Page 258 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

salesmen. In some cases these sales managers could have written just as good
—perhaps better—letters than this advertising man offered to write for them,
but they did not have time to do it. They were too engrossed in the activities
of their jobs. So they were glad to pay the young advertising man $10 a
month to write a weekly letter to their salesmen. Since salesmen’s problems
have much in common, the young man found that the same letter, with a few
changes, would work equally well for any business, and within the year he
was receiving $10 a month from more than 200 companies for his services,
At the age of twenty-seven he was earning over $20,000 a year! Yet, had he
been employed by any of these companies on a salary, he could not have
made more than $7,000 at the most. What was the secret of his success? It
was simple. He became expert at doing one thing better than any other person
in the world was doing it. If he had set out to be a better advertising man than
anyone else in the world, he would still be on the way up the ladder. But he
lifted out of the selling field one little thing: A service for which a need
existed, and then he concentrated all his efforts and thought on doing that one
thing superlatively well. In other words, he was a specialist.

This principle of specialization is most important in our modern complex life.
It applies not only to business, but to whatever we do. To be able to do many
things well is an asset and a credit. And perhaps the world needs more
versatile people. But when it comes to making a thousand dollars quickly by
selling your services, specialize. We are living in an age of specialists.
Doctors specialize because they know that the big opportunities in medicine
go to the one who thoroughly masters one particular disease or concentrates
on one certain part of the body. The general practitioner served a very useful
role in our community life. It is too bad to see him pass. But the big money in
medicine lies in specializing. The same is true in law and in educational
activities. It is true in engineering. People will pay a premium to get the
advice or the opinion of those who are recognized as knowing more about the
particular thing in which they are interested than anyone else in town, or in
the country or in the world.

Training Gave Chapin a Start