How to Make More Money and How to Keep It

Further tips on succeeding in business without really trying

It is an easy thing, as this article will show, to double or triple your income.

But the question asked by so many is – "Why?"

You may be living a simple, happy life and not want to take on the extra cares, duties, and responsibilities that go with money. This is not a proper attitude.

True, there was a time when money meant dull, time-consuming meetings with investment men, visits to stuffy safe-deposit vaults, sleepless nights, and scheming women.

For the salaried man this is happily no longer the case!

Today you need never see the money at all. It will pass painlessly from your bank to your tax accountant and from him to the government, which will make good use of it dredging rivers, supporting farmers, printing pamphlets, and other useful works. The government will not bother or worry you about how it spends your money. It will be entirely out of your hands.

You may still ask, then, "Why make money?" as so many have. The answer is clear and ringing: It is the American thing to do!

Remember: Money is the only true indication that you have Made Your Mark. The man in the street, even your own office personnel, will not know how much you make, but if you are In the Money it will be stamped on you, it will be a badge of honor.

The difference between the $20,000-a-year man and the $40,000-a-year man is the difference between day and night, even though their take-home pay will differ negligibly. The higher-paid man will have prettier secretaries, more windows in his office, hand-blocked draperies, and a look of authority. His voice will carry weight wherever he goes.

There are two basic ways to make more money: (1) by getting a raise at your own company, and (2) by leaving to join another company.

How to Get a Raise

Always remember that the first raises are the hardest. It is much harder to rise from $50 to $60 a week than it is, later on, to move from $10,000 to $15,000 a year.

This is because on a $50-a-week level you are an "employee," and therefore a natural enemy of management, whereas on the $10,000 and higher levels you are "one of us." The sooner you create the "one of us" attitude the better.

Here are some good devices, which should be used in rotation:

1. Abject Pouerty Deuice. Do not over-do this! Be restrained, be brave.

"I don't mind, really, sir. They say you think better on an empty stomach. It's just the children."

Patches on the clothes should be made to look as though you tried to make them match.

From "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" copyright 1952 by Shepherd Mead, published by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

"Oh, no, really, I prefer it. Frightful crowds in the restaurants. Nothing like a good, homemade sandwich."

Remember your car, too:

"Sorry I'm late, sir. The poor old car keeps breaking down. I'll pick up some picture wire on the way home."

"Picture wire?"

"Yes, should fix it up fine. Keep the doors from falling off again."

2. The Philosophical Approach. Pretend it isn't really the money you're after. This will put the whole thing on a higher plane.

"It just came over me, sir. What are we really living for? Both of us, I mean. Essentially we want escape. Feel the soil between our toes. Money's only a small part of it, really."

He will be apologetic about giving you more money. He will know he can't put soil between you toes.

3. The Simulated Job Hunt. Never, of course, say you are looking for another job. Be mysterious. But always take a brief case with you to lunch, and be seen leaving with it. You may fill it with sandwiches, laundry, rocks, or old memos, but it must be full. An occasional sortie in midmorning or midafternoon is helpful, too.

How to get a better job

Many have succeeded by hard work, lingering month after month at the same company, rising slowly through the ranks. They will reap a lasting reward.

However, you may be the brilliant, volatile type, unwilling to stay penned long to one desk or one job. Have no fear!

Be a Leapfrog. The truly expert leapfrogger advances even more rapidly than his stay-at-home colleague. And he is constantly in new surroundings, making new friends!

Stay one jump ahead. The skilled leapfrogger is never fired. True, you may often find (as most leapfroggers do) that you are too good for the job. You may sense this immediately, but your employer–whose brain may not be so keen–will probably take six months or so to discover it. Keep ahead of him. Jump! This will look better, on your record, if a potential employer checks back on you:

"Uh, this fellow Finch, claims he worked for you five months in 1950. You fire him?"

"No, can't say we did. He resigned. Said he had a better offer."

Never Seem to Leapfrog. No employer will want to hire you for six months. He may ask:

"Your record would indicate (continued on page 33)More money(continued from page 25) you've had twelve jobs in the last six years. How do you explain that?"

