20. Adopt as your personal slogan:
"If every worker were just like me,
What kind of a store would this store be?"
21. Work with your fellow workers.
We felt quite pleased with that list of rules, and the more I looked at them the better they seemed to me.
We had a discussion as to which of the twenty-one rules of conduct was the best. Larsen said that number one was the best. I favored twenty-one. Charlie said four was the best, and we finally agreed with him.
"Four," said Charlie, "appears to me to be the best, because the whole object of running this business is to make a profit. All the other rules are followed merely in order to secure that object."
I really believed that we would find it easier to work according to definite rules, than to continue with no rules for our guidance. Furthermore, we ought to be happier, working harmoniously together along definite lines. We all agreed that following these twenty-one rules would help us to give the store an atmosphere of good service, the square deal, truthfulness and cooperation.
Larsen had resumed his Thursday afternoon hunts for business. The first Thursday, when the old chap got back to the store, he was almost crying with delight.
"Say, Boss," he said, "those people seemed real glad to see me. They ask me where I been so long. I tell them I was sick. That's why I dropped Thursday trips. I felt I was meetin' old friends."
"Fine!" I said. "How much business did you get?"