Bertie Charles Forbes (1880–1954) was a Scottish-born American financial journalist and editor. Forbes was the founder of the Forbes business magazine and publishing empire.
Born a poor country boy near Aberdeen in Scotland, Forbes started work as a printer’s apprentice at age 14. He soon became a financial journalist in England, and progressively graduated into the roles of reporter, editor, and publisher first in South Africa and then in New York. In 1916, he successfully started the Forbes magazine at age 36 and became famous for writing profiles of business leaders. By 1946, Forbes reached a circulation of 100,000 and was popular not only for its analyses of business and economic trends but also for Forbes’s style of business journalism.
Forbes wrote several books, including Finance, Business and the Business of Life (1915,) Men Who Are Making America (1917,) Forbes Epigrams (1922,) and 101 Unusual Experiences (1952.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by B. C. Forbes
We are told we should always speak well of the dead. But wouldn’t that sometimes be hypocrisy? The writer did not hesitate to criticize (American Woolen Co. head) William M. Wood during his life and now feels that his tragic death, by suicide, contains a lesson for at least a few of America’s large employers. When infirmity overtook him, he (attempted) works of repentance, but it was too late…. The writer knows that too many men of vast affairs are blind to the realities, the worthwhile things of life, and do not acquire a correct perspective until they feel themselves slipping toward the grave.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Criticism
Every time I see an Erie Railroad engine bearing the name of its faithful driver a thrill goes through me, for I know that the man guiding it has won this rare honor by many years of the most loyal and efficient service. Who will argue that only public men and corporation heads are entitled to have their names emblazoned on the scroll of honor? All workmen care about is money, you say? Wrong. Workers are made of exactly the same stuff as generals or senators or presidents or governors or industrial leaders. It is just as fitting to honor the worthiest of our wage earners as it is to honor others.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Pride
Henry Ford has several times sneered at unproductive stockholders…. Well, now. Let’s see. Who made Henry Ford’s own automobile company possible? The stockholders who originally advanced money to him. Who makes it possible for you and me to be carried to and from business by train or street car? Stockholders…. Who made our vast telephone and telegraph service possible? Stockholders…. Were stockholders all over the country to withdraw their capital from the enterprises in which they are invested, there would be a panic … on a scale never before known.
—B. C. Forbes
Is America becoming decadent? Do we no longer regard our promises and pledges as sacred? … We promised to make peace with Germany only in conjunction with the Allies; but we brought forward a separate peace, demanding for ourselves all the advantages of the Treaty of Versailles but rejecting all the responsibilities embodied in the Treaty. It was America’s President who induced Europe to form a League of Nations; and then America was the first country that refused to joint it…. If these are not the symptoms of national decadency, what are they?
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: America
What one thing does the world need most today-apart, that is, from the all-inclusive thing we call righteousness? Aren’t you inclined to agree that what this old world needs is just the art of being kind? Every time I visit a factory or any other large business concern, I find myself trying to diagnose whether the atmosphere is one of kindliness or the reverse. And somehow, if there is palpably lacking that spirit of kindness, the owners … have fallen short of achieving 24-carat success no matter how imposing the financial balance sheet may be.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Kindness
Genius is often a short way of spelling hard work. Poverty, obscurity, struggle and ambition formed the foundation for many careers of transcendent achievement. Few marks are made in the world’s history by eight-hour-day men…. Sir Joshua Reynolds had but one maxim for success: Work, work, work. Is not rigid and continuous training necessary for the making of strong athletes? Hard work is not fatal to real success. Vouloir c’est pouvoir.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Work
The human being who lives only for himself finally reaps nothing but unhappiness. Selfishness corrodes. Unselfishness ennobles, satisfies. Don’t put off the joy derivable from doing helpful, kindly things for others.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Service, Kindness, Selfishness, Giving
That which is useless dies. Animals that fail to serve some useful purpose in the scheme of things slowly but surely become extinct. Let any part of the human body cease to perform its ordained function, and it withers-as when an arm is long kept in a sling. This same decree, that nothing useless is permitted to survive, runs through the industrial world…. Let any concern cease to render useful service, and in time it shrivels. True, certain individuals, firms … may for a time appear immune. But sooner or later they pay the penalty.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Life
A business like an automobile, has to be driven, in order to get results
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Business
Employers, have you ever stopped to reckon what the goodwill of your workers is worth? … In most large concerns it would be worth more in dollars and cents to have the goodwill of the working force than of those on the outside. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the average working force is capable of increasing its production 25% or more whenever the workers fell so inclined. Workers animated by ill will cannot possibly give results equal to those of workers animated by goodwill. The tragic fact appears to be that a tremendous number of working forces are not so animated. … .
