JOY OF A HEALTHY BODY
Present-day business is one of the most strenuous games we know anything about. Although it is true, as already mentioned, that good salesmanship should call for only about a tenth as much physical as mental effort, the combination of physical, mental and nervous application must continually be on the alert in a man or woman who is actually playing the selling game according to rules. Boxing, running, football, tennis, baseball, are all forms of strenuous exercise, but they do not call for the same endurance as the busy eight-hour day of retail selling. In spite of this, how many shoe salesmen are there who actually make it a part of the daily program to get and keep in condition for the business game?
During the war period, while some of the most important problems of the country and of the world were waiting to be solved, we would hear every once in a while of some chief executive going off to play golf or to spend three or four days on a hunting or fishing trip. These things were not done because the men were more interested in golf, hunting and fishing than they were in the problems of the day. They had actually been ordered away from their desks. The eye was beginning to lose its brightness, the complexion was fading a little, and the step, perhaps, was showing signs of lagging. Alert, vigorous, healthy men were needed, who could think quickly and clearly. Lloyd George, the British statesman, made the statement that he was a union man in everything except his working hours. Very often he has been known to work for sixteen or twenty hours at a stretch. This was possible only because he had taken the time and effort necessary to build and maintain a vigorous and healthy body. There is an added joy in living that only a man in condition can appreciate.