FREE online courses on Etiquette in Business - The
Self-Made Man And World-Made Manners
It is not in order to shine in society that grace of manner is an asset;
comparatively few people in a community care a rap about “society” anyway! A man
of affairs whose life is spent in doing a man's work in a man's way is not apt
to be thrilled at the thought of putting on “glad” clothes and going out with
his wife to a “pink” tea or a ball.
But what many successful men do not realize is that a fundamental knowledge of
etiquette is no less an asset in business or public life, or in any other
contact with people, than it is in society.
Just as any expert, whether at a machine bench, an accountant's desk, or at
golf, gives an impression of such ease as to make his accomplishment seemingly
require no skill, a bungler makes himself and every one watching him uneasy if
not actually fearful of his awkwardness. And as inexpertness is quite as
irritating in personal as in mechanical bungling, so there is scarcely any one
who sooner or later does not feel the need of social expertness. Something, some
day, will awaken him to the folly of scorning as “soft,” men who have
accomplished manners; despising as “effeminate,” youths who have physical grace;
of being contemptuous of the perfect English of the well-bred gentleman; of
consoling himself with the thought that his own crudeness is strong, and manly,
and American!
