[Sidenote:  Advance or You Will Slip Back]

Probably you do not think of quitting work for a long time.  You look at your future retirement as a remote possibility.  Very likely you feel it is premature to consider “your declining years” now, when you are in the full vigor of ambition. But if you stop advancing, in order to celebrate your progress thus far, you have quit working your way ahead.  If you stay contented with what you have done, even for a little while, you have temporarily retired from the game of success and are in danger of rusting into a partial failure.  If you do not continue moving ever upward, you will slip into a decline without realizing that you are going back and down.

[Sidenote:  The Zest for Work]

The successful salesman thrives on his work, and pines for it when he “lays off.”  He welcomes the end of his annual vacation with more zest than its beginning.  He celebrates each order gained by planning at once how he will get another.  He is like Alexander, who sighed only when there were no more worlds to conquer.  He is as perennially tireless as Edison, the wizard who is never weary. To the true salesman there is no enjoyment equal to selling. He often declares that he “would rather sell than eat.”

[Sidenote:  Pattern after Master Salesmen]

You know the importance of being a good salesman.  You have studied the methods he uses throughout the selling process.  Now at the celebration stage pattern after the masters of the profession.  Do not get into the bad habits of the mediocre fellows who slacken their efforts after each success, and who need the spur of necessity to make them do their utmost.

When a good salesman has booked an order, and has taken pains to make a fine last impression on his customer, he does not go to his hotel and play Kelly pool, or otherwise spend the rest of the day just loafing around.  Only the poor salesman celebrates in such a way; thereby showing that his successes are so rare he is not used to them.

[Sidenote:  Starting After The Next Chance]

The good salesman looks at his watch the moment he is out of his customer’s sight.  He makes a swift calculation of the time it will take him to reach and sell the next man on his list.  If he has no other prospect nearby, he starts looking for one that minute.  His keen eyes catch every name on the business signs he passes. His imaginative mind is planning how he can use the order he just has closed, to influence some other buyer to make a contract. If there are no additional customers for his line in the town, he sprints to the station to catch the first train up the road. He does not waste a minute getting to his next selling opportunity.

[Sidenote:  Pepper and Poppies]