SIX SUGGESTIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20447, 27 October 1934, Page 8

SIX SUGGESTIONS.

Dr Fern Gives Advice to Businessmen. CONFIDENCE SUCCESS. Learn more, believe more, smile more, try more, sell more and earn more were six suggestions made last evening by Dr W. G. Fern, the eminent business advisor, in his second address to Christchurch business men. Ilis subject was “ How to Get More Fun Out of Business.” Success was a personal matter, he said, and to get pleasure out of business was also- 1 for the individual. To achieve success it was necessary, for one thing, to learn more, for without knowledge a job became a drudgery. By knowledge he meant knowing about a job, the rest of the staff, and, more important than all. about oneself. “ The first test is to ask yourself what three things you can do well and what three things are hampering you in your work,” continued Dr Fern. Ido not believe that a person should be painfully modest or offensively arrogant,. but if you know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, you will find confidence and success. “ You must study human nature and know people. You must study and serve the public to the utmost degree if you would get on. Keep your tongue between your teeth until you are asked to speak, but save your ideas until you are called on. Study your job and do not try to tell the boss how to run his business. “If you searched your personality you would bridge the narrow gap between failure and success,” he said. Belief in oneself was another factor in success, for it gave confidence. Smile in Business. Smile more and take knocks with a grin was the speaker’s third tip. It might have been worse, he said. But it was up to the individual to provide his own consolation, for it was so easy to slip into the hapit of grousing. Advertising should be brightened, and a smile should be put right through the business. “If it were easy, we would all be there,” he continued, “ so try more. Try to keep original. If you don’t try, you are just drifting through life and won’t get any fun out of it. Some fellows, as soon as they meet a difficulty, throw up their hands and say it can’t be done. 44 Sell more. I am told that in this country salesmen are not popular and are not wanted. Yet there is nothing worth while in this country that someone has not sold. America is in a decline because her salesmen have got wooden feet. Britain has gone ahead because she is selling more. “ New Zealand will go ahead because the Government, with its Dairy Commission legislation, has entered the selling field.” Finally, he said, earn more. Luck, opportunity and influence counted little against feet and. hands working in coordination with thought. That was the way to earn money, and a man was not going to be a success unless he used his brain. These things meant joy, peace and success in business, concluded Dr Fern. If they were sought out by the individual he would get a lot of fun out of business.