The Art of Money Getting · Chapter
Use the Best Tools explained
This chapter emphasizes the importance of hiring the best employees, treating them as valuable tools, and retaining them as they gain experience.
What happens
This chapter emphasizes the importance of hiring the best employees, treating them as valuable tools, and retaining them as they gain experience. It warns against yielding to exorbitant salary demands and highlights the superiority of employees who combine thinking with working, using Mr. Beecher's illustration of fingers that think versus a brain that thinks.
Themes in this chapter
Learning Through Experience
Highlights that employees gain valuable experience over time, making them more beneficial to retain.
Wealth and Character Development
Discusses the character of employees who are faithful and not arrogant about their indispensability, linking to wise wealth management.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Beecher
Used as an example to illustrate the value of employees who think, not just work.
Key passages
“You cannot have too good tools to work with, and there is no tool you should be so particular about as living tools.”
The best tools for your work are your employees, so choose them with the utmost care.
Emphasizes the critical importance of selecting and valuing good employees.
“If, as he gets more valuable, he demands an exorbitant increase of salary; on the supposition that you can’t do without him, let him go.”
If a valuable employee demands an unreasonable raise because they think they are irreplaceable, fire them.
Advises against being held hostage by an employee's inflated self-worth.
“I have a brain that thinks; I think all over; I am a thinking as well as a working man!”
I am not just a worker; I use my mind fully and think critically about my work.
Illustrates the ideal employee who combines intellect with labor.