s are only little things put together. I was greatly
impressed with this fact one morning as I stood watching the
workmen erecting the steel framework for a tall office building.
A shrill whistle rang out as a signal, a man over at the engine
pulled a lever, a chain from the derrick was lowered, and the
whistle rang out again. A man stooped down and fastened the chain
around the center of a steel beam, stepped back and blew the
whistle once more. Again the lever was moved at the engine, and
the steel beam soared into the air up to the sixteenth story,
where it was made fast by little bolts.

"The entire structure, great as it was, towering far above all
the neighboring buildings, was made up of pieces of steel and
stone and wood, put together according to a plan. The plan was
first imagined, then penciled, then carefully drawn, and then
followed by the workmen. It was all a combination of little
things.

[Sidenote: _Working Up a Department_]

"It is encouraging to think of this when you are confronted by a
big task. Remember that it is only a group of little tasks, any
of which you can easily do. It is ignorance of this fact that
makes some men afraid to try."

Suppose, now, that instead of making a radical change in your
business situation, you are simply seeking to improve some
particular department of your business.

[Sidenote: _Imagination in Handling Employees_]

In commercial affairs men are the great means to money-making,
and efficient personal service the great key to prosperity. In
your dealings with employees do not be guided by the necessities
of the moment. Expediency is the poorest of all excuses for
action. Have regard not only for your own immediate needs, but
also for the welfare and future conduct of your employees. It is
part of the burden of the executive head that he must do the
forethinking not only for himself but for those under him.

Perhaps the man you have under observation for advancement to
some executive position has all the basic qualifications of
judicial sense, discrimination and attentiveness to details, but
you are uncertain whether he has enough imagination to devise new
ways and means of doing things and developing business in new
fields. If you wish to try a simple but very effective test along
this line, you can adopt the following standard psychological
experiment, which has been used at Harvard, Cornell and many
other colleges and schools.

[Sidenote: _How to Test an