Vocations For Each Type
"Fame and Failure"
The masses of mankind form a vast pyramid. At the very tip-top peak are
gathered the few who are famous. In the bottom layer are the many
failures. Between these extremes lie all the rest--from those who live
near the ragged edge of Down-and-Out-Land to those who storm the doors
of the House of Greatness.
Again, between these, and making up the large majority, are the myriads
of laborers, clerks, small business men, housekeepers--that
myriad-headed mass known as "the back bone of the world."
Yet the great distance from the lower layer to the tip-top peak is not
insurmountable. Many have covered it almost overnight.
A Favorite Fallacy
For fame is not due, as we have been led to believe, solely to years
of plodding toil. A thousand years of labor could never have produced
an Edison, a Marconi, a Curie, a Rockefeller, a Roosevelt, a Wilson, a
Bryan, a Ford, a Babe Ruth, a Carpentier, a Mary Pickford, a Caruso, a
Spencer or an Emerson.
Fame's Foundation
The reserved seat in the tip-top peak of the pyramid is procured only
by him who has _found his real vocation_.
To such a one _his_ work is not hard. No hours are long enough to tire
his body; no thought is difficult enough to weary his mind; to him there
is no day and no night, no quitting time, no Saturday afternoons and no
Sundays. He is at the business for which he was created--and all is
play.
Edison Sleeps Four Hours
Thomas A. Edison so loves his work that he sleeps an average of less
than four hours of each twenty-four. When working out one of his
experiments he forgets to eat, cares not whether it is day or night and
keeps his mind on his invention until it is finished.
Yet he has reached the age of seventy-four with every mental and
physical faculty doing one hundred per cent service--and the prize
place in the tip-top peak of the Wizards of the World is his! He started
at the very bottom layer, an orphan newsboy. He made the journey to the
pinnacle because early in life he found his vocation.
Failures Who Became Famous
Each one of the world's great successes was a failure first.
It is interesting to note the things at which some of them failed.
Darwin was a failure at the ministry, for which he was educated. Herbert
Spencer was a failure as an engineer, though he struggled years in that
profession. Abraham Lincoln was such a failure at thirty-three as a
lawyer that he refused an invitation to visit an old friend "because,"
he wrote, "I am such a failure I do not dare to take the time."
Babe Ruth was a failure as a tailor. Hawthorne was a failure as a Custom
House clerk when he wrote the "Scarlet Letter." Theodore Roosevelt was a
failure as a cowboy in North Dakota and gave up his frontiering because
of it.
These men were failures because they tried to do things for which they
were not intended. But each at last found his work, and when he did, it
was so easy for him it made him famous.
Play, Not Work, Brings Fame
Fame comes only to the man, or woman, who loves his work so well that
it is not work but play. It comes only to him who does something with
marvellous efficiency. Work alone can not produce that kind of
efficiency.
Outdistancing Competition
Fame comes from doing one thing so much better than your competitors
that your results stand out above and beyond the results of all others.
Any man who will do efficiently any one of the many things the world is
crying for can place his own price upon his work and get it. He can get
it because the world gladly pays for what it really wants, and because
the efficient man has almost no competition.
Efficiency Comes from Enjoyment
But here's the rub. You will never do anything with that brilliant
efficiency save what you LIKE TO DO. Efficiency does not come from duty,
or necessity, or goading, or lashing, or anything under heaven save
ENJOYMENT OF THE THING ITSELF.
Nothing less will ever release those hidden powers, those miraculous
forces which, for the lack of a better name, we call "genius."
Knowing What are _Not_ Your Vocations
Elimination of what are distinctly NOT your vocations will help you
toward finding those that ARE. To that end here are some tests which
will clear up many things for you. They will help you to know especially
whether or not the vocations you have been contemplating are fitted to
you.
How to Test Yourself
Whenever you are considering your fitness for any vocation, ask
yourself these questions:
_Self-Question 1--Am I considering this vocation chiefly because I would
enjoy the things it would bring--such as salary, fame, social
position or change of scene?_
If, in your heart, your answer is "Yes," this is not a vocation for
you.
The Movie Hopeful
The above test can best be illustrated by the story of a young woman
who wanted to be told that she had ability to act. "I am determined to
go into the movies," she told us. "Do you think I would be a success?"
"When you picture yourself in this profession what do you see yourself
doing?" we asked.
"Oh, everything wonderful," she replied. "I see myself driving my own
car--one of those cute little custom-made ones, you know--and wearing
the most stunning clothes and meeting all those big movie stars--and
living all the year round in California!"
"Is that all you ever see yourself doing?" we inquired.
"Yes--but isn't that enough?"
"All but one--the acting."
She then admitted that in the eight years she had been planning to enter
the movies she had never once really visualized herself acting, or
studying any part, or doing any work--nothing but rewards and
emoluments.
Pleasure or Pay?
_Self-Question 2_--_Knowing the requirements of this vocation--its
tasks, drudgeries, hours of work, concentration and kind of
activity--would I choose to follow them in preference to any other
kind of activity even if the income were the same?_
_Would I do these things for the =pleasure= of doing them and
not for the =pay=?_
If, in your heart, you can answer "Yes" to these questions, your problem
is settled; you will succeed in that vocation. For you will so enjoy
your work that it will be play. Being play, you will do it so happily
that you will get from it new strength each day.
