king Business Problems_]

The first of these mental attitudes is purely negative. It is
inhibitory. It is made up of mental pictures of yourself in direful
situations, and these mental pictures bring with them depressing
emotions and _muscular inhibitions_.

The second attitude is positive. It is inspiring. It is made up of
mental pictures of yourself bringing the affair to a triumphant issue,
and these mental pictures bring with them stimulating emotions and the
impulses to those bodily activities that will _realize your aims_.

You have only to start the thing off with the right mental attitude
and hold to it. All the rest is automatic. Think this over.

Put this same idea into your business. Analyze your business with
reference to its _mental attitude_. Of course, you know all about its
organization, its various departments, its machinery and equipment,
its methods, its cost system, its organized efficiency. But what about
its mental attitude? Every store, every industrial establishment has
an air of its own, an indefinite something that distinguishes it from
every other. This is why you buy your cigars at one place instead of
at another.

[Sidenote: _Cutting into the Quick_]

Look behind the methods and the systems and all the wooden machinery
of your business and you come to its throbbing life. There you find
the characteristic quality that governs its future. There you find the
attitude, the mental attitude, that pulls the strings determining the
conduct of clerks and salesmen, managers and superintendents, and
this attitude is in the last analysis a reflection of the mental
attitude of the executive head himself--not necessarily the nominal
executive head, but the real executive head, however he be called.

[Sidenote: _Executives Real and Sham_]

Does the truckman whistle at his work? Is the salesman proud of his
line and his house? Does he approach his "prospect" with the confident
enthusiasm that brings orders? Does the shipping clerk take a
delighted interest in getting out his deliveries? They must have this
mental attitude, or you will never win. Are you yourself "making good"
in this respect? Remember that, whether you know it or not, your
inmost thoughts are reflected in your voice and manner, your every
act. And all your subordinates, whether they know it or not, see these
things and reflect your attitude.

[Sidenote: _Mental Attitude of One's Business_]

Therefore, in all you do, and in all y