Andrew Carnegie had a story about this principle of going the extra mile which he often liked to tell. “Several years ago,” he would say, “a policeman noticed a light burning at a late hour in a small machine shop on his beat in which he knew that no night work was being done. Becoming suspicious, he telephoned the owner of the shop who came down immediately, unlocked the door and cautiously crept inside with the policeman.
When they reached the small room where the light appeared, the owner of the shop looked in and, to his amazement, found one of his employees at work at a machine. The young man quickly explained that he had been in the habit of coming to the shop at night to learn how to operate the machine and thereby make himself more useful to the employer.
“The newspapers carried the story, and I happened to read it. The newspaper article made it appear that it was all a big joke on the employee. But it turned out to be a big joke on the employer. For I contacted this young man and employed him at double the wages he had been getting in this small machine shop. Today he is head of one of our most important plant operations at a salary four times what he was getting at the machine shop, and if he keeps on as he is going and continues to exhibit the same wonderful mental attitude, he will someday have our top plant job – provided he doesn’t first go into business for himself.
“There is no way to hold down people who spend their spare time preparing to render greater and better service for others. These persons go right to the top of their profession or calling as naturally as a cork rises to the top of water.”
There is little one can add to a story like that. It would be like trying to gild the lily. If you are ready to grasp the secret of real success, somewhere as you study the lessons in this course, you will find it. You will grasp the significance of each of these principles, and will be on the way to the achievement of your own definite major objective.
Benefits of Doing More Than You Are Paid For
First of all, going the extra mile calls the law of increasing returns into action. This means that the quality and quantity of the service you give will come back greatly multiplied. Recall the story of the farmer and the grain of wheat he plants. For every grain he plants, he receives a stalk of wheat containing many, many grains. Nature rewards him a hundredfold in return for his work and intelligence. And so it is with everything you do in the way of rendering service. If you render service which is worth one hundred dollars, the chances are that eventually, you will get back not only that one hundred dollars, but perhaps ten times that amount – if you have rendered this service with the right mental attitude.
Sometimes your increased return may not come back in dollars at all, but in increased opportunity for you to get ahead – promotion, or the making of a new friend or group of friends. It may come to you in a variety of forms, but always in an increased ratio.
There is another law which is the converse of the law of increasing returns. This is the law of diminishing returns. If you render service beyond that for which you are paid, or go the extra mile, unwillingly or with some other form of negative mental attitude, this law will come into play and you will get back very much less than your effort was worth, and possibly nothing at all!
An example of how the law of increasing returns multiplies the reward for abundant, cheerful service can be found in the life of Charles Schwab. He began his career as a day laborer in a steel mill owned by Andrew Carnegie. When he first went to work, he displayed no special ability – except that he had a positive mental attitude and a pleasing personality which won him friends among all classes of people. He also had the willingness to do more than he was paid for. He actually went out of his way to find extra work to do. He did not stop at one extra mile, but added two or three extra miles, and each one of them with a smile and a wholesome attitude.
Charles Schwab moved up and up in the Carnegie empire until he was next in line after Carnegie himself and was being paid a very handsome salary indeed for the work which he was required to do. And for the extra service he rendered over and above the call of duty, as it were, Mr. Carnegie often presented him with a very handsome bonus which on occasion amounted to as much as a million dollars. Talk about the law of increasing returns! He was actually paid over ten times as much for this extra mile service as he was for doing his regular job. You can take a valuable hint from this story. The service you render without pay, and without expectation of direct compensation in money, often proves to be the most profitable service you can render.