How to influence men : the use of psychology in business / by Edgar James Swift.

  • Swift, Edgar James, 1860-1932.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: How to influence men : the use of psychology in business / by Edgar James Swift. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sales policy needs adjusting to new conditions, but we hesi- tate. 'What’s the use? It’s been working pretty well for five years. It’s good for another five—or, I’ll wait until next year.’ ” The explanation of this comfortable attitude, which Mr. Lewis has so well described, is that human beings tend to follow the line of least resistance. Man does not want to go to unnecessary trouble. So occupation habits get the mastery of him before he knows it. Indeed, he hardly ever discovers that he is a slave to inefficient habits.^ “The other day,” continues Mr. Lewis, “a manager said to me: 'I am getting rusty. It would be the best tiling in the world for me if I got a red slip from the secretary next month.’ He was candid.” A significant fact about these occupation habits is their stealth. They creep upon us unawares and before we know of their presence they have overpowered us. Men do not consciously decide to do things in the easiest way. It is just the tendency of living organisms. No one wants to make unnecessary exertion. This is one phase of the law of conservation of energy. Most young men are am- bitious. They want to get ahead. The trouble is they do not know how to do it. The way in which things have been done works well up to a certain point; otherwise the busi- ness would have gone into bankruptcy. So why make changes? But meanwhile conditions have altered. They change whether the firm’s policy alters or not. There never was a time when transitions were so frequent and so rapid. Many a manufacturer has gone into bankruptcy because he did not keep up with the game. Men, we have said, rarely use all of their ability. A man is never conscious of his power until he throws all of his energy into the scale that is to measure his worth. Then he sees that he has been living at a low level of achieve- * See Psychology and the Day's Work, by Edgar James Swift. (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, chap. I.)