HOW FORTUNES ARE MADE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7749, 15 July 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOW FORTUNES ARE MADE.

ROMANCES OF MILLIONS. By Sir \V. H. LEVER, of Port Sunlight. I know there is a general impression tliot in making Inoney you have to do something very wonderful,. But, l>elievo me, there is much more money made in doing something better than ever it wan done before than in doing something new—far more. It is no use rambling, all over tho world trying to find something very wonderful and nil the time. missing tho good tilings which are within our reach at home. FIRST SUCCESS. Hero is an illustration of what I moan. In the year in which I was married, 1 874, T brought out a tablet of soap called “ Lever’s Pure Honey. A year later the first Trades Mark Aet of the United Kingdom became law. That Act enabled one to register as his trade-mark tho name which had been u-ed in connection with any trademark prior to the passing of the Act. The grocery firm in Wigan with which I was associated was called 'the I<evor Wholesale Grocery Company, and although the board of directors and myself were on the very best of terms I thought it better, in order to avoid problems which might arise in later years l , to register tlie. name of Lever. I offered the hoard of directors £1 (KM) for 'the name of Lever, suggesting that tho. name of the firm should he changed to Taylor and Co. And I remember with some amusement that when the q neat ion oame before tin* shareholders one of them got tip and said he would sell any name in the world for £I,OOO. Very wild stories were told at that time about ’the business lieing done by my brother and myself. One man to*d mo that he had heard that my brother and I had got a few thousand pounds and that I 'had! said to my brother, “James, we will either double it or lose it.” There was nothing of tho sort. Wo simply kept on selling as much soap as we could, and so the business grew. FORTUNES WITHOUT CAPITAL. “That is all very well,” a young man may ©ay, “ but wlia.t can a. fellow do without capital?” My goodness! it '« entirely tho reverse. It is capital that is looking for yo-ung follows of the right stamp than young fellows are of capital. Most of the young men who have done anything in this life started either without capital or short of capital) Mr. Ford, who, it is said, made £50,000,000 out of motor-care, had no to start with. Tt; is no-t a question of money at all. The question is, are you willing, to /sacrifice ytour ease, your comfort, and your employment? That i,s tiio price, and the only price, you will have to pay if you want to attain the positions occupied by the business leaders of to-day. Bui Mr. Ford is not the only man who has built up a huge fortune without capita l . Here ir> another striking case. Many years ago. T think about forty or more, there was a young married man who was a chemist in a certain works. His baby was very sickly and delicate, and Tii.s wife was anxious about it. Of course, he called 'n a doctor, hut. lie did not leave the sole responsibility with him. ROMANCE OF NESTLE’,S MILK. Ho liega-n to think, and, being a chemist, he ultimately came to the conclusion that the food the baby was being fed upon was not being assimilated by tin* child. He studied the nutrit've values of foods and experimented until fie produced a food on which the baby thrived. The neighbours got to know of this, and they wanted the food for their babies. So lie continued making food for infants, and ultimately developed the business to such an extent- that to-day it. hnu a capital of many mil)ions. That is the sLoiry o'f Nest'e’s milk—a. story which simply emphasizes wlrat 1 have always contended, that one of the real secrets of fortune-making is service to otliore. GENIUS OF WOMEN. I will give you another ease. A certain wife noticed 'that her husband broke his nails and used all sorts of strong language because of IrVs collar stud. Sho thereupon set to work and invented a collar stud with a hinge in it, so that, it could lie easily .slipped through the hole )>v binding the top back. Before very long these I| wo people were ab'c to keep a yacht out of the money this woman received from the patent. Their fortune? wore made. SuV'cess in depends upon making youi self indispensable to somebody, and und il you have made yonrsrli ind'spmsnble to somebody you cannot make money out of business. The woman inventor of the patent collar 'stud reminds me Hint the Howe sewing machine, was also invented l by a woman. I think it was almost the first •wwing machine. Romo think it was inyenicdlbv Elias Howe, hint it was not ; it wa.s invented by’his wife. Shown; sorry for women who had to sew. 'She thought out ti machine and patented it. and made her husband’s and her own fortune. MISSED OPPORTUNITIES. I ivmember my ft ret visit to Ausi'/1 in *"i 1«92. While there 1 heard ol a wonderful gold mine—Mount M' ’- gnn. A fanner owned the site for a lai m at first, hut In* sold it for £6OO, without suspecting that there was gold on the land. The purchaser found come gold, and iilliniate'y sold tlie farm for £6.000. The* man who p;,-d L'6,000 delved deeper -still, and found more gold. Then a syndicate came along and sad, “We will give you £60.000 for your mine.” Well. £60,000 :•? a lot of money, and he took it. Wh'ii I was th re tlie mine had been floated for £600,000, and the Cl shares worn CIO each; so it was worth six millions. That. farmer wanted money when hr* had it aj his feet. Hero L another instance of missed opportunity. There in an island in the Pacific which wan (lit* property of a firm in Sydney. ](, was not much good to them. Only a few cocoa nut trees which would not vicld much profit grew on iit., so they sold it. Previous t.->. itlio | sale, the captain of one of their sma'l schooners had V,sited the island, pick-

ed up a large rock, and brought it homo for some reason or other. This rock was used to keep open the office door on warm days. One day a mail from Sydney l mverbity nearly fell over the rock, picked it up, and looked nt it. “ Where did you get this from?” ho inquired, and on being told said, “Why, I think it is phosphate.” And so it proved—the r chest phosphate the world had ever known. And the firm who had sold tho island for a trifling few hundred pounds had had in their pceses-doii an Wand that contained some thirty or forty million -tons of phosphate, each ton worth £2. but they did not know it. They were asleep on it. Looking at tho list of self-made men to-day, you would ho surprised at the number of shop assistants, office hoys, mechanics, and other'workers in humble roles who have made ini'l'ons. Every rich man in America was an office hoy, from Carnegie downwards. Tho secret of success is no secret at all. Will a man pay the price of success? That is the point. There is only one certainty—hard work, self-sacri-fice, and service for others.