FROM FARM LADDIE TO MILLIONAIRE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6492, 11 April 1908, Page 12

FROM FARM LADDIE TO MILLIONAIRE

i In a. comfortable office in a great business establishment in Hatton Garden, ■ London —the greatest business ortablishment of its kind in Europe—you may find sitting, almost any day, a certain grey Scotsman. Of medium height, his frame well-knit and wiry, his eyes keen and luminous, there is little at the first glance to distinguish him from many other grey Scots who have achieved, notable success in . business in the teeth of many apparent disabilities. But very brief scrutiny will convince you that this man stands far above the average even of successful grey Soots. At fiftyeight, he, retain® all the vivacity and high courage of exuberant youth, and so looks much loss than fifty-eight. The glance of the quiet eyes is singularly penetrating and direct. Beneath the seeming- coolness of the quiet voice, you glimpse immediately a. nature deep and subtle, a personality extraordinary resolute and fine. Here, in short, is a man born to bo a master of- men and of matters, because conspicuously master of himself. Hare, in the person of Hr I>avid ‘Stewart Dawson, you lave one of tho most brilliant and inspiring figures of the business of tho time. ■ HIS PERSONAL HISTORY. As a youth, a Scot by birth rnd breeding, ho left hit? native land to seek his fortune. Ho found his fortune and established it away from his homo and people'. To-day, a serious man, nror.dminded, and ambitious, he has handled great concerns for forty years, and .acquitted himself admirably as a citizen of the world. But he is still, a Scot. Men of his stamp are true to the Homeland. however long they live, wherever they mav bo. He i® of the race of Scots who go far and wide upon tho earth—to possess it. < , . , He was born in the parish of Cairnic, near Iluntly, in West Aberdeenshire. His father was a small tradesman. David, • with heredity urgent to root him to the soil, was not content to bo rooted. There was ambition in him, and with ambition a positive genius for business. For a while the school and the farm held him. Then he set forth. At the outset, while still a mere boy, he travelled and sold watches. On watches alone he might easily have made a fortune, with his gifts; but with’ ambition he had imagination. The call of the world awakened strong response; in all hie blood. Ho was keener to make men than to make money; and the man ho wanted to make first was David t Stewart Dawson. There was nothing J of the huckster in him;, and for him 1 the mere accretion of wealth had no : charm. From tho outset, lie was an enthusiast of life. Imagination spurred him to deal in watches, as a moans to an end. Certain things appealed to his insistent love of beauty, and watches were a stepping*®toij£. “The beauty. : colour, and radiance of gems, jewels, •and precious metals/’ he tells us, “tho j mystery of their origin, their specific I value, and their unrivalled wealth of i artistic associations, made a strong : appeal to my imagination.” But hi j his caso a great gulf seemed to separate i tho dream from its fulfilment. He was; very poor. Little by little, as he sold * watches, he might extend hi® operations, until in the end ho should be able to sell gems. That av«s the scheme. But ;at the beginning it was not easy even to find tho mean? of selling watcher, If he was poor, his folk were no richer. Hi® earnings were slight. “A young man of sixteen/' he says, with an income of only eight shillings a week, and no influences behind him would Hardly seem to be on - the high road to business success, no matter how sound hie, principles or how fervently they were held. But that was just my case. I saved my sixpences, and turned my gaze to the coming days with, a steady confidence that was the outcome of a modest self-dependence and of an equally modest self-trust/' The boy found his opening, and made his small btginning. Little by little the dream became more hopeful of fulfilment. In 1871, when. he. was still almost a boy in years, he found himself in Liverpool, intention his plan. In those days the price of a standard English lever watch was about five guineas. He decided that such watches could be sold at a much cheaper rate, and that he was the man to sell them. The idea says much for his courage, since he had only ,£SO for capital; but he took a shop in a mam street and got to work. With that little capital, backed by a great faith, he bought a lot of watches, and straightway commenced selling. There was no doubt of tho quality of what he sold. The wkteh the young man sold for three pounds was not in the slightest degree inferior to the watches the established tradesman sold for five guineas, immediately he had made a few sales he began to advertise. As his trade grew, ho extended and multiplied his advertisements. The full profit of lour days each week he put into advertising. On the profits of tho other two day® he lived and paid his ordinary expenses. He made neither debtors nor creditors. Hie business ira? entirely conducted on ■what ho.term® ‘‘the straight underrating method of buying for cash/' It seems nmpl-e. this cash systembut experience proves that it is not so simple as it seems. 'The idea is simplicity itself," says Mr Stewart Dawson; “but to carry it out in it® entirety is one of

