Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUJIC TIRADE
VOL. LXH. No. 25 Published Every Saturday by the Estate of Edward Lyman Bill at 373 4th Ave., New York, June 17, 1916
T
io CenU
Year
H E husky giant who undergoes at top pace the strenuous training that is necessary for 'varsity crew
work for many months is bound to go stale. The same applies to all other athletes.
No matter what the endeavor or vocation, it is easy to go stale— : in fact the ability to keep from
going stale is the difference between the passive man and the aggressive man. And the difference
between these two kinds of men is as distinct as is that between a dead wire and one charged with electricity.
The advertising man who has written copy for the same product at the rate of seven masterpieces per
month for four years would go stale if he sat at a desk year in and year out.
The sales manager, even though he has attained his position through the process of promotion, cannot
be a desk man many years before he will go stale.
Perhaps the quickest way of finding out if you have gone stale is by waiting until the room is unoccupied
and then walking up to "Old Lady Mirror" to see what she has got to say about you. If she seems to say
you are the pinnacle of perfection—that that mouth of yours is decidedly firm—that that eye of yours is
particularly bright—that that smile of yours is, oh, so winning—that that brain of yours is supremely keen—
then, for the sake of your descendants, pull out the little notebook in your corner pocket and .write it down where
you can't forget, that you have gone stale. After that, resolve to rid yourself forever of being ioo per cent,
satisfied with your work. Otherwise self-content is apt to approach cynical egotism.
The surest indication of having gone stale is self-satisfaction, and the degree to which you have "lost
the edge" is directly proportional to the completeness of your ideal opinion of your own work. It will never
do to think your work can't be improved upon.
Long before reaching the stage of going stale, however, it is better to employ preventative insurance.
The character of this insurance naturally varies somewhat with the nature of a man's work.
But one fact stands out, that the effective antidote for going stale lies not always in spurring up ambition,
gritting teeth and grinding harder—but in occasionally slacking one's work to get a change and a contrast in
other fields. This principle applies to all men. To keep from going dry one has to have change and variety—
to get interested in something like golf, like movies, like meeting new people, like reading or like traveling.
These are the things that help breadth of view, that keep a man in a state where he can be an aggressive worker
without growing weary and that make his w r ork just so much more original when he does concentrate on it.
Lots of men, big in commercial life, recognize the value of absorbing ideas from people and things that
ordinarily do not occur in their regular routine of life. That's why one finds so many great men fairly loaded
with hobbies often remote from business. That's why many such men, prompted by a far from narrow-
minded motive, read trade and other business publications in order to see what the other fellow is doing.
That's w r hy, when such men get the chance, or when they know they have gone stale, they pick up stakes and
travel—travel to observe what's going on in the world that they are not familiar with. That's why the dealer
who migrates to the Piano Men's Conventions in New York next week will be favored with a chance to meet
the other fellow and the opportunity to learn what he has been doing, is doing, and will be doing. The
dealer who conies to the Conventions will return home freshened by his temporary absence, richened by his
acquaintance with a few additional chapters of worldly wisdom, and enlightened by what he has learned.
The way in which his time will be spent while at the Convention is described by the motto which appeared
on the "club room" doors of the "alternate delegates" to the recent G. O. P. convention held in Chicago.
This motto read, "We unanimously nominate as our candidate Mr. Goodtime."
Thus, because of the value from a business standpoint and the pleasure in a good time way, it seems
reasonable to conclude that those who decide to come to the big city for. the Conventions will return home,
brighter, keener for business and glad that they showed themselves progressive factors in the music industry.