To save money at the cost of cleanliness and self-respect is the worst sort of extravagance. It is the point at which economy ceases to be a virtue and becomes a vice. In this age of competition, when the law of the survival of the fittest acts with seemingly merciless rigor, no one can afford to be indifferent to the smallest detail of dress, or manner, or appearance, that will add to his chances of making a success in life.
Remember that the world takes you largely at your own valuation; your prospective customer will be repelled or attracted by your appearance, and your clothes are as important as your bearing and manners. In fact they will to a great extent determine your bearing and manner. It has been well said that “the consciousness of clean linen is in and of itself a source of moral strength, second only to that of a clean conscience. A well ironed collar or a fresh glove has carried many a man through an emergency in which a wrinkle or a rip would have defeated him.” Our clothes have a subtle mental influence from which there is no escape.
The consciousness of shabbiness, incompleteness, or slipshodness tends to destroy self-respect, to lessen energy and to detract from one’s general ability.
In order to dress properly, you must study the colors and the styles that are most becoming to you, that add most to your appearance. Don’t wear a profusion of rings or flashy jewelry; don’t indulge in “loud” neckties or anything that would make you conspicuous. All these things make a bad impression.
An excellent rule for dress is found in the advice of Polonius to his son Laertes, when he is about to start for the royal court of France.
“Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy
But not express’d in fancy; rich not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.”
Polonius did not mean that Laertes should be extravagant in the matter of clothes. Far from it; he simply meant that he should dress in a manner befitting his rank as a representative of the court of Denmark.
The salesman is the representative of his firm, and to a great extent both he and his firm will be judged by his general appearance, including his clothes,