by Napoleon Hill
Available in 122 free installments
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As a boy Walter Clarke of Walter Clarke Associates, Providence, Rhode Island, intended to be a doctor. But when he grew older, he thought he wanted to become an engineer. And he studied engineering.
At Columbia University, however, he found the study of the functioning of the human mind so interesting and challenging that he changed from engineering to psychology. And finally he received his Master's Degree.
Walter Clarke worked as a personnel officer in Macy's Department Store and several other well-known concerns. At that tune the known psychological tests developed the specific information for which they were intended: an applicant's I.Q., aptitude, and personality. But something important was missing!
Walter endeavored to find the missing factor. He thought: "An engineer can select the proper part and put it in its place so that a machine will function efficiently. And that is exactly what I want to do with people. I want to select the right person for the right job."
You see, Walter, like many personnel officers, found: people fail on their job even though their psychological tests indicated that they had sufficient intelligence, aptitude and personality to succeed on the job. "Why then do we have so much absenteeism, turn-over, and failure?" he asked himself. "What's the missing factor?"
Now the answer to this question became so simple and obvious that it is truly amazing that other psychologists had not discovered it. For you see a person is more than a mechanical body. He is a mind with a body. He succeeds or fails because he is ? or is not ? motivated.
Therefore, Walter endeavored to develop an analysis technique that would:
(a) Indicate the individual's tendencies in behavior in either a pleasant or antagonistic environment;
(b) Show the sort of environment that attracts and repels him under favorable or unfavorable situations;
(c) In essence ? indicate "what comes naturally" to the individual.
Also, he endeavored to develop a technique that could be used to analyze the requirements of a given job successfully.
And because he worked hard and continued to search, Walter Clarke found and recognized exactly what he was looking for. For he developed what he called Activity Vector Analysis, better known as AVA. It is based on semantics, specifically: the reaction of the individual to word symbols. From the answers given, by the applicant, Clarke designed a chart. And he likewise came up with a formula for designing a similar diagram for any specific job.
Now when the diagram of the applicant corresponded with that of the job, he had a perfect combination.
Why?
For then the applicant would have a job doing the kind of work that came naturally to him. And a person will do what he likes to do ? it's fun.
Now the sole purpose of AVA as conceived by Walter Clarke is to help business management in: (a) the selection of personnel; (b) management development; (c) cutting the high cost of absenteeism; (d) personnel turnover.
Walter Clarke achieved a definite major aim. Now for many years W. Clement Stone kept searching for a scientific working tool that could aid him in his efforts to help the representatives
under his supervision to achieve success in solving their personal, family, social, and business problems. He was looking for a simple, accurate and usable formula that would eliminate guesswork and save time when applied to a specific individual in a given environment.
Therefore when he heard of AVA, Mr. Stone investigated and immediately recognized that it was the working tool that he had so long been looking for. He could see that AVA might be used for purposes far beyond that for which it was conceived. And when he studied under Walter Clarke, his conclusions were confirmed.
For when you know: (a) what the personality traits of the individual are; (b) what his environment is; (c) what motivates him, you then can motivate that individual.
How to motivate another person. While reading Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, you have seen the importance of: semantics, word symbols, suggestion, self-suggestion, and autosuggestion. This was particularly true when you read Chapter Four. Now Mr. Stone combined this knowledge with what he learned from AVA.
And thus he made what to him was a great discovery in the technique of motivating other persons.
For the discovery was: with PMA you can be what you want to be, if you are willing to pay the price. This is true regardless of your past experiences, aptitude, I.Q. or environment. Remember ? you have the power to choose.
