Source text in English | Translation by Anita du Plessis (#8758) |
I remember reading once that some fellows use language to conceal thought, but it's been my experience that a good many more use it instead of thought. A businessman's conversation should be regulated by fewer and simpler rules than any other function of the human animal. They are: Have something to say. Say it. Stop talking. Beginning before you know what you want to say and keeping on after you have said it lands a merchant in a lawsuit or the poorhouse, and the first is a short cut to the second. I maintain a legal department here, and it costs a lot of money, but it's to keep me from going to law. It's all right when you are calling on a girl or talking with friends after dinner to run a conversation like a Sunday-school excursion, with stops to pick flowers; but in the office your sentences should be the shortest distance possible between periods. Cut out the introduction and the peroration, and stop before you get to secondly. You've got to preach short sermons to catch sinners; and deacons won't believe they need long ones themselves. Give fools the first and women the last word. The meat's always in the middle of the sandwich. Of course, a light butter on either side of it doesn't do any harm if it's intended for a man who likes butter. Remember, too, that it's easier to look wise than to talk wisdom. Say less than the other fellow and listen more than you talk; for when a man's listening he isn't telling on himself and he's flattering the fellow who is. Give most men a good listener and most women enough note-paper and they'll tell all they know. Money talks -- but not unless its owner has a loose tongue, and then its remarks are always offensive. Poverty talks, too, but nobody wants to hear what it has to say. | Ek onthou ek het eendag gelees dat sommige ouens taal gebruik om denke te verdoesel, maar volgens my ondervinding gebruik baie meer dit in plaas van denke. ‘n Sakeman se gesprekke moet deur minder en eenvoudiger reëls gereguleer word as enige ander funksie van die menslike dier. Hulle is: Jy moet iets te sê hê. Sê dit. Hou op praat. Om te begin alvorens jy weet wat jy wil sê en deur aan te hou nadat jy dit kwytgeraak het, kan ‘n handelaar òf in die hof òf in die armhuis laat beland, en die eerste is ‘n kortpad na die tweede. Ek hou ‘n regsdepartement hier in stand , en dit kos ‘n klomp geld, maar dit hou my ten minste uit die hof uit. Dit is goed en wel wanneer jy ‘n meisie uitneem of met vriende gesels na aandete om ‘n gesprek te voer wat soos ‘n Sondagskooluitstappie klink, met onderbrekings om blomme te pluk; maar op kantoor moet jou sinne die kortste afstand tussen twee punte wees. Sny die inleiding en die slotrede, en stop voor jy by tweedens kom. Kort preke vang sondaars; selfs diakens glo nie hulle het langes nodig nie. Gee aan stommerike die eerste en aan vroumense die laaste woord. Die vleis is altyd in die middel van die toebroodjie. Natuurlik sal ‘n smeerseltjie botter aan weerskante geen skade doen nie, veral as dit bedoel is vir ‘n man wat van botter hou. Onthou ook, dit is makliker om wys voor te kom as om wysheid te verkondig. Sê minder as die ander ou en luister meer as om te praat; want as ‘n man nie praat nie gee hy homself nie weg nie en vlei hy die spreker. Wees vir die meeste mans ‘n goeie luisteraar en gee vir die meeste vrouens genoeg notapapier en hulle sal alles uitlap. Geld praat— maar slegs as die eienaar ‘n los tong het, en dan is sy aanmerkings altyd beledigend. Armoede praat ook, maar niemand stel belang in wat dit te sê het nie. |