Personal Effectiveness

The eminent and respected educator, David Starr Jordan, wrote and said much on learning, on loyalty, on personal effectiveness and the values of life: “. . . well-meaning men are making . . . mistakes,” he said, “[and] one of these is the . . . effort to destroy the feeling of personal loyalty . . . Half the value of any man’s service lies in his willingness, his devotion . . . This old-fashioned virtue of loyalty must not be cheapened. The man whose service is worth paying for, gives more than his labor. He believest that what he does is right . . . In the long run . . . [he] can get no more than he deserves . . . There is plenty to do in every direction. . . .Every man who masters what is already known in any one branch of applied science, makes his own fortune. He who can add a little, save a little, do something better . . . makes the fortune of a hundred others. . . . There are never too many of those who know how . . . Men of training the century must demand. It is impossible to drop into greatness. ‘There is always room at the top,’ so the Chicago merchant said to his son, ‘but the elevator is not running.’ You must walk up the stairs on your own feet. It is as easy to do great things as small, if you only know how. The only way to learn to do great things is to do small things well, patiently, loyally, If your ambitions run high, it will take a long time in preparation. There is no hurry. No wise man begrudges any of the time spent in the preparation for life, so long as it is actually making [progress]. In the ordinary business of life the smart man has had his day . . . Organizations . . . know the value of men . . . To this end absolute honesty [loyalty] is essential to success . . . The man in the Twentieth Century needs must be a man of character,” continued Dr. Jordan. “If something needs doing, do it; the more plainly, directly, honestly, the better.”¹