Automatic Age

APRIL, 1930
No. 9
CHICAGO
V
ol .
N a tio n a l
6
M a g a z i n e o f t h e V e n d in g M a c h in e I n d u s t r y
EXPERIENCE
Experience keeps a dear school and operators
can learn in no other .— (Apologies to Franklin.)
The business of operating coin-actuated machines is so new that
every man who would enter the business must learn the work by dint
of experience. A business that would apparently seem easy from the
surface has many knacks to learn, which come only
to him who gets into the game and goes to work.
Mere number of years spent in a business is not the
essence of experience, however. There are some men
who may spend years in the operating business and
yet only scratch the surface. Others begin at the
beginning to mix a lot of reasoning and close obser­
vation with hard work, as they locate and service
machines, and these are the fellows who come out
with rich experience in a few short years. The point
is that experience cannot be gained by mere muscle
put to hard exercise over a period of time. Brain
work must be mixed liberally with elbow grease to
produce the finished product called an experienced operator. One of
the finest things about experience is that it can be shared with others
and not make the sharer any poorer. Experience can be exchanged
with other operators in the form of ideas and enrich both him that
gives and him that receives. I f there is any short-cut road to experi­
ence at all, it is by this co-operative exchange of ideas that permits
each fellow to add a little to his own original knowledge, as he also
contributes his bit for the benefit of others. The trade association,
with its conventions, exists to make this exchange convenient, as well
as for anything else, And the trade paper provides even a more con­
venient channel for the expression of opinions and the asking of ques­
tions. One main truth needs to be kept in mind: The operator who
would share his experience with others always gets back in one form
or another much more than he gave.
© International Arcade M useum
http://w w w.arcade-m useum .com /