I'tlio most difficult thirds in the wor.L | Many from whom 1 bought would have preferred my credit-custom to my cashcustom, because then they would have got a double pull on me—their profit on the g.'ods, and their profit on the credit. But I wanted the latter for myself and my customers." With these definite idea*?, his aims also were very definite. "My ambition was to excel, for tho desire to excel is at the root of all right business progress; my aim was to go ‘one better* than tho rest, and all my businces life from that day to this lias been spent in trying to go 'one bettor. " The effect of tho application of that principle to the selling of watches was remarkable. In seven years Mr Stewart Dawson made a hundred thousand pounds. At one time he had in his possession customers’ money, pent in advance with orders, to tho amount of fifty thousand pounds. But as time went on tho trade in English watches was practically killed by the introduction of cheap American watches. Tho traditional English desire for «a good watch was spoilt. The change struck to the roots of tho great cash trade that Mr Stewart Dawson had built up. Ho reviewed the position, and acted witW characteristic promptitude. He extended his business to Australasia. HIS AUSTRALIAN. BUSINESS. By this time, while still in full enjoyment of hie youth, Mr Stewart Dawsou was excellently equipped. Ho had acquired a large capital. Ho knew ■where to buy to the best advantage. lie hnd mastered every detail of tho trade. He had established his trade in Jewellery on a sound scientific basis. In 1880, when he turned' to Australia, he had built up n great business operating from Liverpool, and his position was secure. Ho sent out a man with .£IO,OOO worth of watches, and from tho outset of Ills new' •undertaking ho reaped a great profit. It was in 1830 that tho present writer first heard of Mr Stewart Dawson in New Zealand. The name came up in tho Railway Con. misskmer’s office at Dunedin. Tenders had been called for the supply of watches for the railway service, and one of the tenderers ? had a name unfamiliar in that office —Stewart Dawson. Tho Commissioner sa l ’d, "I don’t scorn to know this name. It surely cannot bo a. name of any consequence in tho watchmaking 1 world/ - The Assistant Commissioner said, "Oh yes. i know the man before I left England. A man in a very good way of business in Liverpool. He’s all right/’ Whether Mr Stewart Dawson got that contract or not the writer does not remember. But Stewart Dawson /was judged "all right" in New- Zealand then, and ho has four of his big branches, and does a largo and valuable trade. To-day he lias eight great establishments in Australasia. His advertisingin Australasia alone costs close upon .£20,000' a year. This, working on a total population of only five and a half millions, means a big advertising outlay. But Mr Stewart Dawson, as we shall see presently, is a great believer in tho virtue of generous advertislngHIS CONSISTENT PRINCIPLES. Mr Stewart Dawson has now opened in Hatton Garden, London, tho greatest of all his establishments, tho biggest jeweller's shop in Europe; a chop for beauty and completeness already acclaimed as one of tho sights of London. This marks his entry into the retail jewellery trade in London. Here, too, he works in accordance with his consistent Ho sells jewellery, plate, and watches , in large ; quantities at absolutely bedrock prices, and his outlay on advertising is enormous. He has started in London with a superb organisation, on his approved principle of cash dealing. In his factory at Clerkeuwell, there are a great number of skilled workers; and Mr Stewart Dawson himself, always master-mind, is also master-craftsman. He is his own designer, and his own architect. The Treasure House, itself was built to" his plans. His advertisements, which have been tho talk of England, are written by himself. Many men arc versatile in little tilings; this man is versatile in great ones. | It is not easy for a new man to got a foothold in London, and for a new man to start in a very big way—to take the lead immediately, while using methods absolutely new in tho business —this is something like a miracle. That is the miracle Mr Stewart Dawson has performed. His advertisements had roused London, and London was promptly astounded by his prices. "Prices as much as fifty per cent less for many articles in tho jewellery line," said the "Daily Telegraph." "Prices about half those of many retail firms," said the "Pall Mall Glazetto/ J "The Vdaily .Express” declared itself "positively amazed at the astonishingly low prices." The "Gentlewoman" found the prices : "astounding ’n moderation." Side by side with these admissions, there was no cavil as to quality. Values were beyond reproach. Nobody pretended that the newcomer was using' his strange skill as an advertiser to induce the : public to buy inferior goods. | Tho great palace of trade in Hatton Garden is merely intended to serve the j purpose of a base of future operations, j Everything is marked in plain figures. : Any article of the same class is Gold at the same price, whether the purchaser

be a countess or a coot. This is the sort of thing that can bo 'warranted to astonish London at any time. It must bo noted that while Mr Stewart Lawson ha* been a highly successful business man, since ISil, during his first twenty years in Hatton Garden, what time ho laid broad and deep the foundations of his Australian success, ho remained comparatively unknown in London.

