DOING THE UNNECESSARY

Paradoxical as it may sound, success in business today is a direct result of doing the unnecessary. We have all experienced the feeling of incredulity when we discover a man seriously at work on some course of his own making which is not in the College curriculum. We feel a curious mixture of sensations; a little wonder, a little of something much akin to envy, and perhaps unqualified condemnation of his conduct.

Like many fundamental truths, the idea of "doing a little more than the job calls for" has become so disagreeably trite and familiar that it has lost all its meaning.

Yet this is the very formula that has been the one important factor of business success in the last decade, and it works as many miracles today as it did ten years ago. So when you see a man who really appreciates its value and has incorporated it into his work, don't pity him-pity yourself.