Page 13 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

known—and more besides—consider such an exchange of ideas foolish.
Why spend hundreds of dollars to find out that a business idea or plan will
not work, when another who has tried the plan tells you in a book or a
magazine article exactly why it is not a good idea? At the end of this volume
you will find references to books, pamphlets and magazines which may be
consulted for further information on some business problem. Consult those
references. They may save you much grief and loss.

But understand this: Reading alone won’t enable you to succeed in business.
The best idea ever conceived for making money is utterly worthless until
somebody puts it to work. You, no doubt, know many brilliant men, fellows
with more ideas for making money than a dog has fleas, yet who never get
enough money together to buy a second-hand automobile. What is wrong
with them? They are probably like the inventor who never stops inventing
long enough to make and sell his invention. One good idea, at work making
money, is worth a thousand ideas just buzzing around in the head of the
smartest man in America.

How to Begin Making Money

The way to begin making money, is to begin. That may sound foolish. But
the hundreds of thousands of people in this country who would like to make a
lot of money are not making it because they are waiting for this, that, or the
other thing to happen. Some are waiting for business to get better. Others are
waiting for the right moment. For the most part, however, they are waiting
for no reason in the world except that it is easier to put off until tomorrow
those things which should be done today. Business is a game of “put and
take”—you can’t “take out” until you “put in.”

People often put off starting in business for themselves because they cannot
see clearly ahead. So they go to friends for advice. It is characteristic of
people, when advising friends, to be super-conservative. Benjamin Franklin,
you will remember, asked his friends what they thought of his chance to
succeed in publishing a newspaper in Philadelphia. Without exception they
advised against it on the grounds that there were already too many
newspapers. They did not take into consideration Franklin’s ability nor his