Waste of Industry—Waste of Time, Etc.

I have warned you against confusion. That is an enemy that may come in at any point. It is needful, therefore, that you should drill yourself in habits of order all round. By that I mean, do not be orderly in one direction only, but in all. Know where everything is. Carry the whole business as a mental picture, and see every tittle of it with your mind’s eye. The first requisite is integrity, and the second is order. Integrity will not save a man from bankruptcy. Some of the most upright men in the world are simply incapable in business. I called upon a man sixty years of age, and found that for twelve hours he had been addressing envelopes to his customers! I knew in a moment that such a man, at such an age, doing such a work, must fail. A boy at threepence an hour would have done the envelopes as well, and the principal could have been doing some other work, which no one else could have done. The man’s industry was wasted. He had employed a steam-engine to thread a needle; or he had engaged a blacksmith to crack an egg; or anything else you like that would represent disproportion of force or waste of energy. Always remember that whilst only one man may be able to write the letter, any honest man may be trusted to put it in the post-office. I know a man who is so faddy about little things that he pays no attention to great ones. He is particularly anxious to guard the house against burglars by keeping the skylight well fastened, but he leaves the front door wide open. He expends his anxiety on the wrong objects. Realise the idea of proportion in your business, so as to know which is important, which is more important, and which is most important, and then you will save yourself from the anxiety and helplessness which always follow upon confusion. A simple preventive of confusion I have found in the practice of sketching out the main portions of the day’s work upon a large sheet of paper, thus : —

(1) See about the first thing; (2) Appointment with X. at eleven; (3) Go over letters with clerk; (4) Call at Queenston at one; (5) Arrange for meeting with X. Y. Z. on Wednesday; and so forth. Having thus drawn a kind of skeleton map of the day, I take little pieces of paper and fill in the details, thus: D. F. (4) How much will you want? (b) What is the latest time you must have it? (¢) Can you do with a larger stock? (d) Close account on Monday at twelve.

This piece of paper I keep beside me during my interview with D. F., so that the business is done in regular order and nothing is forgotten. The same with all other appointments. Thus time is saved. The telegraph system is introduced into conversation. And the greatest amount of information is given and received in the least possible time. I call upon some men, and they ask me how Iam? As if that had anything to do with business! Then they feebly remark upon the weather, and say they never saw anything like it. As if that could help me to live! Have nothing to do with such subjects. You go to see about business, and everything that is not business is waste.

You may wonder what I mean by introducing the telegraph system into conversation. I simply mean that no more words should be used than are necessary to make the meaning clear. One of the plagues of a minister’s life is that people will use so many words in talking to him. They think they shall be heard for their much speaking. In my early ministry I used to take down in shorthand the wordy speeches of one most persistent bore, and I found that he used eighteen words where six were enough. If ever I was rash enough to ask him how he was, he would say, ‘“Well, sir, in regards of that, you touch a rather delicate point, for, as I was a-saying no longer back than yesterday, when we put things together, and consider what sort of weather”’ — and so on, until my poor patience utterly gave way, and if I had not been a minister I should have slain him with a frown. Another man would never answer a question straightforwardly, but would turn it into such a problem in casuistry as to make me feel that I had violated a sanctuary, and had come very near to having my head nipped off by an avenging spirit. Beware of such men in business. — They are too wordy to be honest. When a man is so profuse in words, so parenthetic and involyed — when he qualifies and balances, and leaves you in final uncertainty as to his precise meaning, rest assured that he cannot be honest. Now, do not suppose that I want you to be gruff, uncivil, and repellent. I want enough, just enough, no more than enough, and this I want in a civil and friendly tone. Ifa wordy man I cannot be honest, a gruff man can hardly be magnanimous. Remember that time is money, and that waste words mean waste time.