HIS ENTHUSIASM FOR BUSINESS. ‘‘iq glory to me/' The admission is signiilcant. On one big side, it expresses the man. He loves business because of tho opportunities it gives him as a producer of excellence, lie loves it for tho power it gives him to lead and control in his craft. He loves it because of tho constant opportunities it gives him to act on his nature knowledge of men and matters. He is an enthusiast; but his enthusiasm is based on shrewdness and ripe knowledge. He is a man of almost marvellous perspicacity. Ho has tho instinct of doing tho light tiling. This grey man witn tho strung Scots burr in his speech has an extraordinary fairness and simplicity of mind, nn absolute uncaicuiuting honesty. Eor nearly forty years ho lias been testing his theories in tho crucible of a notable experience; and . it may bo that he loves business especially because in business his theories have stood tho test well. Ho has proved, for instance, the excellence of the cash . system of trading. Ho is a man singularly intolerant of credit. “Credit-buying is always a folly/* he says. “No man thinks of paying another man’s rent; yet daily thousands of cash-buyers at creditgiving shops unconsciously pay other men’s debts. Hut credit-buying reaches its high-water mark of irrationality when the instalment (system of jewellerybuying is resorted to. Here we get exorbitance upon exorbitance, often resulting in ruinous entanglements to tho victims of a vicious system. If you cannot spare the ready money, wait until you can/* He holds strongly to tho opinion, that high principle is a necessary element of a great jewellery businew. There is general ignorance of the values of precious stones. In regard to these stones, the ordinary. man may easily be misled and defrauded. Selling only gems true to description, gems worth tho money charged for them, Mr Stewart Dawson, is not without reward. His name .has become the highewt synonym of value in his craft.

Ills ART OF ADVERTISING. It has been. noted already that Mr Stewart Dawson is a devout believer in tho value of effective advertising. It must be added to that that he insists on the value of the personal note in advertising. His big London advertisements came ob a involution—a revelation of completely successful results gained by methods completely opposed to tho traditional methods of advertising in Britain. • This statement must not be misunderstood. Holding a jiofiition of special honour among the ablest advertisers in tho world, differing essentially in method from other of tho best British advertisers, Mr Stewart Dawson's methods and style are not in any sense American. There is in his advertisements nothing of the vulgarity and claptrap that disfigure tho average American advertiser, the difference is a difference of stylo; between the average British advertiser qnd Mr Stewart Dawson the difference is essentially a .difference of method. His striking London scries of ndvcrticoments, which caused so much interest and discussion when the Treasure House was opened, commenced with this prefatory note. "THE GAME OF LIFE."

"The greatest game of life is Business. Play it better than it has ever

been ployed, and success it yours.'' There is no vulgarity in that. There is, indeed, a quite remarkable simplicity. . Anyone might have written it; but no one did write it, till Mr Stewart Dawson come to tho front. In all his advertisements there is that simplicity, and it never fails of its effect. , In that opening series, he told his life-story. He courageously laid bare the secret springs of his actions, tho dominating principles and methods of his business. The public liked this; but the advertising experts were more than dubious in some cases. "I know," said Mr Stewart Dawson * to an interviewer, "that tho consensus of opinion amongst British advertising men is that. I am throwing my money away. 1 am- not surprised at that because in my opinion British advertising is lifeless. It doesn't interest tho people, much less grip them, and I decided to strike a note that should at least bn ‘ fresh. Compared with , American and Colonial advertising, your methods hero are dead." Mr Stowaut Dawson's advertising is always fresh and forcible, while never descending to the level of the vulgar rant and pinchbeck' of ineffective emartnees. He believes that a man's first justification in business lies in the tact that he is alive. He scoffs at .what he calls tho conventional stick-in-the-mud method of adverticing. As to the value of advertising, on a general view, he is emphatic. “Get a good article," ho says, "and advertise it for all it is. worth." Method is matter for individual taste and choice, and the stylo is the man. Those famous advertisements of Mr Stewart , Dawson's were really brilliant essaj's on business principle! "In every sphere of life," /ho wrote, '‘there exists a practical philosophy which, if crystallised ; into action, makes for success." On tlao philosophy of business success, as ho understood 1 it, as ho had tested and approved it during nearly forty years of progress, he wrote, -and published the series of advertisements in tho great London dailies. It was speedily proved that Mr Stewart Dawson was right; and the British advertising men who criticised him, wrong. HIS PERSONAL SIDE. With the personal side of a business man's character, except in so far as it is expressed in his commercial honour and integrity, the general public has no special concern. But in Mr, Stewart Dawson's case, the business career may be taken ns fairly expressing the man. No niggardly or feeble man. could have succeeded in his circumstances; no stupid or prejudiced man would lave had a chance. With a fine faith .in himself and his star, Mr Stewart . Dawson has a fine faith in human nature. He is a keen student of life, lie has developed hie powers of observation to a point of rare delicacy and keenness. Among tho men he knows, in business and outside the area of buildings, those have the greatest confidence; in him r.'ho

stand nearest, tho-e who.know him most intimately trust him best. When ho much can bo said of any man, there is proof positive that ho merits all lifl success. ■