"They won't let me settle down. Always getting better offers. Actually I've never been fired. You can check on that!" (He will.) "I'm looking for a spot now where I can really settle down and grow!"

Sell Yourself. The true leapfrogger is a super self-salesman. Brilliant, confident, self-assured, with the first names of everyone in the industry at the tip of his tongue, he can dazzle any interviewer! Promise anything! You know you can deliver, but before you can really prove it you will be on your way to greener pastures.

How to ask for money

Your future employer will always ask how much money you expect to make. Do not be greedy. Your object is to serve. The money is only secondary. Make this clear.

However, it is well to remember a few handy hints:

1. Never Ask for Money by the Week. Never even mention money by the week. This is for clerks. Discuss it only by the year, and in thousands, casually, as "ten," "twenty," "fifty," or whatever you feel the traffic will bear.

2. Never Be Apologetic. Never say, "Would $4500 be too much?" Say, instead, if asked:

"Now, about money, Mr. Finch–"

Oh, money! Hadn't thought much about it frankly. Anything at all. Whatever you say. My place is pretty well organized, and I can always rent Southampton, temporarily. I could let things slide for awhile on fifteen or twenty. Then when I prove to you I'm really worth money we can reopen it."

Samples of your work

There are companies in which you may be expected to do some kind of useful work, or at least to have some special knack. These include publishers, motion-picture companies, radio or television broadcasters, photographers, art studios, and the like.

There are others, like advertising agencies, which in spite of feverish activity don't require any really useful work, but do need certain rudimentary skills.

For such companies you may be expected to write, paint, use a camera, or otherwise have some superficial cleverness.

As indicated above, it is well to avoid jobs like these. As a brilliant young man you will do best to concern yourself with Overall Operation and Formulating of Policy. This is easier work, requires no special talents or long dreary training, and is far more highly rewarded.

However, some people must do these things, and if you must be one of them you will have to show samples of your work.

Samples should be chosen carefully. In an advertising agency, for example, you will find large filing cases full of proofs. Don't be hasty! These are to represent your work, and it is always well to read them thoroughly before selecting. A pretty picture isn't everything. (Or, if you're an artist or layout man, don't be misled by a catchy phrase.) Choose some small black and white ads, too, along with the big four-color ones.

If you have actually written an acceptable one yourself, by all means include it. False modesty may be damaging.

Some authorities feel it is necessary to know who really did write (or lay out, or photograph, or draw) the sample. This is unnecessary. Just be sure your prospective interviewer didn't do it himself. People do move from job to job, you know. If so, the two of you will have a good laugh, but he may not hire you.

Disarm the Interviewer.

"Mmmmmmm. You write this copy, too?"

"No."

(He will look up, startled.)

"No?"

"Not every word. I can't claim that. Client, you know. Kept changing this word back and forth." Once you have obtained a better job, repeat the whole process. But don't rush. Allow yourself several months to learn the business and to make lasting friends.

And of course there is always the chance to fall into something both permanent and tempting, as we shall see later.

How to keep money

By now we have surely made it clear that the real pleasure in money is simply making it, for its own sake. Our warnings against keeping money have been loud and firm.

However, there are still a few magnanimous souls who are willing to undergo this sacrifice and assume this responsibility.

Such a thing, as we have pointed out, is impossible for the salaried man except under special conditions.

"Should I keep a collector?"

This is a question asked by so many, and one that bears close examination. After all, one of the joys of having money is sharing it with others. Some prefer to give it directly to the government as a whole, which uses it, as we have pointed out, to improve the lot of people everywhere.

Others, feeling that this is impersonal at best, prefer giving money directly to individual members of the government, often to those same members of the Department of Internal Revenue who receive the other and more general gifts. These men, who are pitifully underpaid (continued on page 46) for the work they do, need far less of your money than the government as a whole, since they have fewer world-wide obligations.

They spend the money on simple, everyday pleasures, on their wives and children, and always seem to get good use out of it. It is heartwarming, too, to see their smiles of gratitude, so rarely given to those who simply send their checks to the general fund.

