PREPARATION

In order to strengthen one’s resolution it is a good thing every morning to map out one’s day, for the purpose of acquiring poise.

All one’s combinations should be worked out with this valuable conquest in mind.

After having committed oneself to a definite plan, one should analyze each one of the proposed steps, carefully taking into account all the peculiarities that are likely to characterize them.

If one is to have an interview, one should carefully prepare one’s introductory remarks, paying particular attention to one’s line of action, to one’s method of presentation, and the words upon which one relies to obtain an affirmative reply to one’s request.

One should take the precaution to have one’s speeches mentally prepared in advance, so as to be able to deliver them in such a speedy and convincing fashion that one does not find oneself in a state of embarrassment fatal to recollecting them.

It is better to make them as short as possible.  One is then much less likely to become confused and will not be so much in dread of stammering or stuttering, which are always accompaniments of the fear of being left without an idea of what to say next.

Besides this, long speeches are always irritating, and it is a sign of great lack of address to allow oneself to acquire the reputation of being a bore.

To make sure of one’s facial expression and gestures it may be well to repeat one’s speeches in front of a mirror.

One can then enact one’s entry into the room in such a way as to foresee even the most insignificant details, so that the fear of making a failure at the start will no longer have a bad effect upon one.

We have heard of a man who was so lacking in poise that he lost his situation because, when summoned by his chief, he became so confused that he forgot to leave his streaming umbrella in the outer office.

It was an extremely wet day, and the unfortunate man, instead of being able to plead his cause effectively, became hopelessly embarrassed at perceiving his mistake, the results of which, it is needless to state, were by no means to the benefit of the floor.

His despair at the sight of the rivulets that, running from his umbrella, spread themselves over the polished surface of the wood, prevented him from thinking of anything but his unpardonable stupidity.  His native awkwardness became all the worse at this and, utterly unable to proffer any but the most confused excuses, he fled from the office of his chief leaving the latter in a high state of irritation.

He was replaced by some one else at the first opportunity, on the pretext that the direction of important affairs could no longer be left in the hands of a man of such notorious incapacity.

It should be added that this man was more than ordinarily intelligent and that his successor was by no means his equal.