Rid your face of sharpness if you would be a good prospector for your best chances to succeed.  Avoid “the cutting edge” in your voice and manner when you make inquiries about opportunities you seek.  You are likely to be most effective in prospecting if you cultivate an easy attitude of friendliness.  The master salesman does not set his jaw when prospecting.  He uses curved, instead of straight line gestures to supplement his words.  He suggests a “ball-bearing” disposition, not “corners.”

[Sidenote:  Sympathetic Attitude]

Be a good mixer when looking for your prospects.  Learn the art of companionship.  The first essential is fellow feeling.  Therefore do not go about with a chip on your shoulder, but with your face a-smile and your palms open to offer and to receive hand-clasps.  Sympathize with the ambitions of other men, with their hopes and dreams.  Remember that each part of every work of man, however substantial and enduring it now may be, was once no more than a figment of the imagination of some one’s mind.  So do not be altogether “practical” when prospecting.  It is a mistake to neglect to prospect visions.

[Sidenote:  Have a Leader]

When the master salesman prospects, he uses very effectively a “leader” idea.  You know how aggressive stores advertise leaders that draw trade in other things.  Your prospecting of your various capabilities should enable you to decide which of your qualifications will make the most effective leader in the case of a certain employer.  Do not expect him to perceive all your merits immediately.  Concentrate his attention and interest on one or two elements of your fitness to fill his especial needs.  Prospect to make sure which of your possible leaders would be most likely to influence him in your favor.  Then use these selected elements of your character very prominently to open the door of your initial chance.  Countless successes have been founded on well chosen leaders.

A little bake shop in Chicago competes successfully to-day with a great chain-store company that has an immense establishment directly across the street.  The shop sells as its leaders home-made English tarts that no chain-store could supply.  These draw buyers for groceries and other goods the chain-store sells much cheaper, but which the purchasers of tarts order with their pastry rather than cross the street and divide their marketing.

[Sidenote:  Summary]

Now let us summarize “Your Prospects.”  They are not far away nor far ahead in time.  They are in your own hands right now.  You cannot fail in life if you recognize and use most effectively all the opportunities available to you at present.  You suffer from no lack of chances to succeed.  You only need to open your physical eyes and the eyes of your mind to see fine prospects every day.  Then if you imaginatively relate your abilities to what you perceive, and plan how you can fit yourself into a chosen place of real service, you will have begun the selling process successfully.  At the outset of your career it is possible for you to reduce difficult obstacles to temporary set-backs that you can get around or overcome.