"Going the Extra Mile"

Nature's laws are universal and inexorable. The Law of Cause and Effect is the fundamental law of life as it is of nature. This is an inexpensive book, but if you didn't learn another thing in all of its pages other than the significance of the Law of Cause and Effect, it could be worth thousands of dollars to you.

Every act and every thought is like a seed. We find pretty much what we are looking for. Give kindness and love, and kindness and love come back to you. Give hatred, indifference or scorn, and your return is hatred, indifference or scorn. Your own will come to you sooner or later; that which you deserve you get; you set in operation in yourself the causes which must be followed by their inevitable results, because of this fundamental law of the universe.

Emerson refers to this law as the Law of Compensation.
Scientists know that for every action there is an equal reaction. This is the bespeakable language of science, of chemistry, of physics, and of all nature, yet mankind has been slow to grasp the tremendous significance of this powerful law. Every child should be versed in this law during his first grade in grammar school, yet most people don't even learn it by the time of college graduation.

As the pendulum swings to the right, it returns of its own accord to swing also to the left. For every daytime there is also a nighttime. To compensate for a son born into the world, nature also sends a daughter. One side of an algebraic equation is compensated by the other equal side.

Polarity is evidenced by heat and cold, sweet and sour, strong and weak, bright and dull, up and down, high and low.

The same dualism which we find in nature also governs man. Partake of excesses and you will suffer defects. Every abuse has its penalty. Good or bad, whatever we send out, inevitably comes back to us. Coupled with the Law of Increasing Returns, this that comes back to us comes back greatly multiplied in kind. To best understand this, let us again take the example of the farmer who plants a kernel of corn. He selects fertile soil. He cultivates that soil, fertilizes it, and cares for the tender plant. He then "lays by" and lets nature complete the job for him. In due time nature not only returns to him his one kernel of corn under the Law of Compensation (that which you give forth shall return to you in kind), but to also compensate him for his labors and intelligence under the Law of Increasing Returns, nature rewards him with an overplus consisting of several ears of corn containing hundreds of kernels.

The Law of Cause and Effect (Compensation) is a dangerous law. But by its very being, it is a wonderful law. It all depends on how we use it or how we abuse it.

"Men suffer all their life long, under the foolish superstition that they can be cheated," said Emerson.

"But it is as impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself, as for a thing to be, and not to be, at the same time. There is a third silent party to all our bargains. The nature and soul of things takes on itself the guaranty of fulfillment of every contract, so that honest service cannot come to loss."

It was Zimmerman who said: 'Tic universe pays every man in his own coin; if you smile, it smiles upon you in return; if you frown, you will be frowned at; if you sing, you will be invited into gay company; if you think, you will be entertained by thinkers; if you love the world, and earnestly seek for the good therein, you will be surrounded by loving friends, and nature will pour into your lap the treasures of the earth."

The Law of Cause and Effect tells us that our rewards in life will always be in exact proportion to our contributions. Give and ye shall receive." How simple the statement, yet row far-reaching the law! Tic need to note what is clearly implied in the words, that wilt we give is to be given us in return; not only that our giving is to find a response, but that it is to find a response in kind. How lightly has the world valued this great utterance! Nature is evenly balanced. live cannot disturb her equilibrium, for eve know that the Law of Cause and Effect is the unerring and inexorable Law of Nature; but eve do fail to find our own equilibrium as nations and as individuals, because we have not yet learned that the same law worlds as inexorably- in human life and in society as in nature—that what we sow, we must inevitably reap.

There is no such thing as "something for nothing" although the masses oftentimes succumb to this evil promise. Our correctional institutions are filled with men and women who tried and failed. Even more "on the outside" through trickery and chicanery endeavor to profit at the expense of others. We can sometimes avoid the penalty of man's laws but the wise know that it is impossible to escape the inflow or outflow of nature's law,

Put yourself on the side of the Law of Cause and Effect and let it always work for you—never against you. Let the "other fellow" try to beat it, as so many do.

Put people under obligation to you by doing the unexpected. Give of yourself, your time, talents, energies, money, to make this world a better place in which to live. Then see how surely the world has become better for you. It's just as easy to be good and kind as it is to be grouchy and mean. Don't go around looking like you have just sucked a lemon. Smile and the world will smile back at you.

Employees—here's the fastest way to promotion that I know. Do a little more than that for which you are now paid. Put more into your job. Learn more about your job. See if you can't suggest methods for increasing production or reducing costs. Determine ways and means for making more money for your employer. A11 of this will come back to you just as surely as the night follows the day. It may not come back to you from your present employer. It may be from a competitor o; from your own business but the point is that it will come back to you.

Go the extra mile by doing the extra little things, by doing more than that for which you are paid. Pile up enough ledger credits and you may be assured that the

books will one day be balanced. It could be soon or it could be years from now but there is no way possible for this law to fail you. If it doesn't come right back to you, worry not, for your account will be earning compounded interest at a handsome rate.

If you are in business for yourself, determine how you can better serve your employees and customers. Don't be too shocked at this proposition of upgrading your employees. After all, in the eyes of many customers they are your institution because that is the only contact that customers have, oftentimes, with your firm. Do your clerks portray the good image of your store or firm that you want it to have? Go the extra mile with your suppliers, with your customers, with your employees and with the public in your public relations efforts. The effort will pay you handsomely. A sincere slogan, "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back," back in the days when such a mercantile practice was unheard of, has helped to build one of the world's greatest retail and mail order houses.

One of the reasons that selling is one of our highest paid professions is because the salesmen that understand what is meant by "Going the extra mile" with their prospects and clients, have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions. The names of men like Elmer G. Leterman are a legend in the insurance world. Leterman was a past master at going the extra mile with his prospects and clients. During the thirty years that he sold life insurance he wrote coverage totaling so million on individual lives and a half billion in group life. Leterman went all out—first class – big splash, but it paid off. Remember through, little courtesies, little extra efforts pay off too.