EFFICIENCY

 Make good! Don’t explain! Do the thing you are expected to do! Don’t waste time in giving reasons why you didn’t, or couldn’t, or wouldn’t, or shouldn’t!

 

If I hire you to cook for me I expect my chops and baked potatoes on time, done to a turn and appetizing; I am not interested in the butcher’s mistake, nor the stove’s defect, nor in the misery¹ in your left arm. I want food, not explanations. You can’t eat explanations.

 

If I hire you to take care of my automobile², or factory, or shirtwaist counter, I do not want to hear why things are half-done; I want results.

 

So also if you come to me and hire me to 77 do a job of writing by the fifteenth of the month, you do not want me to show up on that day with a moving-picture story describing how I couldn’t do what I was paid for. You want the writing, and you want it first class, all wool and a yard wide.

 

This is cold, cruel, heartless talk. It is—to all second-raters and shirkers. But to real men it is a joy and gladness. They rejoice to make good themselves, they expect others to make good, and they like to hear preached the gospel of making good.

 

Mr. Yust, the Rochester librarian, in his report some time ago, spoke³ of the Parable⁴ of the Talents, in which we are told of the “three servants who had received talents, five, two and one, respectively. On the Master’s return they all rendered account of their stewardship⁵. The first two had doubled their capital. Each of them said so in fourteen 78 words, and their work was pronounced, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ Servant number three had accomplished⁶ absolutely nothing, but he made a full report in forty-two words, three times as long as the other reports.”

 

There you have it. The less you do the more you explain.

 

EFFICIENCY!

 

Learn that word by heart. Get to saying it in your sleep.

 

Of all the joys on this terrestrial sphere, there is none quite so soul-satisfying and so one-hundred-per-centish as MAKING GOOD.

 

Do your work a little better than any one else could do it. That is the margin⁷ of success.

 

Making good needs no foot-notes.

 

Failure requires forty-two words.

1 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

2 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 parable   

n.寓言，比喻

参考例句：

• This is an ancient parable.这是一个古老的寓言。
• The minister preached a sermon on the parable of the lost sheep.牧师讲道时用了亡羊的比喻。

5 stewardship   

n. n. 管理工作；管事人的职位及职责

参考例句：

• The organization certainly prospered under his stewardship. 不可否认，这个组织在他的管理下兴旺了起来。
• Last, but certainly not least, are the issues of stewardship and ethics. 最后，但当然不是微不足道的，是工作和道德规范的问题。

6 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

7 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。