BUSINESS LIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14928, 28 February 1912, Page 10

BUSINESS LIFE.

THE BUSINESS WOMAN. Can* women succeed in business? The fact that many women have built up fine businesses solely by their own efforts is non-conclusive. Tho question still remains. Have women the necessary capabilities and powers to triumph in business alone and unaided by any masculine brain? And if they fail, as women in business often —why is it? There is no doubt that a woman can build up a business quite as finely as a man—provided she is the right sort of woman. In the first place, it is necessary for her to possess what—for want of a better definitionmay bo called the business instinct. A woman who aims at success must grasp the full meaning of " business" from the outset. She must differentiate sternly between business and sentiment. Business may be made subservient to sentiment, but it is usually fatal to have things round the other way. The business woman needs to be very strict with herself, and must cultivate concentration. She must be shrewd, farsighted, quick to grasp and determine anything, and not afraid to take risks when necessary. To obtrude her femininism is to court failure. Business need not kill womanliness—it must not, indeed —but it has no part in the business life. A woman, like a man falls or rises on her merits, on her own efforts; no leniency is permitted her because she happens to be a woman.

Of course, business women have to compete for the most part with men.. Whether this places them at a disadvantage or not, depends chiefly upon each individual woman. Rut it is most necessary for women to remember that they are working against sternly business men, who look upon business in a purely businesslike way. It is quite useless for a woman to think that her male rivals will give way to her from chivalrous motives—that they will tell her things which they have only learnt by years of hard work and experience. They will not. A woman must pull her business into shape and success by her own capabilities; she must bo utterly self-reliant. There is, too, one great advantage in the fact that she has to compete chiefly against men. A thing which men see only from their business viewpoint, the business woman will see from both the business and tho woman's standpoint. There is a good deal more in this than appears to be at first sight. Often it means just the difference between failure and success. The really successful business person— whether man or woman—knows his or her business workings thoroughly in every detail. It is useless for a woman to think to succeed in business simply by putting herself at the head of a body oi" workers upon whom she is completely reliant. It is most requisite that she shall possess flip mnfidence and respect of her employees, and this is only possible when nicy see that their employer thoroughly .knows what they are about..