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Goodwill
How you start is important, very important, but in the end it is how you finish that counts. It is easier to be a self-starter than a self-finisher. The victor in the race is not the one who dashes off swiftest but the one who leads at the finish. In the race for success, speed is less important than stamina. The sticker outlasts the sprinter in life’s race. In America we breed many hares but not so many tortoises.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Perseverance
A big league baseball manager declares that he would have the public feel extremely doubtful early in the season regarding the chances of his team to win the championship. Cocksureness, he implies, could not fail to have a bad effect upon his players, whereas public skepticism acted upon them as a challenge. There is wisdom in this for business concerns. The man who is smugly confident that he has arrived is ripe for the return trip. A measure of self-confidence is an asset when you are battling your way to the top. But cocksureness is not an asset but a liability. It tends to dull the edge of effort. Also, it breeds arrogance that is distasteful.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Beliefs
Uncertainty hurts business. It annoys individuals. Why keep the whole country, including business and individuals, in uncertainty over the extent of the tax burdens to be placed upon us? How many of those who voted for Calvin Coolidge imagined for a moment that would do nothing to bring about tax relief before 1926? … But if the Administration persists in opposing a special session then it will inevitably be 1926 before action is taken…. Coolidge and Congress should ease our minds and grease our activities by reforming and reducing taxation as soon as feasible after March 4.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Doubt
Tell me how a young man spends his evenings and I will tell you how far he is likely to go in the world. The popular notion is that a youth’s progress depends upon how he acts during his working hours. It doesn’t. It depends far more upon how he utilizes his leisure…. If he spends it in harmless idleness, he is likely to be kept on the payroll, but that will be about all. If he diligently utilizes his own time … to fit himself for more responsible duties, then the greater responsibilities-and greater rewards-are almost certain to come to him.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Youth
Ugliness, squalor are breeding grounds for revolution. Beauty is conducive to tranquility, happiness. Beautifying of homes and places of worship began with the dawn of civilization. Beautifying of workplaces is only in its infancy. Yet, since men normally spend more than half of their waking hours at work, surely it is important that adequate attention be devoted to elevating their working environment, whether office or factory, foundry or machine shop, mine or warehouse. Beautiful surroundings subtly encourage beautiful living. Drab surroundings, bad air, bad light, evoke bad reactions.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Work
Search and you will find that at the base and birth of every great business organization was an enthusiast, a man consumed with earnestness of purpose, with confidence in his powers, with faith in the worthwhileness of his endeavors.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Confidence, Assurance
Our future and our fate lie in our wills more than in our hands, for our hands are but the instruments of our wills.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Dedication, Willpower, Commitment
We must learn that to enjoy happiness we must conscientiously and continuously seek to spread happiness. Selfishness is suicidal to happiness.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Happiness
Are you doing the kind of work you were built for, so that you can expect to be able to do very large amounts of that kind and thrive under it? Or are you doing a kind of which you can do comparatively little?
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Abilities, Work, Talents
Life is just an endless chain of judgements…. The more imperfect our judgement, the less perfect our success.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Decisions
A magazine editor recently asked me to sit down on my 40th birthday and write an article on the most important things I had learned in my first 40 years. I told him that the chief thing I had learned was that the copybook maxims are true, but that too many people forget this once they go out into the heat and hustle and bustle of the battle of life and only realize their truth once one foot is beginning to slip into the grave. The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Integrity, Conscience
Golf is an ideal diversion, but a ruinous disease
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Golf
It is when things go hardest, when life becomes most trying, that there is greatest need for having a fixed goal. When few comforts come from without, it is all the more necessary to have a fount to draw from within.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Goals, Aspirations
Many men who do creditable things refuse to let it be known. This is a mistake. While we all admire modesty, nevertheless there is a great national need to do everything possible to bring home to the rank and file of the people that all employers and all wealthy men are not grinding, mercenary, selfish skinflints, but that many of them take delight in doing helpful things for others … Shortcomings of employers are constantly paraded. Why not let the public become acquainted with the better side which most present-day employers possess?
