A wise man once said...

[SMJoinery]

Hi All

Thought I would share something I read again recently.

Uphill work it will be for a few years until your work is proven, but after that it is smooth sailing. Instead of objecting to inspectors they should be welcomed by all manufacturing establishments. A high standard of excellence is easily maintained, and men are educated in the effort to reach excellence. I have never known a concern to make a decided success that did not do good, honest work, and even in these days of the fiercest competition, when everything would seem to be matter of price, there lies still at the root of great business success the very much more important factor of quality. The effect of attention to quality, upon every man in the service, from the president of the concern down to the humblest laborer, cannot be overestimated. And bearing on the same question, clean, fine workshops and tools, well-kept yards and surroundings are of much greater importance than is usually supposed.


When I read the text, I'm drawn to ponder the wealth of experience at the authors hand and how all trades, manufacturing and craftsman can relate to most if not all of the advice.
I've read the whole book several times (and others on the man) but when I read this text I cant help but read it over and ask myself "would this describe my work, my business, my goals?"

Can anyone guess who the author was?

Clues are...
1. A great Scotsman
2. Emigrated in childhood to the States
3. Extracted from his autobiography.

Hope you enjoy it.
Scott

 

[Kevin McConville]

What a great passage!  I know who wrote it but since I cheated and googled it I wont soil it for others.  I'm going to look a copy of his autobiography - thanks for sharing.

 

[Bigchasbroon]

I'm going to guess at Andrew Carnegie?

 

[SMJoinery]

Thanks.
He was born and raised about 8 miles from my home.
Almost daily I am reminded of his many legacies and I'm sure many people in the world could say the same.

 

[SMJoinery]

I'm going to guess at Andrew Carnegie?

Give that man a cigar...well done, it is indeed Andrew Carnegie.

 

[andy5405]

I had heard the name before but wasn't aware who he was. I've just had a good read about his life and work and really liked this quote.

“Man does not live by bread alone. I have known millionaires starving for lack of the nutriment which alone can sustain all that is human in man, and I know workmen, and many so-called poor men, who revel in luxuries beyond the power of those millionaires to reach. It is the mind that makes the body rich. There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else. Money can only be the useful drudge of things immeasurably higher than itself. Exalted beyond this, as it sometimes is, it remains Caliban still and still plays the beast. My aspirations take a higher flight. Mine be it to have contributed to the enlightenment and the joys of the mind, to the things of the spirit, to all that tends to bring into the lives of the toilers of Pittsburgh sweetness and light. I hold this the noblest possible use of wealth” 

However the world is full of rich people telling the poor that wealth is not all that it seems. I'm always a little dubious.

 

[Bigchasbroon]

I don't know too much about him but I've read a book a couple of times which he got a contemporary of his to write. It's called think and grow rich by napoleon hill. It's a study of some of the most successful people of that era.