Page 72 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

72

NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

"Why go to all this trouble?" do you ask?

Well, for one thing, the PLANNED PRESENTATION of this young man's appli-
cation for a position clipped off no less than ten years of time he would have
required to get to where he began, had he "started at the bottom and worked his
way up."

This idea of starting at the bottom and working one's way up may appear to be
sound, but the major objection to it is this-too many of those who begin at the
bottom never manage to lift their heads high enough to be seen by OPPORTU-
NITY, so they remain at the bottom. It should be remembered, also, that the out-
look from the bottom is not so very bright or encouraging. It has a tendency to
kill off ambition. We call it "getting into a rut," which means that we accept our
fate because we form the HABIT of daily routine, a habit that finally becomes
so strong we cease to try to throw it off. And that is another reason why it pays
to start one or two steps above the bottom. By so doing one forms the HABIT of
looking around, of observing how others get ahead, of seeing OPPORTUNITY,
and of embracing it without hesitation.

Dan Halpin is a splendid example of what I mean. During his college days, he was
manager of the famous 1930 National Championship Notre Dame football team,
when it was under the direction of the late Knute Rockne.

Perhaps he was inspired by the great football coach to aim high, and NOT MIS-
TAKE TEMPORARY DEFEAT FOR FAILURE, just as Andrew Carnegie, the great
industrial leader, inspired his young business lieutenants to set high goals for
themselves. At any rate, young Halpin finished college at a mighty unfavorable
time, when the depression had made jobs scarce, so, after a fling at investment
banking and motion pictures, he took the first opening with a potential future he
could find-selling electrical hearing aids on a commission basis. ANYONE COULD
START IN THAT SORT OF JOB, AND HALPIN KNEW IT, but it was enough to
open the door of opportunity to him.

For almost two years, he continued in a job not to his liking, and he would never
have risen above that job if he had not done something about his dissatisfaction.
He aimed, first, at the job of Assistant Sales Manager of his company, and got the
job. That one step upward placed him high enough above the crowd to enable him
to see still greater opportunity, also, it placed him where OPPORTUNITY COULD
SEE HIM.

He made such a fine record selling hearing aids, that A. M. Andrews, Chairman
of the Board of the Dictograph Products Company, a business competitor of the