With our constantly widening national interests, our enormously expanding trade, the demand for A1 salesmen is ever on the increase. The young man who is not satisfied with the ordinary required equipments for salesmanship, but who will add to this a thorough knowledge of modern languages, especially those most used in commercial intercourse—German, French and Spanish—will not have very great difficulty in finding his place in the sun.
The making—or the marring—of your life is in your own hands. “The gods sell anything and to everybody at a fair price.” Success is on sale in the world market place. All who are willing to pay the price can buy it. In the final analysis, success in salesmanship, as in everything else, is simply a matter of “paying the price.”
CHAPTER XXIX
KEEPING FIT AND SALESMANSHIP
To keep fit is to maintain perfect health; and perfect health depends upon a perfect balance of mind and body, unimpaired physical vigor and absolute inner harmony, a mental poise which nothing can disturb.
There is a vast amount of ability lost to the world through poor health, through not keeping in condition to give out the best that is infolded in us.
“I want you,” said Philip D. Armour to one of his employees, “to grow into a man so strong and big that you will force me to see that you are out of place among the little fellows.”
If you want to be a salesman “so strong and big” that you will be “out of place among the little fellows,” you must be as physically fit as was John L. Sullivan in his prime. At that time the mere sight of Sullivan entering the ring struck such terror into the heart of his opponent that the fight was half won before a blow was struck. It seemed to the small man like a desperate venture to tackle a giant with such a superb physical presence. The famous pugilist’s appearance had as much to do with his success as had his knowledge of the technique of the ring.
If you want to win out (and who does not?) you must enter the ring—the arena of life—with all the power you can muster, in superb health, at the top of your condition, capable of putting up your biggest fight. You can do this and come out with your flag flying if you are good to yourself, if you keep fit. But if you allow all sorts of leaks of power to drain away your energy, your brain force, your will power, you will be in no condition to make the fight of your life.