e. If I had average ability, how much could I hope to earn during the first five years?
f. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an architect?
g. If I were your son, would you advise me to become an architect?
If you are timid, and hesitate to face a "big shot" alone, here are two suggestions that
will help.
First, get a lad of your own age to go with you. The two of you will bolster up one
another's confidence. If you haven't someone of your own age to go with you, ask your
father to go with you.
Second, remember that by asking his advice you are paying this man a compliment. He
may feel flattered by your request. Remember that adults like to give advice to young
men and women. The architect will probably enjoy the interview.
If you hesitate to write letters asking for an appointment, then go to a man's office
without an appointment and tell him you would be most grateful if he would give you a
bit of advice.
Suppose you call on five architects and they are all too busy to see you (which isn't
likely), call on five more. Some of them will see you and give you priceless advice-
advice that may save you years of lost time and heartbreak.
Remember that you are making one of the two most vital and far-reaching decisions of
your life. So, take time to get the facts before you act. If you don't, you may spend half a
lifetime regretting it.
If you can afford to do so, offer to pay a man for a half-hour of his time and advice.
- Get over the mistaken belief that you are fitted for only a single occupation! Every
normal person can succeed at a number of occupations, and every normal person
would probably fail in many occupations. Take myself, for example: if I had studied and
prepared myself for the following occupations, I believe I would have had a good chance
of achieving some small measure of success-and also of enjoying my work. I refer to
such occupations as farming, fruit growing, scientific agriculture, medicine, selling,
advertising, editing a country newspaper, teaching, and forestry. On the other hand, I
am sure I would have been unhappy, and a failure, at bookkeeping, accounting,
engineering, operating a hotel or a factory, architecture, all mechanical trades, and
hundreds of other activities.
Chapter 30: "Seventy Per Cent Of All Our Worries ..."
If I knew how to solve everybody's financial worries, I wouldn't be writing this book, I
would be sitting in the White House-right beside the President. But here is one thing I
can do: I can quote some authorities on this subject and make some highly practical
suggestions and point out where you can obtain books and pamphlets that will give you
additional guidance.
Seventy per cent of all our worries, according to a survey made by the Ladies' Home
Journal, are about money. George Gallup, of the Gallup Poll, says that his research