INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP^359"Please remember that I am not now talking to a prospective
student, because I would not sell you the course-at this particular
moment-if you offered to pay cash in advance, because if I did, you
would not have the initiative to complete it, and we want no failures
on our student list.
"The talk I am now giving you will make it impossible, perhaps,
for me ever to sell you anything, but it is going to do something for
you that has never been done before, providing it makes you think.
"I will tell you, in a very few words, exactly why you are defeated; why
you are pecking out letters on an old typewriter, in an old dirty office, in
a little town: It is because you do not have the power to reach a decision!
"All of your life you have been forming the habit of dodging the
responsibility of reaching decisions, until you have come now to where
it is well-nigh impossible for you to do so.
"If you had told me that you wanted the course, or that you did
not want it, I could have sympathized with you, because I would have
known that lack of funds was what caused you to hesitate. But what
did you say? Why, you admitted that you did not know whether you
wanted it or not.
"If you will think over what I have said, I am sure that you will
acknowledge that it has become a habit with you to dodge the respon-
sibility of reaching clear-cut decisions on practically all matters that
affect you:'
The realtor sat glued in his chair, with his underjaw dropped and
his eyes bulged in astonishment, but he made no attempt to answer the
biting indictment.
The salesman said good-bye and started for the door.
After he had closed the door behind him, he again opened it and
walked back in. With a smile on his face, he took his seat in front of
the astonished realtor and explained his conduct in this way:
"I do not blame you at all if you feel hurt by my remarks. In fact,
I sort of hope that you have been offended. But now let me say this,