What would have happened then? An argument would have begun to steam and boil and sputter and you know how arguments end. Even if I had convinced him that he was wrong, his pride would have made it difficult for him to back down and give in.
Here is one of the best bits of advice ever given about the fine art of human relationships. If there is any one secret of success, said Henry Ford, it lies in the ability to get the other persons point of view and see things from that persons angle as well as from your own.
That is so good, I want to repeat it: If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other persons point of view and see things from that persons angle as well as from your own.
That is so simple, so obvious, that anyone ought to see the truth of it at a glance[21]; yet 90 percent of the people on this earth ignore it 90 percent of the time.
An example? Look at the letters that come across your desk tomorrow morning, and you will find that most of them violate this important canon of common sense. Take this one, a letter written by the head of the radio department of an advertising agency with offices scattered across the continent. This letter was sent to the managers of local radio stations throughout the country. (I have set down, in brackets, my reactions to each paragraph.)
Mr. John Blank,
Blankville,
Indiana
Dear Mr. Blank:
The company desires to retain its position in advertising agency leadership in the radio field.
[Who cares what your company desires? I am worried about my own problems. The bank is foreclosing the mortgage on my house, the bugs are destroying the hollyhocks, the stock market tumbled yesterday. I missed the eight-fifteen this morning, I wasnt invited to the Joness dance last night, the doctor tells me I have high blood pressure and neuritis and dandruff. And then what happens? I come down to the office this morning worried, open my mail and here is some little whippersnapper off in New York yapping about what his company wants. Bah! If he only realized what sort of impression his letter makes, he would get out of the advertising business and start manufacturing sheep dip.]
This agencys national advertising accounts were the bulwark of the network. Our subsequent clearances of station time have kept us at the top of agencies year after year.
[You are big and rich and right at the top, are you? So what? I dont give two whoops in Hades if you are as big as General Motors and General Electric and the General Staff of the U. S. Army all combined. If you had as much sense as a half-witted hummingbird, you would realize that I am interested in how big I am not how big you are. All this talk about your enormous success makes me feel small and unimportant.]
This agencys national advertising accounts were the bulwark of the network. Our subsequent clearances of station time have kept us at the top of agencies year after year.
[You are big and rich and right at the top, are you? So what? I dont give two whoops in Hades if you are as big as General Motors and General Electric and the General Staff of the U. S. Army all combined. If you had as much sense as a half-witted hummingbird, you would realize that I am interested in how big I am not how big you are. All this talk about your enormous success makes me feel small and unimportant.]
We desire to service our accounts with the last word on radio station information.
[You desire! You desire. You unmitigated ass. Im not interested in what you desire or what the President of the United States desires. Let me tell you once and for all[22] that I am interested in what I desire and you havent said a word about that yet in this absurd letter of yours.]
Will you, therefore, put the- company on your preferred list[23] for weekly station information every single detail that will be useful to an agency in intelligently booking time.
[Preferred list. You have your nerve![24] You make me feel insignificant by your big talk about your company and then you ask me to put you on a preferred list, and you dont even say please when you ask it.]
A prompt acknowledgment of this letter, giving us your latest doings, will be mutually helpful.
[You fool! You mail me a cheap form letter a letter scattered far and wide like the autumn leaves and you have the gall to ask me, when I am worried about the mortgage and the hollyhocks and my blood pressure, to sit down and dictate a personal note acknowledging your form letter and you ask me to do it promptly. What do you mean, promptly? Dont you know I am just as busy as you are or, at least, I like to think I am. And while we are on the subject, who gave you the lordly right to order me around? You say it will be mutually helpful. At last, at last, you have begun to see my viewpoint. But you are vague about how it will be to my advantage.]
Very truly yours,
John Doe
Manager Radio Department
P. S. The enclosed reprint from the Blankville Journal will be of interest to you, and you may want to broadcast it over your station.