The Importance of Being Second-Rate

by W.E. Woodward





Michael Webb's success began with the publication of a weighty scientific work with the title "The Importance of Being Second-Rate".

What is Second-Rate? The answer is simple. Second-rate is only another name for practical common sense. Common sense belongs to the second-rate intellect. First-raters in all ages have had no both common sense and morality.

Christopher Columbus was a first-rater. He had to be, for no second-rate mind would have ever had the crazy idea of sailing across the ocean. It is true he discovered a new continent and it's all right in its way. But what did Columbus himself get out of it? Nothing. He died in poverty.

Leonardo da Vinci was a first-rater. He had five different professions, was an expert in all of them, and could never make a really good living. Read his biography - he was begging money from the Italian princes.

Professor Albert Einstein was one of the famous first-raters of our time. What's he got? Nothing. He lived on his salary amounting to thirty-five dollars in real money a month.

"Why be talented and hated?" says our hero. "Is it not better to be second-rate at once?"

Yet how few rise to success and power!

In Chapter XV Michael Webb gives his invaluable rules for success, which should be memorized and repeated three times a day - morning, noon and night - by all who wish to rise step by step to success. If these rules are memorized, carefully repeated according to directions and followed, success is guaranteed by the author.

The Golden Rules are:



1. Believe in yourself - you're all right.

2. Believe in your fellow-man - he's all right.

3. Be pleasant - a face with a smile wins.

4. Be reserved - talkers are dangerous.

5. Be cautious - don't experiment.

6. Be solvent - save a little every day.

7. Be a worker - drones have no money.

8. Be open-hearted, open-minded, open-handed.

9. Be respectful - the world was here before you came.



These second-rate rules, known as "Webb's Little B's" were copied from the book by a printer. He set them up on a milk-white card to be hung over a desk.

More than fifteen million were sold and the printer went out of the game with a large anount of money.