The Art of Money Getting · Chapter
Depend Upon Your Own Personal Exertions explained
This chapter emphasizes the importance of personal effort, experience, and thorough knowledge of one's business for achieving success.
What happens
This chapter emphasizes the importance of personal effort, experience, and thorough knowledge of one's business for achieving success. It argues that an employer's own oversight is more valuable than hired help, and that learning through mistakes is essential. Using examples like Cuvier's expertise and Rothschild's maxims, the author advocates for a balance of caution and boldness, and dismisses luck as a factor in success.
Themes in this chapter
Learning Through Experience
The chapter stresses that personal application and learning from mistakes are crucial to mastering a business.
Perseverance and Self-Reliance
The author argues that success depends on one's own exertions and persistent effort, not on luck or others.
Characters to notice
- Cuvier
Cited as an example of thorough knowledge of one's business; his ability to classify animals from a single bone demonstrates expertise.
Key passages
“The eye of the employer is often worth more than the hands of a dozen employees.”
An owner's personal supervision is more valuable than the labor of many workers.
Highlights the value of direct oversight and personal involvement.
“He will be like the Yankee tin-peddler, who, having been cheated as to quality in the purchase of his merchandise, said: 'All right, there’s a little information to be gained every day; I will never be cheated in that way again.'”
A person learns from being cheated, vowing to avoid the same mistake in the future.
Illustrates learning through negative experience.
“Among the maxims of the elder Rothschild was one, all apparent paradox: 'Be cautious and bold.'”
Rothschild advised balancing careful planning with daring execution.
Introduces the key principle of combining caution with boldness.