The Art of Money Getting by P. T. Barnum

Author:P. T. Barnum
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Success, Success in business
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2016-05-18T23:21:25+00:00

Use the Best Tools

Men in en­gag­ing em­ploy­ees should be care­ful to get the best. Un­der­stand, you can­not have too good tools to work with, and there is no tool you should be so par­tic­u­lar about as liv­ing tools. If you get a good one, it is bet­ter to keep him, than keep chang­ing. He learns some­thing ev­ery day; and you are ben­e­fited by the ex­pe­ri­ence he ac­quires. He is worth more to you this year than last, and he is the last man to part with, pro­vided his habits are good, and he con­tin­ues faith­ful. If, as he gets more valu­able, he de­mands an ex­or­bi­tant in­crease of salary; on the sup­po­si­tion that you can’t do with­out him, let him go. When­ever I have such an em­ployee, I al­ways dis­charge him; first, to con­vince him that his place may be sup­plied, and sec­ond, be­cause he is good for noth­ing if he thinks he is in­valu­able and can­not be spared.

But I would keep him, if pos­si­ble, in or­der to profit from the re­sult of his ex­pe­ri­ence. An im­por­tant el­e­ment in an em­ployee is the brain. You can see bills up, “Hands Wanted,” but “hands” are not worth a great deal with­out “heads.” Mr. Beecher il­lus­trates this, in this wise:

An em­ployee of­fers his ser­vices by say­ing, “I have a pair of hands and one of my fin­gers thinks.” “That is very good,” says the em­ployer. Another man comes along, and says “he has two fin­gers that think.” “Ah! that is bet­ter.” But a third calls in and says that “all his fin­gers and thumbs think.” That is bet­ter still. Fi­nally an­other steps in and says, “I have a brain that thinks; I think all over; I am a think­ing as well as a work­ing man!” “You are the man I want,” says the de­lighted em­ployer.

Those men who have brains and ex­pe­ri­ence are there­fore the most valu­able and not to be read­ily parted with; it is bet­ter for them, as well as your­self, to keep them, at rea­son­able ad­vances in their salaries from time to time.

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