“A young financial writer once brought ridicule upon himself by stating that a certain company had nothing to commend it except excellent earnings. Well, there are companies whose earnings are excellent but whose stocks I would never recommend. In selecting investments, I attach prime importance to the men behind them. I'd rather buy brains and character than earnings. Earnings can be good one year and poor the next. But if you put your money into securities run by men combining conspicuous brains and unimpeachable character, the likelihood is that the financial results will prove satisfactory.” IfsMenYearsWellsCharacterRunningYoungCertainNextWealthPoorResultsBehindsBrainCompanySecurityHe ManProveImportanceInvestmentFinancialBe GoodExcellentPrimeEarningRidiculeLikelihoodCombiningFinancial Results Author:B. C. Forbes
“New Year, the season for changes in positions and advances in salaries, approaches. If you have in your employ some who deserve more salary, do not compel them to go through the unpleasant ordeal of asking a raise, but, rather, voluntarily increase their remuneration. A raise that comes from the boss without asking is worth a lot more than one that has to be gouged out of him. Is it not true that a great many employers who would not dream of overcharging their customers have no qualms whatever about underpaying their employees if the latter will submit without protest?” IfsYearsDreamPositionApproachDeserveSeasonsIncreaseAskingRaisesCustomersGreat MenEmployeeLatterProtestBossNew YearSubmitEmployersSalaryOrdealsQualmsRemunerationDeserve MoreOvercharging Author:B. C. Forbes
“A magazine editor recently asked me to sit down on my 40th birthday and write an article on the most important things I had learned in my first 40 years. I told him that the chief thing I had learned was that the copybook maxims are true, but that too many people forget this once they go out into the heat and hustle and bustle of the battle of life and only realize their truth once one foot is beginning to slip into the grave. The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.” PeopleMenWritingYearsFirstsImportantRealizingForgetMillionsFeetHe ManBattleCostConscienceImportant ThingsGravesMagazinesChiefsHeatEditorsArticlesSlipsMaximsHustleBustle40th BirthdayBattle Of LifeHustle And BustleMagazine Editors Author:B. C. Forbes
“The man who works 52 weeks in the year does not do his best in any one week of the year, Daniel Guggenheim, onetime head of the greatest smelting and mining family in America, impressed upon me. Real recreation quickens aspiration. The true purpose of recreation is not merely to amuse, not merely to afford pleasure, not merely to kill time, but to increase our fitness, enhance our usefulness, spur achievement.” MenYearsDoeRealAmericaPurposePleasureWeekHe ManAchievementIncreaseAspirationLeisureImpressedUsefulnessRecreationSpursMiningTrue Purpose Author:B. C. Forbes
“Many concerns now make part or the whole of their dividends from by-products that formerly went to waste. How do we, as individuals, utilize our principal by-product? Our principal by-product is, of course, our leisure time. Many years of observation forces the conclusion that a man's success or failure in life is determined as much by how he acts during his leisure as by how he acts during his work hours. Tell me how a young man spends his evenings and I will tell you how he is likely to spend the latter part of his life.” MenYearsWholeYoungLife IsCoursesIndividualForceHoursProductsWasteConcernDeterminedConclusionObservationEveningYoung ManLatterLeisurePrincipalDividendsSuccess Or FailureFailure In LifeLeisure Time Author:B. C. Forbes
“Madame Curie didn't stumble upon radium by accident. She searched and experimented and sweated and suffered years before she found it. Success rarely is an accident.” YearsSuccessFoundAccidentsStumble UponMadame Curie Author:B. C. Forbes
“For my part, I rather distrust men or concerns that rise up with the speed of rockets. Sudden rises are sometimes followed by equally sudden falls. I have most faith in the individual or enterprise that advances step by step. A mushroom can spring up in a day; an oak takes 50 years or more to reach maturity. Mushrooms don't last; oaks do. The real cause for an enormous number of business failures is premature over-expansion, attempting to gallop before learning to creep. Sudden successes often invite sudden reverses.” MenYearsRealSometimesLastsSuccessFallIndividualCausesNumbersStepsSpringConcernSpeedEnormousMaturityEnterpriseInvitesReverseExpansionDistrustAttemptingRocketsCreepsOaksMushroomsPremature Author:B. C. Forbes
“It can be set down as a broad, general principle that we cannot indulge in idleness and abundance during both the first and second half of our life. Study, application, industry, enthusiasm while we are young usually enable us to enjoy life when we grow older. But unless we toil and strive and earn all we can in the first half, the second half of our life is liable to bring disappointment, discomfort, distress. The time to put forth effort is when we are most able to do it, namely, in the years of our greatest strength. The law of compensation hasn't ceased to function.” YearsFirstsAbleLawYoungLife IsGrowsEnjoyEffortHalfPrinciplesStudyOur LivesIndustryFunctionAgingStriveDisappointmentEnthusiasmAbundanceBroadsApplicationDistressToilEnjoy LifeIdlenessIndulgeCompensationDiscomfortLiableIndulge In Author:B. C. Forbes
“When you delve deep enough, you find that practically every great fortune and great enterprise in America have sprung from the courageous enterprise of some individual. It was Commodore Vanderbilt's enterprise in switching first from running a ferryboat to running other ships, and then, when he was well along in years, his enterprise in switching into railroading, that created what was to become one of the most notable fortunes in the history of the world.” WorldYearsFirstsWellsEnoughRunningAmericaIndividualBusinessFortuneShipsEnterpriseCourageousWorld HistoryNotableSprungSwitchingVanderbilt Author:B. C. Forbes
“Happiness is normally the prime search of every rational human being. One way to derive increasing happiness during the year we have just entered is to strive diligently to promote the happiness of others, to think of them first, yourself second. Happiness is the greatest tonic, the greatest elixir, of all. Worry is among the worst poisons. One sensible New Year resolution: I will do my utmost to have consideration for others, to exercise usefulness, to radiate happiness, to conquer worrying over things I cannot possibly remedy.” ThinkingWayYearsFirstsHumansHappinessHuman BeingsWorryWorstExerciseStriveRationalOne WayConquerPoisonConsiderationResolutionPrimeSensibleNew YearRemedyUsefulnessNew Years ResolutionElixirConsideration For Others Author:B. C. Forbes
