“Don’t grumble, don’t bluster, don’t dream and don’t shirk,
Don’t think of your worries, but think of your work.
The worries will vanish, the work will be done,
No man sees his shadow who faces the sun.”
A young salesman who has mastered himself and also the secret of success recently wrote from the field:
“Yesterday it seemed as though everything was going against me. There appeared to be something the matter everywhere I called, and although I put up a most determined fight failure after failure met me, until very late in the evening. I had not then taken a single order, but I made up my mind that I could not go back to my boarding place until I had done a decent day’s work. It was this resolution that saved the day, for I took fifteen orders before I got home at nine o’clock. If I had given up to my discouragement I should simply have said to myself, ‘What’s the use? This day is gone and I might as well go home, take it easy, and make the best of it.’ But I said, ‘No, young man, you are not going to bed to-night until you have done a good day’s work.’
“Many a time such a resolution has saved me when, otherwise, I would have made a miserable showing. I just make up my mind that no matter what attractions come in my way, no matter what discouragements I meet, I will conquer before the night or I will stay up all night. I find that victory usually follows such a resolution.”
The prospect feels the influence of such a determination on the part of the salesman. We radiate our moods, our discouragement, or our courage. The man we approach feels what we feel, and when we approach him with the spirit of a conqueror, when we go to him with victory in our face, we generally win out.
A notably successful salesman says that he made his first great hit after overcoming a fit of deep discouragement, consequent on the loss of his position. When he got another place he said he started out the first morning with one word ringing in his mind, “Determination.” He resolved not to return without an order. He was determined to make that day a red letter day in his life, to show his new employer what was in him, to convince his prospects. He approached every one that day with the determination of victory uppermost in his mind.