OFFICE-BOY, SAILOR, MILLIONAIRE

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8360, 23 July 1920, Page 4 (Supplement)

OFFICE-BOY, SAILOR, MILLIONAIRE

THE ROMANCE OF A CAREER OF HARD WORK.

By J. C. GOULD, M.P. in “Tit-Bits.” There is no more striking romance of endeavour than the story of the dogged pertinacity of Mr. J. C. Gould, M.P., the famous shipping millionaire. He is now the controlling head of steamship lines and important industrial companies, and recently completed a deal involving five and a half millions of money. A few weeks ago he gave £25,000 towards the Cardiff Hospital and £5,000 to the Seamen’s Home.

I plead guilty to being still a young man. But I think the suspicion which always attaches to a young man is being overcome by the changed conditions of commerce, labour, and society. The Editor of “Tit-Bits” has asked me to write my life story. Well, my career has been one of continuous struggle and seemingly unending combat against difficulties. Many times I have appeared to be utterly beaten, but by persistence and confidence these troubles became lighter and were gradually overcome. It is to my persistence in working that I owe the whole of my success. I was born at Penarth, just outside Cardiff. My father was, in those days, a working mason, and I was the eldest of four children. We were brought up in humble circumstances.

HOW I BEGAN. When I was eleven years of age I won a scholarship from the Radnor Road Board School, Cardiff, which admitted me to the Higher-Grade School, where. I stayed for nearly three years, ultimately leaving before I was fourteen to take up an office boy’s job at Cardiff. In those days opportunities were few and the salaries paid were poor. I think the biggest money I ever earned until the time I was nineteen was about 15s per week. I had, however, in those five years continued my education by studying at home and absorbing everything which came within my reach in the shipping office where I was employed. There seemed, however, to be no prospect of my getting on quickly, so I joined a sailing ship going to South Africa. There I obtained employment as a clerk, and I traversed, in a period of three years, nearly the whole of what is now the Union of South Africa.

The effects of the South African War brought financial ruin to many industries in 1904, so I sailed as an able seaman to Liverpool and thence worked my way across to America. I landed in America with the princely sum of £l3. It was a very cold winter and many were my unpleasant experiences before I finally secured employment as stenographer and secretary to the works manager of a big engineering plant at a little place near Boston. I was then nearly twenty-four years of age, and the salary I received was thirteen dollars per week. Not satisfied with this position, I wrote a number of letters applying for positions to big commercial houses in Boston, with the result that I was offered an increased salary to join Messrs. Henry Siegel and Co., with whom I remained in Boston and New York for three years, ultimately rising to the position of office manager. I then accepted the position of office manager of one of the largest insurance offices in New York City.

In 1912 I was fired by the ambition to start on my own account, which I did in conjunction with another man. We had branches in New York, London, Brussels, and Berlin. It was only by persistence in continuing my education, by reading uesful books at every spare moment, by studying accountancy and law whenever possible, by working, as I often did, twelve and fourteen hours a day—and on one occasion during the panic period of 1907 for three successive days and nights without intermission—and by seeking always to take over work which other men had left, so that I could extend my knowledge—it was only by these strenuous efforts that I achieved success. It was always in my mind that the man who does no more than he is paid for is never paid for more than he does. I never asked for increases of salary, but I always got them. I am certain that ambitious readers of this article will be well advised to believe that employers as ■ a whole are always on the look-out for men of intelligence who show devotion to duty, and will always reward them.

THINK FOR YOURSELVES. When the war broke out my business crashed almost to pieces. It was with difficulty that I was able to start my first shipping company. For years I had been suffering from rheumatism and neuritis, and during 191*6 I was practically an invalid for nine months. From that small be-, ginning, by the same persistence and attention to my busisess, I am to-day in the proud position of being one of the largest shipowners in South Wales, and am interested in controlling many other affiliated industries, such as shipbuilding yards, engineerj ing works, etc. I That is my life story. There are ! other things which perhaps are I more interesting to readers than these facts. I find most young men content to drum along somewhat aimlessly, satisfied with their work and dissatisfied with their pay. Be dissatisfied with your work through justifiable ambition. Con- ! tinue your education when you leave school. You will then find that your pay will increase automatically. Develop ideas, in whatever humble sphere of life you may be, and endeavour to carry them to fruition. Have confidence in yourself: 1 study the thoughts and minds cf other people, and respect those under whom you work.

In my business I am surrounded by many young men and women and nearly all of them possess these qualities. They have been taught not to say “No” because I say “No,” nor because I say a thing to agree with me against their own judgment.

I do not feel that I am more fortunate than other employers, but perhaps I am different to some, for I encourage people to think for themselves, and to work for themselves, and if boys on the threshold of a career would follow the methods I have indicated there would be far more £IO,OOO a year men available to-day.