk at fourteen." S.VVJ: IN ni;l)i;i: To PKOI-Tl' S!t UK. That, however, is only one way of "getting on." It you have ability you may bo taken into partnership; bud so you may also if you have savings:—"lt should he Ihe effort of every corporation to induce its principal workers to invest their savings in its -hue-;. Only in this way can corporations hope to cope successfully with individual manufacturers who have already discovered one of the valuable secrets of unusual success — viz., to share their profits with thoso who are most instrumental in producing them. The day of the absent jiitali <t stockholder, who takes no interest in thu operation of the works buyond tho receipt of hi* dividend, is certainly passing away. The enormous concern ot the future is to divide its profits not among hundreds of idle capitalists who contribute n ithing I > its success, but among hundreds of its ablest employes, upon whose abilities and exertions success greatly depends. The capitalist absent, stockholder is to be replaced by the able and present worker." THE VIKTITK ok SKI-F-ADVKIiTI-SICMENT. Proceeding to discuss the qualities necessary tor such success as he has b -n describing, Mr. Carnegie-dwells first on a virtue in which the present age is certainly not deficient, the virtue of sell-advertisement: — The condition precedent for promotion is : tint the man must first attract notice. He must do something unusual, and especially must this bo beyond the strict boundary of his own duties. He must suggest, or save, or perform some service for his employer which he could not. be censured for not having done. Self-interest compels the immodi .-uperior to give the highest place under him to the man who can best li!l it, for tho oiiietH" is credited with tho work of his department as a whole. The man who has made an improvement should alway." have an eye upon obtaining an interest in the business rather thin an increase of salary. Even if the business up to this time has not been very prosperous, if ho has the proper stuff in him,'he believes that he could make it so, and so ho could." Tin-: tiikki: i;ni\\ri)onai;i,k sins. From virtue, Mr. Carnegie passes to vice. There are three unpardonable sins in his i ir.,mp..-l—drinking, speculation, and lending : —" There are three great rocky ahead of the practical young man who lias his foot upon iin ladder, and i- beginning to rise. 'in' , ; , .- is no u«e in wasting time upon any young man who drink* liquor, no matter h.uv exceptional his talents. The rule should be : never enter a bar-room, and never drink liquor except at meats. The second rock ahead is speculation. The business of u. speculator and that of .1 manufacturer or man of affairs, arc not only distinct but incompatible.. 1 have never known a speculative manufacturer or business man who scored a permanent success. Tin. , third rock is akin to speculation—endwt>ing. Business men require irregular -u;.plies, of money, at some periods little, at o.iua's enormous sums. Other* being in the .■•aim; condition, there is strong temptation to endorse mutually. This rock should be avoided. There are emergencies, no doubt, in which men should help their friends, but there is a rule that will keep one sate: no man should place his name upon the obligation of another it' he ha- not suflicient to pay it without detriment to his own business. It is a iHifij rule to give Iho cash direct that you have to spare tor others, and never your endorsement or guarantee." " ITT A 1.1. Yob'K l.i;<;s in nxK i:\SKKT." Mr. (Jam next urges upon the aspirant to fortune the necessity for concentration : — •' One groat cause of failure of young men in business is lack of concentration. ' They are prone to seek outside investment. The cause of many a surprising failure lies in .-o doing. Every dollar of capital and credit, every business thought, should be concentrated upon the one business upon which a man has embarked. IK- should never "eatter his shot, It is a poor business which will not yield better ret urns for increased capital than any outside investment. No man or set of men or corporation can manage a business man's capital as well as ho can nianngo it himself. Tho rule 'Do not put all your eggi in one basket' does not apply to a man's life-work. I'ut all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket, is the true doctrine—the most valuable rule of all."