Think Beyond Your Job by Charles Schwab
Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash
The thing that most people call “genius” I do not believe in. That is, I am sure that few successful individuals are so-called “natural geniuses.”
There is not a person in power at our Bethlehem steel works today who did not begin at the bottom and work their way up, round by round, simply by using their head and their hands a little more freely and a little more effectively than their co-workers. Eugene Grace, president of Bethlehem, worked in the yard when I first knew him. Mr. Snyder was a stenographer, Mr. Mathews a draftsman. The fifteen men in direct charge of the plants were selected not because of some startling stroke of genius but because, day in and day out, they were doing little unusual things—thinking beyond their jobs.
When I took over the Bethlehem works, I decided to train up its managers as Mr. Carnegie trained his “boys.” So I watched the workers who were already there and picked out a dozen. This selection took months. Then I set out to build an organization in which we should be bound together in harmony and kindly cooperation. I encouraged my managers to study iron and steel, markets and men. I gave them all small salaries but instituted a system whereby each person would share directly in the profits for which they were directly responsible. Every one of those individuals “came through.” They are wealthy men today. All are directors of the company; some are directors of the corporation.
Most talk about “super-geniuses” is nonsense. I have found that when “stars” drop out, successors are usually at hand to fill their places; and the successors are merely individuals who have learned by application and self-discipline to get full production from an average, normal brain.
Inventors, individuals with a unique, specialized talent, are the only real super-geniuses. But they are so rare that they need no consideration here.
I have always felt that the surest way to qualify for the job just ahead is to work a little harder than anyone else on the job one is holding down. One of the most successful people I have known never carried a watch until he began to earn ten thousand dollars a year. Before that, he had managed with a nickel alarm clock in his bedroom, which he never forgot to wind. Young men may enjoy dropping their work at five or six o’clock and slipping into a dress suit for an evening of pleasure, but the habit has certain drawbacks. I happen to know several able-bodied gentlemen who got it so completely that now they are spending all their time, days as well as evenings, in dress suits, serving food in fashionable restaurants to men who did not get the dress-suit habit until somewhat later in life.
The surest way to qualify for the job just ahead is to work a little harder than anyone else on the job one is holding down.
Recently we have heard much about investments. To my mind, the best investment a young person starting out in business can possibly make is to give all their time, all their energies, to work—just plain, hard work. After an individual’s position is assured, they can indulge in pleasure if they wish. They will have lost nothing by waiting—and gained much. They will have made money enough really to afford to spend some, and they will know that they have done right by themselves and by the world.
Charles M. Schwab (1862–1939) was born into modest circumstances in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania, and amassed a large fortune as he advanced through various positions within the steel industry. Schwab went from driving spikes at Andrew Carnegie’s Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock for a dollar a day to eventually become president of Carnegie Steel, earning one of the highest salaries at the time. Schwab was also responsible for facilitating the industrial consolidation of Carnegie Steel into the United States Steel Corporation, which earned him roughly $24 million, the equivalent today of about $800 million. Schwab’s formidable success can be attributed to his extraordinary work ethic, his ability to “think beyond the job,” and his skill in motivating employees through profit sharing and harmonious workplace relations. In Business Success, he shares the principles that governed his personal and professional achievement—timeless maxims that will help any individual advance in their career and realize their vision of success. Get your copy now from Sound Wisdom.