—B. C. Forbes
The fittest, not the richest, make the most enviable mark. Pampered sons of plutocrats may shine for a time in society, but not in the world of affairs and of service unless they rip off their coats and get to work early and stay late. To be born with a golden spoon in the mouth is more of a handicap than a help in attaining worthwhile success in this age.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Success
Opportunity can benefit no man who has not fitted himself to seize it and use it. Opportunity woos the worthy, shuns the unworthy. Prepare yourself to grasp opportunity and opportunity is likely to come your way. It is not so fickle, capricious and unreasoning as some complain.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Opportunity
Don’t you feel disgusted when you see some fellow strutting along with the air of a peacock? Doesn’t the pompous gentleman cause you to laugh-or swear? Isn’t vanity the essence of childishness? I have been trying to analyze in my own mind whether more or fewer of our so-called big men are obsessed with pride today than 20 years ago. I believe that more of our leaders are now democratic, approachable, likeable fellows than was the case in the earlier years of this century…. The press and the people have abundantly brought it home to the rich that their riches do not entitle them to any special deference or homage. … .
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Vanity
Now, ideas are the raw material of progress. Everything first takes shape in the form of an idea. But an idea by itself is worth nothing. An idea, like a machine, must have power applied to it before it can accomplish anything. The men who have won fame and fortune through having an idea are those who devoted every ounce of their strength and every dollar they could muster to putting it into operation. Ford had a big idea, but he had to sweat and suffer and sacrifice in order to make it work.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Ideas
Do too many executives still indulge in the short-sighted habit of issuing orders without taking the slightest pains to explain to those responsible for carrying them out the whyfor and wherefor of the orders? Where employees come in daily and hourly contact with the public, surely it is important that care be taken to fit them to reply intelligently to courteous questions. “Because them are orders” isn’t a satisfying reply-even less satisfactory to the management than to the public.
—B. C. Forbes
Talking things over has its place in an organization (but) so-called conferences are being grossly overdone. One executive stops at the desk of another to tell him, perhaps, about the wonderful score he made at golf on Saturday afternoon. This chin-chin immediately becomes a conference, and neither the office boy nor the telephone operator must disturb either gentleman. More idle gossip is indulged in at many business conferences these days than an old wives’ sewing circle would be guilty of.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Gossip
We sometimes receive letters from businessmen who say they are too busy to read. The man who is too busy to read is never likely to lead. The executive who aspires to success must keep himself well informed. His reading must not be confined to the reports of his own business laid on his desk, or to strictly trade journals, or to newspaper headlines. He must study what is going on throughout his own country and throughout the world. He must not remain blind to financial, industrial, economic trends, evolutions, revolutions.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Reading
The way to make a true friend is to be one Friendship implies loyalty, esteem, cordiality, sympathy, affection, readiness to aid, to help, to stick, to fight for, if need be. The real friend is he or she who can share all our sorrows and double our joys Radiate friendship and it will return sevenfold.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Friendship
It is easier to start taxes than to stop them. A tax an inch long can easily become a yard long. That has been the history of the income tax. Would not the sales tax be likely to have a similar history (in the U.S.)? … Canadian newspapers report that an increase in the sales tax threatens to drive the Mackenzie King administration out of office. Canada began with a sales tax of 2%…. Starting this month the tax is 6%. The burden, in other words, has already been increased 200% … What the U.S. needs is not new taxes, is not more taxes, but fewer and lower taxes.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Taxes
White-heat enthusiasm melts many a cold prospect.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Passion
What you have outside you counts less than what you have inside you.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Bravery, Self-Discovery, Courage
Money, or even power, can never yield happiness unless it be accompanied by the goodwill of others.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Success, Money, Happiness
If a pig could pray, it would pray for swill. What do you pray for?
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Prayer
If you were to visit a certain rural section of Vermont, you would be shown two farms only a few miles apart, and you would be told that a lad raised on one of the farms today occupies the most responsible position in the whole world, the Presidency of the United States. From the other farm, you would be told, there went forth another lad who is today the head of one of the leading railroads in the U.S…. Whenever I hear wild denunciations of this country and its institutions I cannot but feel that … no other country on earth offers such advantages and opportunities for children born in humble circumstances.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Opportunities
If the World War (I) demonstrated anything it was that government ownership is fraught with the gravest dangers and usually leads to disaster. Take Britain. The two problems which have caused the greatest trouble since the war ended have been transportation and coal. The government seized both industries when the war broke out. It got them into such a hopeless mess that it does not know how to turn (In) coal; the government now realizes, it took hold of the tail of a wild animal and is afraid to let go.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Government
You have no idea how big the other fellow’s troubles are.
—B. C. Forbes
Topics: Opportunities, Reality
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