Gary Screaton Page, Ph.D.

By Gary Screaton Page, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2008-2010 by Gary Screaton Page. All rights reserved.

 

[This article may be reproduced as is with none of the content changed except for spelling as appropriate for the country in which the reproduced articled appears, and further that all links are included as well as the copyright information.]

 

D. O. Mills

 

Darius O. Mills, financier and philanthropist, started on his road to fortune with nothing but a good physique and a large determination. His wealth grew to over $25,000,000. He acquired that amount of money by observing these rules:

 

1.  Work develops all the good there is in a man; idleness all the evil; therefore work if you would be good—and successful.

2.  Sleep eight hours, work twelve, and pick your recreations with an eye to their good results.

3.  Save one dollar out of every five you earn. It is not alone the mere saving of money that counts; it is the intellectual and moral discipline the saving habit enforces.

4.  Be humble, not servile or undignified, but respectful in the presence of superior knowledge, position, or experience,

5.  Most projects fail owing to poor business management, and that means a poor man at the helm.

6.  Success is not measured by the number of his millions one has or by the extent of his power, but by the good that he does.

  

Joseph Downey

 

Joseph Downey, was one of the wealthiest contractors in Chicago. He took a pessimistic view of every business venture. Downey said that he always expected the worst to happen, and was agreeably surprised when the reverse occurred. To his intimate friends he often gives these terse bits of advice:

 

1.  Never figure what your profits are going to be.

2.  Calculate what your possible losses will be on a venture.

3.  Figure what the lowest return will be in a business proposition with all things unfavorable. If matters turn out favorably, you can stand the prosperity that follows.

4.  Buy all the property that you can, but never build to suit you. Construct buildings to please others and they will sell.

  

C. P. Huntington

 

Collis P. Huntington laid the foundation of his fortune of over $50,000,000 by peddling hardware in California during the feverish days of 1849. His business maxims were:

 

1.  Don’t talk too much during business hours.

2.  Listen attentively; answer cautiously; decide quickly.

3.  Do what you think is right and stand by your own judgment.

4.  Teach others, by your conduct, to trust you implicitly.

5.  Never let your competitors know what your next move will be; time enough to talk after you have acted.

6.  Have a definite aim, and keep your eye on the objective point.

7.  Be bold with caution, prudent with boldness.

 

[Gary Screaton Page, Ph.D. is a Registered Psychotherapist and author of Pressing Your Own Buttons: How to Take Control of Your Life So Others Don’t™ at http://ww.pressingyourownbuttons.com]