Take a second sheet of paper (use paper, for this encourages more definite thinking), then running down this page, line by line, note the various ideas of your own which supplement the author's statements. Take for instance: "A policy of preparedness, whatever the present position." What ideas does this suggest to you? When you have reached the last line, survey the two, the printed page and your list. In working out a science of achievement adapted to your own problems, what is your opinion of yourself as an active partner?

Get at the Essential Ideas. Ideas are not all of equal value; they form no plain but a series of peaks and valleys. Skilled readers like Carlyle, who was able to master a dozen books in a day, mount these peaks of thought in mapping out their intellectual journeys. Obedient to no false notions of thoroughness, they seek only essentials. When these are found they should be pondered over, memorized, woven into your mind, in short, made your own.

On a third sheet of paper make a brief outline of this chapter, numbering in order what you regard as the main ideas advanced, and indenting under each of these some of the minor points made. In reading later chapters use some system of marking the page which will accomplish this same result. For example, a single vertical mark along the margin may indicate that this particular part is worth reviewing, a double line that it should be thoroughly mastered, a triple line that it ought to be memorized. Or sentences summarizing important ideas may be enclosed in parentheses, or underscored, or doubly underscored.

The particular methods employed are open to choice, but the principle is clear; to get at the heart of a book you must cultivate the sense for relative values. What this plan really amounts to is the requirement that you apply the principles of organization, with which you are familiar in business, to the work done by your own mind.

Apply the Test of Experience to What You Read. You will have laid before you the experience of many executives. Nevertheless, what you really desire is not their ideas or the author's ideas, but solely those ideas which will bring results for you. Your judgment, calm, unbiased, judicial, must here be the test. As you read sentence after sentence, ask yourself such questions as "Is this reasonable? What has been my experience upon this point? Is this experience of mine extensive enough to warrant me in accepting, or rejecting, this statement now?" In later chapters it will be well to use some marking scheme, as an "O K" for things you distinctly approve, a "?" for things doubtful, an "X" for disapproval.

Supposing you do thus mark a chapter today, would you upon

rereading this chapter a year hence agree fully with the judgments now made? Why not? Answering these two questions thoughtfully will guard you against dogmatic and arbitrary judgments, from idle fault-finding or mere quibbling. As Sir Francis Bacon advises so admirably, "Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider."

When you do weigh and consider, when you apply to everything you read the test of your own experience, you are forever free from servility and slavish adherence to authority. Such study develops in you open-mindedness, initiative, self-reliance, self-control-qualities emphatically worth while to every business man.

Put the Ideas You Have Gained into Use. Of what value, finally, is any idea to you? Does it not depend upon what it will do for you? If it will not serve you, if, in short, it will not work, then it is like dead stock on a retailer's shelves or capital sunk in out-of-date machines. But the result-getting idea is like a mill constantly grinding fine flour. Here we have the test-an idea's value is what it will produce for you-but the only way to apply this test is through. actual practice.

PART II

THE BASIS OF PERSONAL SYSTEM

I have never known of a great business success without a personality. I have never known of a great personality without a system.-HENRY C. LYTTON, President, The Hub.

One should supervise details, but not let them absorb him. FRANK W. WOOLWORTH.

CHAPTER III

HANDLING DETAILS

Have a well-considered system of doing things, definite and businesslike, not an imitation of something else, but one designed for your own use.-JOHN CALDER, President, International Motor Company.

Victim or Master of Details

A man does not advance far in business before its burden of detail commences to press upon him. The typewriter has simplified correspondence, but it brings more letters. The telephone is a wonderful device, but it means more calls. The mail and express services, the telegraph, railroads, and steamships and within his organization, advertising, division of labor, large-scale production—are all indispensable in modern business, but by their weight of detail they all multiply the burden of the man who must carry the enterprise. The first step in personal efficiency for the executive consists in learning how best to handle this burden of detail.

The day's routine is alike omnipresent, necessary, and yet insidious in its ultimate influence. The standardization of the day's routine, accordingly, affords the true basis of personal system.

How J. Pierpont Morgan Handled Details

The following incident in the life of the late J. Pierpont Morgan has often been misinterpreted with reference to the great financier's way of handling details.

One day in the Federal Building, Mr. Lamb as opposing lawyer was cross-examining Mr. Morgan about the purchase