Thus it is with a heavy heart that the author feels impelled to advise against this practice. Though many do it, no doubt in a spirit of simple generosity, it is against the law. Unfair as such arbitrary rules may seem to you, they are the laws of the land and must be obeyed by us all.

Give us Liberty

However, there are increasing numbers of businessmen who, because of carelessness or foolish mistakes, often find themselves behind bars.

Unfortunate as this is, it is gratifying to note that the old social prejudices are rapidly approaching the vanishing point.

A short stay with the government is being accepted more and more as "part of the game," and some of our girls are devoting their afternoons to preparing going-away baskets, organizing visiting teams, and writing cheer-up letters.

Though it is true that you may form many valuable and lasting friendships among your fellow inmates, it should be pointed out that it is difficult not only to do your job from these institutions, but also to rise in your own organization. Many a man has been passed over for promotion because he was temporarily not "on the spot."

Hail to The Graduated Tax

Though breaking the law may be considered fashionable by some, it is not always necessary. In this country we have what is known as the "graduated income tax." This means, simply, that when you graduate to the really big money, a grateful government finds many little ways to let you keep it.

The very poor and the very rich pay relatively few taxes. It is the middle-income salaried man who supports the government. If you insist on keeping money, it is well to leave this classification as soon as possible and get into what is sometimes called the "real gravy."

Make It a Capital Gain

The capital gains law is a fine and generous system for encouraging initiative, free enterprise, and hard work.

It operates very simply. Let us say you are the world's greatest Indian Wrestler, able to command a million dollars a year in personal-appearance fees. If you just take the million you will have to pay more than ninety cents on the dollar in income taxes, and will keep less than $100,000, small return for your effort!

Take advantage of the capital gains law and it will be a far different story. Make a deal with say, a rising canner of concentrated papaya juice. Buy 100,000 shares of stock at ten cents a share. Appear on his television program and in all his advertising. Soon the papaya juice will be so popular you can sell your stock at ten dollars a share, giving you a profit of $990,000, a capital gain, and taxable at about 25%. Thus you will clear more than $700,000, which will enable you to live as a good Indian Wrestler should.

Under this clever system Indian Wrestlers are encouraged to think about papaya juice as well as Indian Wrestling, more capital is poured into industry, and everyone benefits.

This method can be used on a more complicated but equally effective scale in most businesses.

"Somebody has to make the gears for the wicket sprockets, J. B., why not you and me?"

"You and me, Finch?"

"We start a company with our own fifty thousand or so build it by giving it Biggley Company subcontracts, and run it to a milliondollar corporation. Then we sell for a capital gain."

"By gad, Finch, by gad!"

"I'll do the organizing in return for stock, sir. Have some good men picked out already for the detailed work."

Have an Expense Account

The expense account will be a powerful ally in your struggle to keep some of your own money. All business expenses are deductible, no matter how frivolous they may seem to you, as long as they are kept on a high plane. For example, your shipping clerk will be sternly reprimanded–and rightly so!–if he attempts to deduct his commutation fare from Mineola to the office, whereas a sympathetic government wisely allows you to deduct the expense of a few weeks in Miami, as long as you can show that it helped to further customer relations or improve business.

Many useful services are deductible if properly explained.

"Uh, Mr. Finch, how do you explain this deduction of $150 a week to a Miss Yvonne Schultz at 470 Park Avenue?"

"Research, market research. She does it for me on a personal basis. Frightfully efficient girl, earns every penny."

Remember that the government wants only its legitimate tax dollar. You will be encouraged to make all legal deductions.

Buy an Oil Well

You don't have to be from Texas to have unlimited and practically untaxable wealth. Anyone who can afford an oil well can do it. No need to pay most of your income in taxes. The lucky oil well owner can deduct most of his as "depletion of reserves."

A few sly fellows have tried to claim that by working they were depleting their own mental and physical reserves. A vigilant government soon put a stop to that. The law is intended to encourage investment and conserve mineral resources.

Anyone can imagine how morally dangerous it would be to try to conserve human resources.

Bring your lunch to the office, just a tired, worried sandwich – but do not complain about it.