Page 103 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

ment to passengers. Many of the street car tracks have been removed and passen-
gers ride on a bus, whose driver is "the last word in politeness."

All over the country street car tracks are rusting from abandonment, or have been
taken up. Where-ever street cars are still in operation, passengers may now ride
without argument, and one may even hail the car in the middle of the block, and
the motorman will OBLIGINGLY pick him up.

HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED! That is just the point I am trying to emphasize.
TIMES HAVE CHANGED! Moreover, the change is reflected not merely in rail-
road offices and on street cars, but in other walks of life as well. The "public-be-

104

NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

damned" policy is now passe. It has been supplanted by the "we-are-obligingly-
at-your-service, sir," policy.

The bankers have learned a thing or two during this rapid change which has taken
place during the past few years. Impoliteness on the part of a bank official, or
bank employee today is as rare as it was conspicuous a dozen years ago. In the
years past, some bankers (not all of them, of course), carried an atmosphere of
austerity which gave every would-be borrower a chill when he even thought of
approaching his banker for a loan.

The thousands of bank failures during the depression had the effect of removing
the mahogany doors behind which bankers formerly barricaded themselves. They
now sit at desks in the open, where they may be seen and approached at will by
any depositor, or by anyone who wishes to see them, and the whole atmosphere
of the bank is one of courtesy and understanding.

It used to be customary for customers to have to stand and wait at the corner gro-
cery until the clerks were through passing the time of day with friends, and the
proprietor had finished making up his bank deposit, before being waited upon.
Chain stores, managed by COURTEOUS MEN who do everything in the way of
service, short of shining the customer's shoes, have PUSHED THE OLD-TIME
MERCHANTS INTO THE BACKGROUND. TIME MARCHES ON! "Courtesy"
and "Service" are the watch-words of merchandising today, and apply to the per-
son who is marketing personal services even more directly than to the employer
whom he serves, because, in the final analysis, both the employer and his em-
ployee are EMPLOYED BY THE PUBLIC THEY SERVE. If they fail to serve well,
they pay by the loss of their privilege of serving.

We can all remember the time when the gas-meter reader pounded on the door
hard enough to break the panels. When the door was opened, he pushed his way