The Art of Money Getting - P. T. Barnum (top novels TXT) 📗
- Author: P. T. Barnum
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“How can I help you so much with so small a sum?” asked the gentleman in
surprise. “I started out this morning (hiccuped the fellow) with the
full determination to get drunk, and I have spent my only dollar to
accomplish the object, and it has not quite done it. Ten cents worth
more of whiskey would just do it, and in this manner I should save the
dollar already expended.”
So a man who advertises at all must keep it up until the public know who
and what he is, and what his business is, or else the money invested in
advertising is lost.
Some men have a peculiar genius for writing a striking advertisement,
one that will arrest the attention of the reader at first sight. This
fact, of course, gives the advertiser a great advantage. Sometimes a man
makes himself popular by an unique sign or a curious display in his
window, recently I observed a swing sign extending over the sidewalk in
front of a store, on which was the inscription in plain letters,
“DON’T READ THE OTHER SIDE”
Of course I did, and so did everybody else, and I learned that the man
had made all independence by first attracting the public to his business
in that way and then using his customers well afterwards.
Genin, the hatter, bought the first Jenny Lind ticket at auction for two
hundred and twenty-five dollars, because he knew it would be a good
advertisement for him. “Who is the bidder?” said the auctioneer, as he
knocked down that ticket at Castle Garden. “Genin, the hatter,” was the
response. Here were thousands of people from the Fifth avenue, and from
distant cities in the highest stations in life. “Who is ‘Genin,’ the
hatter?” they exclaimed. They had never heard of him before. The next
morning the newspapers and telegraph had circulated the facts from Maine
to Texas, and from five to ten millions off people had read that the
tickets sold at auction For Jenny Lind’s first concert amounted to about
twenty thousand dollars, and that a single ticket was sold at two
hundred and twenty-five dollars, to “Genin, the hatter.” Men throughout
the country involuntarily took off their hats to see if they had a
“Genin” hat on their heads. At a town in Iowa it was found that in the
crowd around the post office, there was one man who had a “Genin” hat,
and he showed it in triumph, although it was worn out and not worth two
cents. “Why,” one man exclaimed, “you have a real ‘Genin’ hat; what a
lucky fellow you are.” Another man said, “Hang on to that hat, it will
be a valuable heir-loom in your family.” Still another man in the crowd
who seemed to envy the possessor of this good fortune, said, “Come, give
us all a chance; put it up at auction!” He did so, and it was sold as a
keepsake for nine dollars and fifty cents! What was the consequence to
Mr. Genin? He sold ten thousand extra hats per annum, the first six
years. Nine-tenths of the purchasers bought of him, probably, out of
curiosity, and many of them, finding that he gave them an equivalent for
their money, became his regular customers. This novel advertisement
first struck their attention, and then, as he made a good article, they
came again.
Now I don’t say that everybody should advertise as Mr. Genin did. But I
say if a man has got goods for sale, and he don’t advertise them in
some way, the chances are that some day the sheriff will do it for him.
Nor do I say that everybody must advertise in a newspaper, or indeed use
“printers’ ink” at all. On the contrary, although that article is
indispensable in the majority of cases, yet doctors and clergymen, and
sometimes lawyers and some others, can more effectually reach the public
in some other manner. But it is obvious, they must be known in some way,
else how could they be supported?
BE POLITE AND KIND TO YOUR CUSTOMERS
Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.
Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove
unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly. The
truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be
the patronage bestowed upon him. “Like begets like.” The man who gives
the greatest amount of goods of a corresponding quality for the least
sum (still reserving for himself a profit) will generally succeed best
in the long run. This brings us to the golden rule, “As ye would that
men should do to you, do ye also to them” and they will do better by you
than if you always treated them as if you wanted to get the most you
could out of them for the least return. Men who drive sharp bargains
with their customers, acting as if they never expected to see them
again, will not be mistaken. They will never see them again as
customers. People don’t like to pay and get kicked also.
One of the ushers in my Museum once told me he intended to whip a man
who was in the lecture-room as soon as he came out.
“What for?” I inquired.
“Because he said I was no gentleman,” replied the usher.
“Never mind,” I replied, “he pays for that, and you will not convince
him you are a gentleman by whipping him. I cannot afford to lose a
customer. If you whip him, he will never visit the Museum again, and he
will induce friends to go with him to other places of amusement instead
of this, and thus you see, I should be a serious loser.”
“But he insulted me,” muttered the usher.
