The Art of Money Getting: E-Book Pages 91-100

Notes/Excerpts:

• Advertise your business
  • the whole philosophy of life is, first sow, then reap
    • that is the way a farmer does it; he plants his potatoes and corn, and sows his grain, and then goes about something else, and the time comes when he reaps
  • …sometimes a man makes himself popular by a unique sign or curious display in his window; recently I observed a swing sign extending over the sidewalk, on which was the inscription in plain letters, DONT READ THE OTHER SIDE. Of course I did, and so did everybody else, and I learned that the man had made all independence by first attracting the public to his business in that way and the using his customers well afterwards
  • STORY:
    • Genin, the hatter, bought the first Jinny Lind ticket at an auction because he knew it would be a good advertisement for him. “Who is the bidder?” said the auctioneer. “Genin, the hatter,” was the response. Here were thousands of people from the Fifth Avenue, and from distant cities in the highest stations of life. “Who is Genin, the hatter?” they exclaimed. They had never heard of him before. The next morning the newspapers and telegraph had circulated the facts from Maine to Texas, and from five to ten millions of people had read that the tickets sold at auction for Jinny Lind’s first concert amounted to about twenty thousand dollars, and that a single ticket was sold at two hundred and twenty-five dollars, to * Genin, the hatter.’ Men throughout the country involuntarily took off their hats to see if they had a ‘Genin’ hat on their heads. At a town in Iowa it Ava.s found that m the crowd around the post office there was one man who had a ‘Genin’ hat, and he showed it in triumph, although it was worn out and not worth two cents. ‘ Why,’ one man exclaimed, ‘ you have a real ‘Genin’ hat ; what a lucky fellow you are.’ Another man said ‘ Hang on to that hat, it will be a valuable heir-loom in your family.’ Still another man in the crowd, who seemed to envy the possessor of this good fortune, said, ‘ Come, give us all a chance; put it up at auction !’ He did so, and it was sold as a keepsake for nine dollars and fifty cents ! What was the consequence to Mr. Genin ? He sold ten thousand extra hats per annum, the first six years. Nine-tenths of the purchasers bought of him, probably, out of curiosity, and many of them, finding that he gave them an equivalent for their money, became his regular customers.