Because you are doing what you were built to do, you will think of
countless improvements, inventions, ways of marketing them. This will
promote you over the others who are there only for the pay envelope; it
will raise your salary; it will eventually and inevitably take you to
the top.
A man we know aptly illustrates this point. He was a bookkeeper. He had
held the same position for twenty-three years and was getting $125 a
month. He had little leisure but used all he did have--evenings,
Saturday afternoons, Sundays and his ten-day vacations--making things.
In that time he had built furniture for his six-room house--every kind
of article for the kitchen, bathroom and porch. And into everything he
had put little improving touches such as are not manufactured in such
things.
We convinced him that his wife was not the only woman who would
appreciate these step-saving, work-reducing, leisure-giving
conveniences. He finally believed it enough to patent some of his
inventions, and today he is a rich man.
Of "Your Own Accord"
One more question will shed much light on the matter of your talents.
Here it is:
_Self-Question 3_--_Do I tend to follow, of my own accord, for the
sheer joy of it, the =kinds of activity= demanded by this vocation
which I am contemplating?_
If you do not you will never succeed in this line of work.
Thought it Would Do Him Good
One incident will serve to illustrate the foregoing test. A young man
asked us if he could succeed as a public speaker. He had decided to
become a lecturer and had spent two years studying for that work.
"Do you enjoy talking? Do you like to explain and expatiate? When out
with others do you furnish your share of the conversation or a little
more?" were the questions we put to him.
To all of the questions he answered "No."
"But I thought this was just the line of work I ought to go into," he
explained, "I have always been diffident and I thought the training
would do me good."
Life Pays the Producer
Expecting the world to pay you handsomely while remaking you is
short-sighted, to say the least. The public schools are free, like
life's education, but you don't get a salary for attending them.
To be a success you must PRODUCE something out of the ordinary for the
world. And you will produce nothing unusual save what your particular
organism was built to produce. To know what this is, classify the kind
of activities you "take to" naturally. You can be a star in some line
that calls for those activities. You will never succeed in any calling
which demands the opposite kinds of activities or reactions.
The Worst Place for Her
A few years ago, in San Francisco, a young woman came to us for
vocational advice. She had decided to find an opening in a
silk-importing establishment, for none of whose duties she was
qualified. When asked how she happened to hit upon the thing for which
she unquestionably had no ability, she said:
"I thought it would give me a world outlook (which I need); compel me to
learn fabrics (something I think every woman ought to know); force me to
attend to details (which I have always hated but which I must learn to
master); and because it would bring me into contact with people (I
dislike them but think I should learn to deal with them)."
When Considering a Position
When a position is being considered the questions an applicant should
be asking himself are, "What must I do in this position? Am I qualified?
Can I make good? Do I like the activities demanded by this position?"
But ninety-nine out of every hundred applicants for a vacancy ask no
question of themselves whatever, and only one of anybody else. That
question is to the employer and it is only four words: "_What does it
pay?_"
He overlooks the fact that if the salary involved is large enough to be
attractive he will soon be severed from it unless he makes good. He also
forgets that if the salary is small he can force it to grow if he is big
enough himself.
If the particular task he is considering does not warrant a large
salary, his employers will find one for him that does if he shows he has
ability.
Every business in the world is looking for people who can do a few
things a trifle better than the mass of people are doing them today, and
whenever they find them they pay them well--because it pays THEM in the
long run.
The Big-Salaried Men
Don't be afraid that you may develop ability and then find no market
for it. The only jobs that have to go begging are the big-salaried ones,
because the combination of intelligence and efficiency is not easy to
find. The men who are drawing from $10,000 to $50,000 a year are not
supermen. They are not very different from anybody else. But they found
a line that fitted their particular talents, and they went ahead
cultivating those talents without asking for everything in advance.
Looking for "Chicken Feed"
While touring through the Rockies last summer we came one day to a log
shack perched on the mountain-side near the road. In the back-yard was
the owner, just ready to feed his chickens. As he flung out the grain
they came from every direction, crowding and jostling each other and
frantically pecking for the tiny morsels he threw on the ground. Several
dozen flocked around him. But three or four stayed on the outer edge,
ready to scamper for the big grains he threw now and then amongst the
boulders up on the hillside.
"I do that just to see them use their heads," he explained. "People are
just like that. They rush for the little chances where all the
competition is, instead of staying out where they can see a big chance
when it comes."
Life is full of opportunities for every person who will consult his own
capacities and _aim for the big chance_.
Causes of Misfits
Various influences are responsible for the misfit, chief amongst which
are his loving parents. Many fathers and mothers, with the best
intentions in the world, urge their children to enter vocations for
which they have no natural fitness whatever. These same parents often
discourage in their children the very talents which, if permitted to
develop, would make them successful.
Such a child has small chance in the world if it happens that his
parents are sufficiently well-to-do to hold the purse strings on his
training. Not until he has failed at the work they choose for him will
such parents desist. When they finally allow him to take to the work he
prefers they are usually surprised to see how clever he is.
But if he does not succeed at it they should bear in mind that it is
doubtless due to their having cheated him out of his priceless
youth--the years when the mind is moldable, impressionable and full of
inspiration.