“Exactly,” I replied, “and if he owned the Museum, and you had paid him
for the privilege of visiting it, and he had then insulted you, there
might be some reason in your resenting it, but in this instance he is
the man who pays, while we receive, and you must, therefore, put up with
his bad manners.”
My usher laughingly remarked, that this was undoubtedly the true policy;
but he added that he should not object to an increase of salary if he
was expected to be abused in order to promote my interest.
BE CHARITABLEOf course men should be charitable, because it is a duty and a pleasure.
But even as a matter of policy, if you possess no higher incentive, you
will find that the liberal man will command patronage, while the sordid,
uncharitable miser will be avoided.
Solomon says: “There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is
that withholdeth more than meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” Of course
the only true charity is that which is from the heart.
The best kind of charity is to help those who are willing to help
themselves. Promiscuous almsgiving, without inquiring into the
worthiness of the applicant, is bad in every sense. But to search out
and quietly assist those who are struggling for themselves, is the kind
that “scattereth and yet increaseth.” But don’t fall into the idea that
some persons practice, of giving a prayer instead of a potato, and a
benediction instead of bread, to the hungry. It is easier to make
Christians with full stomachs than empty.
DON’T BLAB
Some men have a foolish habit of telling their business secrets. If they
make money they like to tell their neighbors how it was done. Nothing is
gained by this, and ofttimes much is lost. Say nothing about your
profits, your hopes, your expectations, your intentions. And this should
apply to letters as well as to conversation. Goethe makes Mephistophilles
say: “Never write a letter nor destroy one.” Business men must write
letters, but they should be careful what they put in them. If you are
losing money, be specially cautious and not tell of it, or you will lose
your reputation.
PRESERVE YOUR INTEGRITYIt is more precious than diamonds or rubies. The old miser said to his
sons: “Get money; get it honestly if you can, but get money:” This
advice was not only atrociously wicked, but it was the very essence of
stupidity: It was as much as to say, “if you find it difficult to obtain
money honestly, you can easily get it dishonestly. Get it in that way.”
Poor fool! Not to know that the most difficult thing in life is to make
money dishonestly! Not to know that our prisons are full of men who
attempted to follow this advice; not to understand that no man can be
dishonest, without soon being found out, and that when his lack of
principle is discovered, nearly every avenue to success is closed
against him forever. The public very properly shun all whose integrity
is doubted. No matter how polite and pleasant and accommodating a man
may be, none of us dare to deal with him if we suspect “false weights
and measures.” Strict honesty, not only lies at the foundation of all
success in life (financially), but in every other respect.
Uncompromising integrity of character is invaluable. It secures to its
possessor a peace and joy which cannot be attained without it—which no
amount of money, or houses and lands can purchase. A man who is known to
be strictly honest, may be ever so poor, but he has the purses of all
the community at his disposal—for all know that if he promises to
return what he borrows, he will never disappoint them. As a mere matter
of selfishness, therefore, if a man had no higher motive for being
honest, all will find that the maxim of Dr. Franklin can never fail to
be true, that “honesty is the best policy.”
To get rich, is not always equivalent to being successful. “There are
many rich poor men,” while there are many others, honest and devout men
and women, who have never possessed so much money as some rich persons
squander in a week, but who are nevertheless really richer and happier
than any man can ever be while he is a transgressor of the higher laws
of his being.
The inordinate love of money, no doubt, may be and is “the root of all
evil,” but money itself, when properly used, is not only a “handy thing
to have in the house,” but affords the gratification of blessing our
race by enabling its possessor to enlarge the scope of human happiness
and human influence. The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none
can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts its
responsibilities, and uses it as a friend to humanity.
The history of money-getting, which is commerce, is a history of
civilization, and wherever trade has flourished most, there, too, have
art and science produced the noblest fruits. In fact, as a general
thing, money-getters are the benefactors of our race. To them, in a
great measure, are we indebted for our institutions of learning and of
art, our academies, colleges and churches. It is no argument against the
desire for, or the possession of wealth, to say that there are sometimes
misers who hoard money only for the sake of hoarding and who have no
higher aspiration than to grasp everything which comes within their
reach. As we have sometimes hypocrites in religion, and demagogues in
politics, so there are occasionally misers among money-getters. These,
however, are only exceptions to the general rule. But when, in this
country, we find such a nuisance and stumbling block as a miser, we
remember with gratitude that in America we have no laws of
primogeniture, and that in the due course of
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