Here is a story about a young man who couldn’t get any response from his employer in spite of his continued best efforts to apply the principle of going the extra mile and practicing the Golden Rule. The young man wisely decided to tell his employer to get someone to take his place. But a depression was on, and he couldn’t afford to do this until he had saved some money. For one whole year he and his wife pinched and saved until they had a couple of thousand dollars in the bank. Then he did exactly what he had been planning to do during that long year of self-denial.
That young man went out and secured other capital and went into business for himself, as a competitor of his former boss. And he made good. Now he has a tradition in his plant that every new employee must come into him for a personal interview before going to work. During this interview he relates the story of how he got his start in business. He tells the new employee: “If you have the kind of stuff in you that we think you have and hope you have, the time will inevitably come when you will have the urge to tell me you are through, and, of course, that will mark the parting of our ways. Now, I want you to be prepared to do just that when the feeling gets so strong you can’t resist it, so I want you to start a savings account immediately and see that a percentage of your salary goes into it every payday.
You may call it your independence fund, and that will make it more fun to save.”
You could search in vain, the world over, for a more harmonious group of employees, with a real respect for their boss. They all have a private independence fund and are in a position to break off any time conditions warrant such a move. But the boss knows this, and treats his employees with the respect that is due them, so he will not lose his valuable men. He sees to it that he does not give them any legitimate excuse for leaving him.
This story gives a slight twist to the principle of going the extra mile because of a mutual feeling of independence and pride. The result is high output per man, increased profits for the company, higher wages for employees, and a company organization that no “ism” except Americanism can penetrate.
Source: PMA Science of Success.