Poverty's One Advantage
In this situation alone does the child of poverty-ridden parents have
greater opportunities than the child of the well-to-do. He at least
chooses his own work, and this is one more little reason why the world's
most successful men so often come from the ranks of the poor.
"Ruined by too much mothering and fathering" is a verdict we would
frequently render if we knew the facts.
Richard and Dorothy
One instance in which Fate took a hand was very interesting. A New
York widow, whose husband had left his large fortune entirely to her,
nursed definite ambitions for her son and daughter. Richard, she had
decided, should become a stock-raiser and farmer on the
several-thousand-acre ranch they owned in Texas. Dorothy should study
art in Paris.
But it so happened that Richard and Dorothy disliked the respective
vocations laid out for them, while each wanted to do the very thing the
other was being driven to do. Richard was small, dark, sensitive,
esthetic--and bent on being an artist. Dorothy, who was six feet in her
stockings, laughed at art and wanted to be a farmer.
But mother was obdurate and mother held the family purse. So, in the
spring of 1914, Dorothy was sent to Paris to study the art Richard
loved, and Richard was sent to the Texas ranch that Dorothy wanted.
Then the War broke and Dorothy hurried from Paris to avoid German
shells, while Richard enlisted to escape the Texas ranch. Dorothy, in
her element at last, took over the ranch (of which Richard had made a
failure), turned it into one vast war garden, became a farmerette and is
there now--a shining success.
Richard got to Paris during the War and when it closed refused to come
home. He wrote his mother that the war had taught him he could earn his
own living--an accomplishment he is achieving today with his art. The
mother herself is happier than she ever was before, and proud of her
children's success.
Three Kinds of Parents
Parents can be divided into three classes--those who over-estimate
their children, those who under-estimate their children, and those who
do not estimate them at all.
The great majority are in the first group. This accounts for the fact
that most fathers and mothers are disillusioned, as their children, one
by one, fall short of their cherished hopes.
Those who under-estimate their children are in that small group--of
parents who live to be happily surprised at their achievements.
The best parents of all are those who allow their children to follow
their natural talents.
Don'ts for Parents
Don't push your child into any vocation he dislikes.
Don't be like the parents we dined with recently. As we sat around the
table they pointed out their four children as follows: "There's
Georgie--we're going to make a doctor of him. Our best friend is a
doctor. We'll make a lawyer out of Johnnie. There's been a lawyer in the
family for generations. Jimmie is to be a minister. We thought it was
about time we had one of them in the family."
"What about Helen?" we asked.
"Oh, Helen--why, she's going to marry and have a nice home of her own."
Any student of Human Analysis would have recognized that of this quartet
of children not one was being directed into the right vocation. He would
have seen that the square-jawed Muscular Jimmie would make a much better
lawyer than a minister; that little Johnnie should be a teacher or a
lecturer; that fat Georgie was born for business instead of medicine;
and that Helen had more ability than any of her brothers.
The Woman Misfit
Too many parents have gone on the theory that belonging to the female
sex was a sure indication of home-making, mothering, housekeeping
abilities.
The commercial world is full of women who have starved, wasted and
shriveled their lives away behind counters, desks and typewriters when
they were meant for motherhood and wifehood.
The homes of the land are also full of women who, with the brains and
effort they have given to scrubbing, washing and cooking, could have
become "captains of industry."
The Sealed Parcel
If you are a parent don't allow yourself to set your heart on any
particular line of work for your children. Your child is a sealed parcel
and only his own tendencies, as they appear during youth, can tell what
that parcel really contains.
Allow these traits to unfold naturally, normally and freely. Don't
complicate your own problem by trying to advise him too soon. Don't
praise certain professions. Children are intensely suggestible. The
knowledge that father and mother consider a certain profession
especially desirable oftentimes influences a child to waste time working
toward it when he has no real ability for it. Every hour of youth is
precious and this wastage is unspeakably expensive.
On the other hand, do not attempt to prejudice your child _against_ any
profession. Don't let him think, for instance, that you consider
overalls a badge of inferiority, or a white collar the mark of
superiority. Many a man in blue denim today could buy and sell the
collar-and-cuff friends of his earlier years. The size of a man's
laundry bill is no criterion of his income.
Popular Misconceptions
Other parents make the equally foolish mistake of showing their
dislike of certain professions. Not long ago we heard a father say in
the presence of his large family, "I don't want any of my boys to be
lawyers. Lawyers are all liars. Ministers are worse; they're all a bunch
of Sissies. Doctors are all fakes. Actors are all bad eggs; and business
is one big game of cheat or be cheated. I'm going to see that every boy
I've got becomes a farmer."
Misdirected Mothering
A very unfortunate case came to our attention several years ago. In
Chicago a mother brought her eighteen-year-old son to us for vocational
counsel. "I am determined that James shall be a minister," she said. "My
whole happiness depends upon it. I have worked, slaved and sacrificed
ever since his father died that he might have the education for it. Now
I want you to tell James to be a minister."
We refused to take the case, explaining that our analyses didn't come to
order but had to fit the facts as we found them. She still insisted upon
the analysis. It revealed the fact that James was deficient mentally,
save in one thing. His capacity for observing was lightning-like in its
swiftness and microscopic in its completeness. And his capacity for
judging remote motives from immediate actions was uncannily accurate.
