Getting the facts and thinking – that is a fairly good five-word definition of Efficiency. Every worth while thing in the world has been created by getting the facts and thinking.
Thinking is mental manufacturing. Facts are the raw material. And the products are ideas, methods and things.
Every improvement in civilization began in some man’s brain. It was a thought before it became a thing.
The progress of every nation depends upon the development of thinkers- men who have CREATIVE thoughts.
In every nation- in every business firm and even in every small shop –success depends more upon ideas than upon any other one thing.
Every business man should have more or less thinking time every week. Every business that is run only by memory will soon be stuck fast in a rut.
We must get the facts and ideas from others, by reading and by conversation, and we should try to originate as many ideas as we can.
All this seems self-evident, when it is written down, but the last thing that most men do is to get the facts and think.
Edison had this sign hung up on the wall of his workshop – “It is remarkable to what lengths people will go to avoid thoughts,”
Some of us think, more of us think we think, and most of us don’t even think of thinking.
How many firms try to stimulate their employees to think- offer rewards for useful suggestions? Not one out of twenty.
No firm can afford to pay attention only to the automaticity of its routine. Sooner or later, a thinking competitor will spring up and leave it in the rear.
There can be no progress without thoughts. The firm that wins is the one that gives the most time to getting the facts and thinking.