List your particular “goods of sale.”  Put down on a chart, not only the qualities you have now, but all the additional ones you feel capable of developing.  Then you will realize vividly that you possess many abilities, some undeveloped yet, which are always needed in the world.  You know that such qualities should be readily salable, to the mutual benefit of yourself and of buyers.  You are learning the selling process in order to make certain that you can sell the best that is in you, as other men are selling themselves successfully.

Complete your chart by listing your various defects.  Then study out ways to use even your particular faults differently than you have been handling them; so that they will help you, instead of being hindrances to your success.  Think of some people you know, and of how they have turned their physical “liabilities” into “assets” of popularity.

The very first sales knowledge you need is of exactly what you have to sell.  You cannot see all of yourself, your good and bad points—­yourself as you are, and as you might be—­unless you make a detailed chart of your “goods of sale.”  One of the most important immediate effects of such a self-analysis will be increased self-respect.  Your handicaps will shrink, and the peculiar advantages you have will grow before your eyes.  You should feel new confidence in your own ability.

[Sidenote:  Man-Equality]

With this confidence will come a feeling that you are not the inferior of another man who has achieved a larger measure of success than you have gained.  When you start the sale of true ideas of your best self to an employer-buyer of such services as you are capable of rendering, you will have an innate consciousness of your man-equality with him.  You should realize that this sale of yourself, like all other true sales, is to be a transaction of reciprocal benefits, and should be conducted on the basis of mutual respect.

It is your right to take pains that the prospective buyer of your services shall sell himself to you as the boss you want to work with.  Expect him to sell himself to you as a desirable employer just as thoroughly and satisfyingly as you intend to sell yourself to him as a worthy applicant for an opportunity in his business.  When you have definite, sure knowledge of your capability and service value, you certainly should not be willing to take “any old job.”

There is no better way to make the impression of your desirability as an employee than to demonstrate that you are choosing your employment intelligently.  In explaining your choice, give specific reasons for your selection of this particular opening.  Show that you comprehend what is to be done.  Give some indication of your ability to do it efficiently and satisfactorily.  Suggest the worth of your services when you shall have proved your fitness.