He was a human ferret, as had been proven many times during his boyhood.
At one time the jewelry store in which he worked as a shipping clerk
lost a valuable necklace, and after the police of Chicago had failed to
find a clew, James' special ability was reported and he was given a
week's vacation to work on the case. He took the last three days for a
long-desired trip to Milwaukee. He had landed the thief in the first
four. We told the mother that her boy's ability was about the farthest
removed from the ministerial that could well be imagined, but that he
would make an excellent detective.
"I shall never permit it!" she cried. "His father was a policeman. I
distrust that whole class of people! I am taking James to the
theological seminary tomorrow"--and away she went with him. Two months
later she came to us in great distress. She had received a letter from
the Dean saying James had attended but one day's classes. Then he had
announced that he was going home. Instead he had cultivated a gang of
underworld crooks for the purpose of investigating their methods and had
gotten into serious trouble.
Nevers for All
Never choose a vocation just because it looks _profitable_. It won't
bring profits to you long unless you are built for it.
Never choose a vocation just because it looks _easy_. No work will be
easy for you except that which Nature intended for you.
Never choose a vocation just because it permits the wearing of _good
clothes_. You need more than a permit; you need ability.
Never choose a vocation just because the _hours are short_. You can't
fool employers that way. They also know they are short, and pay you
accordingly. The extra play these leisure hours give you will amount to
nothing but loss to you ten years hence.
Never choose a vocation just because it is _popular_ or _sounds
interesting_.
"I am going to be a private secretary," said a young woman near us at
the theater recently.
"What will you have to do?" asked her friend.
"Oh, I don't know," the girl answered, "but it sounds so fascinating,
don't you think?"
Never turn your back on a profession just because it is _old-fashioned,
middle class or ordinary_. If you have talents fitting you for such
vocations you are lucky, for these are the ones for which there is the
greatest demand. Demand is a big help. If you can add a new touch to
such a one you are made.
Why She Taught German
Never choose a vocation just because your _friends_ are in it, nor
refuse another just because your worst enemy is in it.
Two friends come to mind in this connection. One is a splendid woman we
knew at college. She became a German teacher and up to the outbreak of
the War had an instructorship in a western state university. The
elimination of German lost her the position.
"Why did you ever choose German, anyhow, Ruth?" we asked her. "Your
abilities lie in such a different direction."
"Because my favorite teacher in high school taught German," she replied.
Enemies and Engineering
An opposite case is that of a friend of ours who has worked in an
uncongenial profession for thirty years. "You were meant for
engineering, Tom," we told him. "With all the leanings you had in that
direction, how did it happen you didn't follow it?"
"Because the man who cheated my father out of all he had was an
engineer!" he said.
Never choose a new vocation just because you are _restless_. You will be
more so if you get into the wrong one.
The "Society" Delusion
Never choose a vocation just because it promises _social standing_.
The entree it gives will fail you unless you make good. And social
standing isn't worth much anyhow. When you are in the work for which you
were born you won't worry about social standing. It will come to you
then whether you want it or not. And when it does you will care very
little about it.
The Entering Wedge
Never take a certain job _for life_ just because people are
_dependent_ upon you. Save enough to live one month without a job,
preparing yourself meanwhile for an entering wedge into a vocation you
do like. Then take a smaller-paying place if necessary to get started.
If you really like the work you will do it so well you will promote
yourself. You owe it to those who are dependent upon you to do this.
Jack of All Trades
Never do anything just to show you _can_. Don't let your versatility
tempt you into following a number of lines of work for the purpose of
demonstrating your ability. Versatility can be the greatest handicap of
all; it tempts you to neglect intensive study, to flit, to become a
"jack of all trades and master of none."
Only Three Kinds of Work
There are but three general classes of work. They are:
WORK WITH PEOPLE;
WORK WITH THINGS;
WORK WITH IDEAS.
Each individual is fitted by nature to do one of these _better_ than the
others and there will be one class for which he has the _least_ ability.
In the other one of the three he might make a mediocre success. Every
individual should find a vocation furnishing that one of these three
kinds of work for which he has the _greatest_ ability. Then he should go
into the particular _branch_ of that vocation which is best adapted to
his personality, training, education, environment and experience.
* * * * *
Part One
VOCATIONS FOR ALIMENTIVES
As stated in Chapter I, Alimentives are born for business. They can
sell almost anything in the line of food, clothing, or shelter because
they are so interested in them themselves they can make them interesting
to others. They like money for the comforts which money alone can bring
and business furnishes a wider field for money-making than any other. So
the Alimentive likes the commercial world for itself and for what it
brings him.
Sells Things to People
The Alimentive can deal with both people and things, but it should be
in the capacity of selling the things to the people.
Chances for Money-Making
The Alimentives have the greatest opportunities today for making
fortunes and many of the multi-millionaires of America are combinations
of this type with the Cerebral. This is due to the fact that the world
must be fed, clothed and sheltered and the Alimentive, more than any
other type, excels in the marketing, manufacturing and merchandizing of
these things.
A Good Overseer
The Alimentive makes an excellent overseer also. He is so genial,
likable and yet so bent on saving himself work that he can get more work
out of others than can any other type.
