The Secret Of Wealth
132 total pages.
In the selection of our needs, whether they be necessities or merely desires, a fine sense of discrimination may be brought into action which will result in a saving of something in every case and of as much as 50% in some cases. It is a well-known and generally accepted fact that the average American is an unusually good salesman and a remarkably poor buyer. As a people, we have had our salesmanship educated, cultivated and developed to a high degree. There are schools which teach salesmanship and many of the leading business schools have recently been opening departments of salesmanship. It seems that the selling of things receives much attention but the buying of things for our own consumption continues to be done by the majority of people in a loose, haphazard and unscientific manner. Suppose we resolve to buy only the thing which will best serve our purpose and on every purchase bring to bear the best buying judgment we possess; at the end of the year the result of this careful buying will stand out very clearly. How many times do we rush into a store and buy something which is not the thing we really wanted and which, when we get it home, hangs in the closet, lies in the drawer or rests on the shelf for months and even years. Suppose we buy what we need and want when we need and want it and refuse to buy until we get just what we need and just what we want. We will probably discover that a fair percentage of our past purchases have been ill-advised and some of them, at least, wholly unnecessary. And then there is much pleasure in having just what we want, in having a thing for which we never have to make excuses or offer apologies. This applies with equal force whether the article be a home, an automobile or merely a hat. There are very few people who do not own a hat, a pair of shoes or some other piece of wearing apparel which they have never worn and which probably they never will wear. It was not what they wanted when they bought it and it never should have been bought at all.
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The Secret Of Wealth