HawkU
Well-Known Member
From:
Old Gorgon Graham - More Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
~~ George Horace Lorimer
"In the first place, it looks as if business might be pretty good this
fall, and I'm afraid you'll have your hands so full in your place as
assistant manager of the lard department that you won't have time to
run my job, too.
Then I don't propose to break any quick-promotion records with you,
just because you happened to be born into a job with the house. A fond
father and a fool son hitch up into a bad team, and a good business
makes a poor family carryall.
Out of business hours I like you better than anyone at the office,
but in them there are about twenty men ahead of you in my affections.
The way for you to get first place is by racing fair and square,
and not by using your old daddy as a spring-board from which to
jump over their heads.
A man's son is entitled to a chance in his business, but not to a cinch.
It's been my experience that when an office begins to look like a
family tree, you'll find worms tucked away snug and cheerful in most
of the apples.
A fellow with an office full of relatives is like a sow
with a litter of pigs--apt to get a little thin and peaked as the
others fat up.
A receiver is next of kin to a business man's
relatives, and after they are all nicely settled in the office they're
not long in finding a job for him there, too.
I want you to get this firmly fixed in your mind, because while you
haven't many relatives to hire, if you ever get to be the head of the house,
you'll no doubt marry a few with your wife.
For every man that the Lord makes smart enough to help himself, He
makes two who have to be helped. When your two come to you for jobs,
pay them good salaries to keep out of the office.
Blood is thicker than water, I know, but when it's the blood of your wife's second
cousin out of a job, it's apt to be thicker than molasses--and
stickier than glue when it touches a good thing.
After you have found ninety-nine sound reasons for hiring a man, it's all right to let his
relationship to you be the hundredth. It'll be the only bad reason in the bunch."
Old Gorgon Graham - More Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
~~ George Horace Lorimer
"In the first place, it looks as if business might be pretty good this
fall, and I'm afraid you'll have your hands so full in your place as
assistant manager of the lard department that you won't have time to
run my job, too.
Then I don't propose to break any quick-promotion records with you,
just because you happened to be born into a job with the house. A fond
father and a fool son hitch up into a bad team, and a good business
makes a poor family carryall.
Out of business hours I like you better than anyone at the office,
but in them there are about twenty men ahead of you in my affections.
The way for you to get first place is by racing fair and square,
and not by using your old daddy as a spring-board from which to
jump over their heads.
A man's son is entitled to a chance in his business, but not to a cinch.
It's been my experience that when an office begins to look like a
family tree, you'll find worms tucked away snug and cheerful in most
of the apples.
A fellow with an office full of relatives is like a sow
with a litter of pigs--apt to get a little thin and peaked as the
others fat up.
A receiver is next of kin to a business man's
relatives, and after they are all nicely settled in the office they're
not long in finding a job for him there, too.
I want you to get this firmly fixed in your mind, because while you
haven't many relatives to hire, if you ever get to be the head of the house,
you'll no doubt marry a few with your wife.
For every man that the Lord makes smart enough to help himself, He
makes two who have to be helped. When your two come to you for jobs,
pay them good salaries to keep out of the office.
Blood is thicker than water, I know, but when it's the blood of your wife's second
cousin out of a job, it's apt to be thicker than molasses--and
stickier than glue when it touches a good thing.
After you have found ninety-nine sound reasons for hiring a man, it's all right to let his
relationship to you be the hundredth. It'll be the only bad reason in the bunch."