So he succeeds as a foreman, supervisor, boss, superintendent, manager
and sales department head.
Capitalizes His "Comfort" Instincts
The Alimentive loves comforts. He feels he must have them. Because any
man's success will be found to lie in the direction which most nearly
satisfies his basic instincts, the Alimentive succeeds by making "the
good things of life" look so interesting to others they are willing to
buy them from him at the best prices.
The Alimentively Inclined
Every man who is largely Alimentive in type can sell commodities or
oversee the work of others. Every woman who is largely Alimentive can
also sell the same commodities, oversee the work of others in her
department and become a good cook.
Things to Avoid
The Alimentive should avoid vocations dealing exclusively with ideas.
Books are almost the only things an Alimentive can not sell
successfully. This is due to the fact that he is not as interested in
ideas as in things, and the things he is interested in--food and
comforts--are the farthest removed from books.
Partners to Select
When he goes into partnership the Alimentive should endeavor to do so
with a practical Muscular, a clever Thoracic or another Alimentive.
Partners and Employees to Avoid
He should avoid as partners the pure Cerebrals and the pure Osseous.
The former are too high brow and visionary for him, and the Osseous are
too critical of his easy ways.
Bosses to Avoid
The Alimentive, when looking for employment, should try to avoid the
boss who is a pure Cerebral or a pure Osseous. The Cerebral may be a
good planner but his plans and those of the Alimentives will not work
well together. The Cerebral can not see the Alimentive's point of view
clearly enough to forgive him for his too primitive methods. The pure
Osseous boss soon becomes disgusted because the Alimentive is so
lacking in system. He usually comes out all right in the end, but the
orderly Osseous is too exasperated by what he considers the Alimentive's
slackness, to wait for the end.
Localities to Avoid
The Alimentive should avoid all frontiers. He can not work well
without conveniences, and since these are few and far between in
unsettled regions it is much more difficult for him to be a success
there.
Vocations for Pure Alimentives
Cooking, catering, nursing, merchandizing of all food and drink
stuffs, the conducting of cafes, restaurants, hotels, cafeterias, rest
rooms and all places maintained for the ease, comfort and feeding of
mankind, are the general vocations for pure or extreme Alimentives.
Vocations for Alimentive-Thoracics
The merchandizing of the artistic, novel and esthetic in food,
clothing and shelter; conducting of tea rooms, confectionery stores,
smart specialty and clothing shops. Salesmanship of restricted residence
districts, fancy cars, etc.
Vocations for Alimentive-Musculars
The merchandizing of more practical commodities such as potatoes,
meat, middle class homes, durable clothing. Alimentive-Muscular women
make excellent dressmakers.
Vocations for the Alimentive-Osseous
Merchandizing of farms, ranches, timber, lumber, hardware. Bond
salesmanship.
Vocations for Alimentive-Cerebrals
Merchandizing, manufacturing and marketing of food, clothing and
shelter commodities on a large scale in world markets. This type
combination exists in most of the world's millionaires.
* * * * *
Part Two
VOCATIONS FOR THORACICS
The Thoracic type works best with people. Every person in whom this
type predominates will make his greatest success only in vocations
bringing him into contact with people.
The Born Entertainer
As we have pointed out, the Thoracic is a born entertainer. His
greatest abilities lie in the direction of the stage and all forms of
its activities.
Capitalizes His Approbative Instincts
The Thoracic loves the approval and applause of others. He is clever,
dazzling, often scintillating, brilliant and magnetic. All these enable
him to win fame behind the foot-lights, upon the screen and in many
lines of theatrical work. His gregarious instincts also enable him to
make a success of work with others.
Chances for Money-Making
His chances for making a great deal of money are excellent. A thousand
dollars a week is not an unusual salary for an entertainer and the
thousand-dollar-a-night singer is no longer a rarity. These always
belong to the Thoracic type, for reasons stated in Chapter II.
Chances for Money-Spending
But when the stage gives him a large income it also furnishes the
companions and temptations for spending money freely. Even the Thoracic
of fame seldom has much money. Also his own irresponsibility makes it
difficult for him to save.
Work to Avoid
The Thoracic should avoid every line of work which has to be done the
same way day in and day out. He must avoid routine in every form.
Monotonous work is not for him.
Things to Avoid
Things the Thoracic must avoid are the mechanical--for these demand to
be used in the same way always. The Thoracic does not like to do
anything over and over.
Should Not Work Alone
The Thoracic should never work alone. He should not go into any
vocation where he is separated from his fellows. The loneliness and
drabness of working away from people are fatal to his best effort.
Business Partners to Select
The Thoracic should select Muscular business partners because of their
practicalizing influence. Second choice for him is an Alimentive partner
and third is a Thoracic like himself.
Partners and Employees to Avoid
The Thoracic should avoid Osseous employees and Osseous partners, for
the reason that this type can no more understand the Thoracic than it
can understand the easy-going Alimentive. These two types are at
opposite ends of the pole, and to blend them harmoniously in any
relationship is almost impossible. The Thoracic employer, who always
wants things done instantly, is maddened by the slow, unadaptable
Osseous employee.
