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In a 1985 monthly publication of Insight, there is an article about
Andrew Carnegie, the great steel maker, who was asked by a reporter, “How
is it possible to have 43 millionaires working for you at the same time? ”
Mr. Carnegie answered, “They weren''t millionaires when they started
working for me.” The reporter asked, “Well, what happened?” Mr.
Carnegie replied, “We believe in rewarding
excellence in performance, and these men have developed themselves to
the degree that they have become millionaires.”
The reporter asked, “How do you develop so many people?”
Andrew Carnegie replied this way: “I develop men exactly the same
way you mine gold. In order to get an ounce of gold, you move tons and
tons of dirt. But you don''t go looking for the dirt; you go looking for
the gold.”
When interviewed by Success Magazine in 1898 Thomas Edison was asked, “What''s
the first requisite for success?” And Edison answered this way: “The
ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly
without growing weary. You do something all day long, don''t you? Everyone
does. If you get up at 7 A.M. and go to bed at 11 P.M., you have put in
16 good hours, and it is certain with most men that they have been doing
something all the time. The only trouble is that they do it about a great
many things and I do it about one. If they took the time in question and
applied it in one direction, to one object they would succeed.”
Leadership
Why are very few people leaders? Many people are followers in general
and in most all aspects of life. Many seem to follow others, much like
all the mice that fall in line to follow behind the Pied Piper.
I believe many people are too shy to lead, in whatever situation they
are in. The average person, when entering a department store, will follow
the person who previously entered the store. People will follow other people
through the same exact door, no matter that other doors are more accessible.
People tend to follow the path of a predecessor. People do the same thing
because it''s easier that way. It takes more commitment, work, and determination
to find and to independently accomplish something new and better.
In a casino, if there is an empty roulette or blackjack table, people
will usually walk right by it. But as soon as one person sits down at the
table, it''s amazing how the table fills up with new people following the
lead of the person who first sat down. Why? Maybe people think that they
would miss out on something good, so they join the lone player.
It has been known that in the former Soviet Union, people were so used
to standing on line that, once a line formed, other people automatically
joined on the long line. They didn''t want to miss out on whatever was
for sale. | 