H.V.Kaltenborn—the famous radio news analyst—once told me how he made a dull job interesting.When he was twenty-two years old，he worked his way across the Atlantic on a cattle boat，feeding and watering the steers.After making a bicycle tour of England，he arrived in Paris，hungry and broke.Pawning his camera for five dollars，he put an ad.in the Paris edition of The New York Herald and got a job selling steropticon machines.If you are forty years old，you may remember those old-fashioned stereoscopes that we used to hold up before our eyes to look at two pictures exactly alike.As we looked，a miracle happened.The two lenses in the stereoscope transformed the two pictures into a single scene with the effect of a third dimension.We saw distance.We got an astounding sense of perspective.
Well，as I was saying，Kaltenborn started out selling these machines from door to door in Paris—and he couldn’t speak French.But he earned five thousand dollars in commissions the first year，and made himself one of the highest-paid salesmen in France that year.H.V.Kaltenborn told me that this experiencedid as much to develop within him the qualities that make for success as did any single year of study at Harvard.Confidence？He told me himself that after that experience，he felt he could have sold The Congressional Record to French housewives.
That experience gave him an intimate understanding of French life that later proved invaluable in interpreting，on the radio，European events.
How did he manage to become an expert salesman when he couldn’t speak French？Well，he had his employer write out his sales talk in perfect French，and he memorised it.He would ring a door-bell，a housewife would answer，and Kaltenborn would begin repeating his memorised sales talk with an accent so terrible it was funny.He would show the housewife his pictures，and when she asked a question，he would shrug his shoulders and say：“An American...an American.”He would then take off his hat and point to a copy of the sales talk in perfect French that he had pasted in the top of his hat.The housewife would laugh，he would laugh—and show her more pictures.When H.V.Kaltenborn told me about this，he confessed that the job had been far from easy.He told me that there was only one quality that pulled him through：his determination to make the job interesting.Every morning before he started out，he looked into the mirror and gave himself a pep talk：“Kaltenborn，you have to do this if you want to eat.Since you have to do it-why not have a good time doing it？Why not imagine every time you ring a door-bell that you are an actor before the footlights and that there’s an audience out there looking at you.After all，what you are doing is just as funny as something on the stage.So why not put a lot of zest and enthusiasm into it？”
Mr.Kaltenborn told me that these daily pep talks helped him transform a task that he had once hated and dreaded into an adventure that he liked and made highly profitable.
When I asked Mr.Kaltenborn if he had any advice to give to the young men of America who are eager to succeed，he said：“Yes，go to bat with yourself every morning.We talk a lot about the importance of physical exercise to wake us up out of the half-sleep in which so many of us walk around.But we need，even more，some spiritual and mental exercises every morning to stir us into action.Give yourself a pep talk every day.”
Is giving yourself a pep talk every day silly，superficial，childish？No，on the contrary，it is the very essence of sound psychology.“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”Those words are just as true today as they were eighteen centuries ago when Marcus Aurelius first wrote them in his book of Meditations：“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
By talking to yourself every hour of the day，you can direct yourself to think thoughts of courage and happiness，thoughts of power and peace.By talking to yourself about the things you have to be grateful for，you can fill your mind with thoughts that soar and sing.
By thinking the right thoughts，you can make any job less distasteful.Your boss wants you to be interested in your job so that he will make more money.But let’s forget about what the boss wants.Think only of what getting interested in your job will do for you.Remind yourself that it may double the amount of happiness you get out of life，for you spend about one half of your waking hours at your work，and if you don’t find happiness in your work，you may never find it anywhere.Keep reminding yourself that getting interested in your job will take your mind off your worries，and，in the long run，will probably bring promotion and increased pay.Even if it doesn’t do that，it will reduce fatigue to a minimum and help you enjoy your hours of leisure.
Chapter 57
How To Keep From Worrying About Insomnia
Do you worry when you can’t sleep well？Then it may interest you to know that Samuel Untermyer—the famous international lawyer—never got a decent night’s sleep in his life.
When Sam Untermyer went to college，he worried about two afflictions—asthma and insomnia.He couldn’t seem to cure either，so he decided to do the next best thing—take advantage of his wakefulness.Instead of tossing and turning and worrying himself into a breakdown，he would get up and study.The result？He began ticking off honours in all of his classes，and became one of the prodigies of the College of the City of New York.
Even after he started to practice law，his insomnia continued.But Untermyer didn’t worry.“Nature，”he said，“will take care of me.”Nature did.In spite of the small amount of sleep he was getting，his health kept up and he was able to work as hard as any of the young lawyers of the New York Bar.He even worked harder，for he worked while they slept！