Bosses to Avoid
For the reasons stated above, every Thoracic person should avoid
working for extremely bony people. The Osseous is as much irritated by
the rapid-fire reactions of the Thoracic employee as the Thoracic is by
the slowness of the Osseous.
Localities to Avoid
The Thoracic individual should avoid all localities which would cut
him off from his kind. He should never, except when combined with the
Osseous in type, live in remote regions, on the edge of civilization or
too far away from neighbors. Companionship is always essential to his
happiness and success.
Vocations for the Pure Thoracics
Art, advertising, comic opera, grand opera, concert singing, the
stage, the screen and all forms of high class reception work are the
lines for pure Thoracics.
For Thoracic-Alimentives
Medicine, merchandizing of artistic, esthetic commodities, life
insurance, moving pictures, novelty salesmanship, and demonstrating.
For Thoracic-Musculars
Vocal and instrumental music, interior decoration, politics, social
service, advertising, athletics and design.
For Thoracic-Osseous
Landscape gardening, scientific research, the ministry.
For Thoracic-Cerebrals
Authorship, private secretaryship, education, journalism, musical
composition, publicity work, photography.
* * * * *
Part Three
VOCATIONS FOR MUSCULARS
The Muscular works best with things. He does not sell them as well as
does the Alimentive--for the things he is interested in are not the
things that sell but the things that move. He likes to work with
high-powered cars, machinery of all kinds, and everything that involves
motion. These things, though necessities sometimes and luxuries
occasionally, are not such necessities as food, clothing and homes.
Therefore there is no such market for them. The automobile has almost
made itself a necessity, but even it is not yet as necessary to human
happiness as food, clothing or shelter.
The Born Mechanic and Inventor
The Muscular is the born mechanic and inventor. He enjoys working with
things he can handle, mold, change, construct and improve with his
powerful, efficient hands. Most of the mechanics of the world are
Musculars and every inventor has the Muscular element strongly marked in
him.
Chances for Money-Making
The Muscular's chances for making money are not as great as those of
the Alimentive, for the reason that he deals best with things the world
can sometimes get along without. His money-making chances are not as
great as those of the Thoracic, for he is not fitted to win the public
favor which comes to the latter. Also the Muscular's vocations are not
as well paid as those of the two former types, unless his inventions are
successful.
The Orator
Oratory furnishes one of the best fields for the Muscular's
money-making and fame-achieving opportunities. Every man and woman who
has acquired fame or fortune on the public platform has much of the
Muscular type in his makeup--always, however, in combination with the
Cerebral.
Capitalizes His Activity Instincts
As shown in Chapter III, the Muscular, like the other types,
capitalizes his chief instinct. In his case it is the instinct of
activity. The Muscular likes activity, so he likes work, and because he
is a good worker he nearly always has work to do.
The Muscularly Inclined
Every person Muscularly inclined can make a success at something of a
practical nature, in the handling, running, driving, constructing or
inventing of machinery.
Things to Avoid
The Muscular should avoid all vocations which confine him within small
areas, pin him down to inactivity or sedentary work.
Business Partners to Select
The Musculars should select Musculars as their first choice in
business partners, with Cerebrals second and Thoracics third.
Partners and Employees to Avoid
The Muscular should avoid the Osseous partner, the Osseous boss and
the Osseous employee because his pugnacity makes it almost impossible
for him to work harmoniously with this type.
Localities to Avoid
The Muscular can work in almost any locality. But he should avoid
every place which keeps him too closely confined.
Vocations for Pure Musculars
The driving of high-powered cars, airplanes, machinery of all kinds,
and work with his hands are the lines in which the average Muscular is
most often successful. Other lines for him are construction, civil
engineering, mechanics, professional dancing, acrobatics, athletics and
pugilism.
Women of this type make splendid physical culture teachers and expert
swimmers.
For Muscular-Alimentives
The manufacturing and selling of practical foods, clothing and
shelter; also politics.
For Muscular-Thoracics
Advertising, sculpture, osteopathy, athletics, exploration, medicine,
baritone and tenor singing, instrumental music, politics, social
service, transportation, designing and dentistry.
For Muscular-Osseous
Construction, bridge building, office law, policemen and police women,
mechanics, mining.
For Muscular-Cerebrals
Architecture, art, journalism, trial or jury law, oratory, surgery,
transportation. Teachers and tragedians also come from this type.
* * * * *
Part Four
VOCATIONS FOR THE OSSEOUS
The Osseous man or woman can do his best work with things. Those with
which he works best are lands, forests, the sea, the plains, the
mountains and certain kinds of mechanical things.
Instead of combining things and people in his work, like the Alimentive;
machines and people, like the Muscular; or people only, like the
Thoracic, the Osseous must not only confine himself almost exclusively
to working with things, but he must work with them away from the
interference or interruption or superintendence of other people.
Capitalizes His Independence Instinct
The Osseous, like other types, succeeds in work which automatically
brings into play his basic instincts. His fundamental instinct is that
of _independence_. He never succeeds signally in any line of work in
which this instinct is repressed or thwarted.
He chafes against restriction, enjoys mastering a thing and when let
alone to work in his own way he makes an excellent employee. As has been
stated, he is the "steadiest" of all.
Chances for Money-Making
Chances for the Osseous to make a great deal of money are few. Unless
he confines himself to finance--working as exclusively with money as
possible--or to dealing with natural resources, the Osseous seldom
becomes rich.
