I once asked Waite Phillips，one of Oklahoma’s most prominent oil men，how he carried out decisions.He replied：“I find that to keep thinking about our problems beyond a certain point is bound to create confusion and worry.There comes a time when any more investigation and thinking are harmful.There comes a time when we must decide and act and never look back.”
Why don’t you employ Galen Litchfield’s technique to one ofyour worries right now？
Here is：
Question No.1—What am I worrying about？（Please pencil the answer to that question in the space below.）Question No.2—What can I do about it？（Please write your answer to that question in the space below.）Question No.3—Here is what I am going to do about it.
Question No.4—When am I going to start doing it？
Chapter 35
How to Eliminate Fifty Percent of Your Business Worries
IF you are a business man，you are probably saying to yourself right now：“The title of this chapter is ridiculous.I have been running my business for nineteen years；and I certainly know the answers if anybody does.The idea of anybody trying to tell me how I can eliminate fifty per cent of my business worries—it’s absurd！”
Fair enough—I would have felt exactly the same way myself a few years ago if I had seen this title on a chapter.It promises a lot—and promises are cheap.
Let’s be very frank about it：maybe I won’t be able to help you eliminate fifty per cent of your business worries.In the last analysis，no one can do that，except yourself.But what I can do is to show you how other people have done it—and leave the rest to you！
You may recall that I quoted the world-famous Dr.Alexis Carrel as saying：“Business men who do not know how to fight worry die young.”
Since worry is that serious，wouldn’t you be satisfied if I could help you eliminate even ten percent of your worries？...Yes？...Good！Well，I am going to show you how one business executive eliminated not fifty percent of his worries，but seventy-five percent of all the time he formerly spent in conferences，trying to solve business problems.
Furthermore，I am not going to tell you this story about a “Mr.Jones”or a “Mr.X”or “or a man I know in Ohio”—vague storiesthat you can’t check up on.It concerns a very real person-Leon Shimkin，a partner and general manager of one of the foremost publishing houses in the United States：Simon and Schuster，Rockefeller Centre，New York 20，New York.Here is Leon Shimkin’s experience in his own words：
For fifteen years I spent almost half of every business day holding conferences，discussing problems.Should we do this or that—do nothing at all？We would get tense；twist in our chairs；walk the floor；argue and go around in circles.When night came，I would be utterly exhausted.I fully expected to go on doing this sort of thing for the rest of my life.I had been doing it for fifteen years，and it never occurred to me that there was a better way of doing it.If anyone had told me that I could eliminate three-fourths of all the time I spent in those worried conferences，and three-fourths of my nervous strain—I would have thought he was a wild-eyed，slap-happy，armchair optimist.Yet I devised a plan that did just that.I have been using this plan for eight years.It has performed wonders for my efficiency，my health，and my happiness.
It sounds like magic—but like all magic tricks，it is extremely simple when you see how it is done.
Here is the secret：First，I immediately stopped the procedure I had been using in my conferences for fifteen years—a procedure that began with my troubled associates reciting all the details of what had gone wrong，and ending up by asking：‘What shall we do？’Second，I made a new rule—a rule that everyone who wishes to present a problem to me must first prepare and submit a memorandum answering these four questions：
Question 1：What is the problem？
（“In the old days we used to spend an hour or two in a worried conference without anyone’s knowing specifically and concretely what the real problem was.We used to work ourselves into alather discussing our troubles without ever troubling to write outspecifically what our problem was.）