He cares more for money than any of the other types, saves a much larger
portion of what he earns, and no matter how rich, is seldom extravagant.
His greatest obstacle to money-making is his tendency to hang on to
whatever he has, awaiting the rise in prices which never go quite high
enough to suit him.
An Osseous friend of ours has lived for forty years on almost nothing
while holding, for a fabulous price, an old residential corner on a
desirable block of a downtown street in one of the large American
cities. He could have sold it years ago for enough to make him
comfortable for life, to give him travel, leisure, comforts and
self-expression, but he refused.
As has been pointed out before, each individual prefers the
self-expression common to his type. This man has found more of what is
real self-expression to him in defying the destruction of this building
and the march of commerce in that neighborhood, and in opposing
prospective buyers, than all the money-bought comforts in the world
could have given him.
So he has worked away as a draughtsman at a small salary eight hours a
day for those forty years. He is unmarried and has no brothers or
sisters. When he dies remote relatives whom he has never seen and who
care nothing for him will sell the property and have a good time on the
money.
But they will have no better time spending it than he has had saving it!
Those Who are Inclined to the Osseous
Every person with a large Osseous element is capable of saving money,
of being a faithful worker under right conditions and of withstanding
hardship in his work. Difficult missions into pioneer regions are
successful only when entrusted to men or women who have the Osseous as
one of their first two elements.
The North Pole
It is a significant fact that all the men who have made signal efforts
at finding the North and South Poles have possessed the bony as a large
proportion of their makeup. No extremely fat man has ever attempted such
a thing.
Missionaries
It is also interesting to note that the most successful missionaries
have had a larger-than-average bony system and that all those who go
into the extreme edges of civilization and stay there any length of time
are largely of this type.
Other types plan to become missionaries and some get as far as to be
sent somewhere, but those who stick, who spend years in the far corners
of the earth, are always largely Osseous.
Things to Avoid
The Osseous must avoid all vocations demanding his constant or
intimate contact with large numbers of people, every kind of work that
calls for instantaneous movements, sudden adaptations to environment,
many or sudden decisions, or crowded workrooms.
_He must avoid working for, with, under or over others._
Business Partners to Select
The Osseous should never have a partner if he can help it.
When he can not help it, he should choose a person of large Cerebral
tendencies, for no other type will stand for his peculiarities.
Partners and Employees to Avoid
He should avoid, above all things, a partner who is Osseous like
himself. An Osseous always knows what he wants to do, how he wants to do
it, and when. And one of the requirements with him usually is that it
must be the opposite of the thing, manner and time desired by the other
fellow.
So in business, as in marriage, two Osseous people find themselves in
unending warfare. He should avoid the Osseous employee also for the same
reasons, and choose the only types that will submit to his hard driving.
Bosses to Avoid
The Osseous should never work for a boss when he has brains enough to
work alone. He is so independent that it is almost impossible for him to
take orders, and the "contrary streak" in him runs so deep that he is
just naturally against what others want him to do.
He is the most insubordinate of all types as an employee and as a boss
is the most inexorable.
Localities to Avoid
The Osseous should avoid all congested communities. He does not belong
in the city. Except in some vocation where he handles money, he seldom
succeeds in a metropolis.
His field is the frontier--the great open spaces of land, sea, forest
and mountain--where he works with things that grow, that are not
sensitive, that do not offer human resistance to his imperious,
dominating nature.
Vocations for Pure Osseous
Farming, stock-raising, lumbering, lighthouse keeping, open-sea
fishing, hardware, saw-milling and all pioneering activities are the
vocations in which the unmixed Osseous succeeds best.
For Osseous-Alimentives
Work as a farm hand, sheep or cattle herder, or truck gardener are the
lines in which this combination succeeds best. He can do clerical work
also.
For Osseous-Thoracics
Agriculture, carpentering, railroading, mining, office law, electrical
and chemical engineering are the first choices for this combination.
Both men and women of this type succeed on police forces also.
For Osseous-Cerebrals
The invention of intricate mechanical devices is something in which
this combination often succeeds. Other lines for him are those of
statistician, mathematician, proof-reader, expert accountant,
genealogist and banker.
* * * * *
Part Five
VOCATIONS FOR CEREBRALS
The Cerebral man or woman can never be happy or successful until he is
in work that deals with ideas. But his planning is often impractical and
for this reason he does not succeed when working independently as does
the Osseous.
Capitalizes His Cerebrative Instinct
The Cerebral gets his name from the cerebrum or thinking part of the
brain, because this is the system most highly evolved in him. Its great
size in the large-headed man causes it to dominate his life.
Thus his chief instinct is cerebration--dreaming, meditating,
visualizing, planning. Since these are the real starters of all progress
this type should be encouraged, with a view to making him more
practical.
The Born Writer
The brain system is large in all men and women who achieve distinction
in writing, or in other lines where the brain does most of the work.
Unless combined with the Muscular, this man writes much better than he
talks and usually avoids speech-making. When the Muscular is combined
with the Cerebral he will be an excellent lecturer or teacher.
Chances for Money-Making
The pure Cerebral has the least likelihood of making money of any of
the types, for the reasons stated in Chapter V.
If he is a pure Cerebral his ideas and writings, however brilliant, will
seldom bring him financial independence unless he gets a Muscular,
Thoracic or Alimentive business manager and strictly follows his
directions.
The Cerebrally Inclined
Any person inclined to the Cerebral type--that is, with a large, wide,
high forehead or a large head for his body--will succeed in some line of
work where study and mental effort are required.
Things to Avoid
The pure Cerebral should avoid every kind of work that calls for
manual or bodily effort, physical strenuosity, lifting of heavy things,
or the handling of large machines. He should avoid every kind of work
that gives no outlet for planning or thinking. He should avoid being an
employer because he sees the employee's viewpoint so clearly that he
lives in his skin instead of his own. This means that he does not get
the service out of employees that other types get.
He is not fitted in any way to rule others, dislikes to dominate them,
feels like apologizing all the time for compelling them to do things,
and is made generally miserable by this responsibility.
Business Partners to Select
The selection of a partner is one of greater importance to the
Cerebral than to any other type, for it is almost impossible for him to
work out his plans alone.
It is as necessary for the Cerebral to have a partner as it is for the
Osseous not to have one.
This partner should be a person largely of the Muscular type, to supply
the practicality the Cerebral lacks. As a second choice he should be of
the Thoracic type, to supply the gregariousness which the Cerebral
lacks. The third choice should be an Osseous, to supply the quality
which can get work out of employees and thus make up for the lax
treatment the Cerebral tends to give his subordinates.
Partners and Employees to Avoid
Though he succeeds well when he is himself a combination of Alimentive
and Cerebral, the pure Cerebral should avoid partners and employees who
are purely Alimentive. Their ideas and attitudes are too far away from
his own for them to succeed co-operatively.
Localities to Avoid
The Cerebral can work in any locality, partly from the fact that every
spot in the world interests him. But he should avoid ranches, livestock
farms, lumber camps, construction gangs, ditch-digging and saw-milling
jobs, for he lacks the physical strength to stand up to them.
Vocations for Pure Cerebrals
Education, teaching, library work, authorship, literary criticism, and
philosophy are the vocations best fitted to the pure Cerebral.
For Cerebral-Alimentives
This combination comprises the majority of the world's millionaires,
for it combines the intense alimentive desires for life's comforts with
the extreme brain capacity necessary to get them. So he becomes a
"magnate," a man of "big business," and tends to high finance,
manufacturing and merchandizing on a world-scale.
For Cerebral-Thoracics
Journalism, the ministry, teaching, photography, interior decorating,
magazine editing, are among the vocations best suited to this type. The
best educational directors for large department stores and other
establishments, and some of the best comedians, belong to this
combination.
For Cerebral-Musculars
Manual education, trial or jury law, invention of all kinds of
machinery, social service, oratory, teaching, lecturing, and nose and
throat surgery are the best lines of work for this combination.
For Cerebral-Osseous
Authorship, finance, statistics, invention of complex mechanical
devices, expert accounting and mathematics are the best lines for this
combination.
SO HERE, THEN, ENDETH "_THE FIVE HUMAN TYPES_," BEING THE FIRST VOLUME
IN THE WORLD TO EXPOUND SCIENCE'S DISCOVERY THAT ALL HUMAN BEINGS FALL
INTO FIVE DEFINITE DIVISIONS ACCORDING TO THEIR BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION. BY
_ELSIE LINCOLN BENEDICT_, FIRST WRITER AND PUBLISHER OF THIS
CLASSIFICATION, FIRST LECTURER IN THE WORLD TO PRESENT IT TO THE PUBLIC,
AND FIRST COMPILER OF THE SCIENCE OF _HUMAN ANALYSIS_. ALSO BY _RALPH
PAINE BENEDICT_, WHOSE KNOWLEDGE AND CO-OPERATION INSPIRED THE DOING OF
ALL THESE, PRINTED AND MADE INTO A BOOK BY THE ROYCROFTERS AT THEIR
SHOPS WHICH ARE AT EAST AURORA, ERIE COUNTY AND STATE OF NEW YORK, IN
THE YEAR NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE.
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| Transcriber's Note |
| |
| The following spelling corrections have been made:-- |
| |
| Page 5 'places' to 'placed' 'placed the finished product' |
| |
| Page 28 'superficialties' to 'superficialities' 'superficialities |
| sway us' |
| |
| Page 66 'ballon' to 'balloon' 'or a toy balloon' |
| |
| Page 75 'qualitiy' to 'quality' 'marked emotional quality' |
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| Page 149 'smilingy' to 'smilingly' 'we remonstrated smilingly' |
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| Page 151 'envolved' to 'involved' 'there was involved' |
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| Page 251 'posses' to 'possess' 'be said to possess' |
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| Page 255 'fraility' to 'frailty' 'his physical frailty' |
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| Page 275 'directled' to 'directed' 'to whom they are directed' |
| |
| Page 288 'handerkerchief' to handkerchief' 'picks up her |
| handkerchief' |
| |
| Page 315 'comtemplating' to 'contemplating' 'have been |
| contemplating' |
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| Page 350 'intrusted' to 'entrusted' 'only when entrusted' |
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| References to chart numbers is a reference to illustrations 1 to 10. |
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