The Earle Perry Charlton biography, the Charlton Story, is about one of America's greatest entrepreneurs, in the early 1900's. The book chronicles Charlton's life from birth to death, and explains in detail his business relationships and tactics. Overall the main topic of the book was how Charlton amassed an empire out of virtually nothing and how he became one of the five founders of the F.W. Woolworth Company.
[...] It's a very refreshing thing to hear of these days. Earle was a great man and he left an even greater legacy and that can be seen through the way his grandson, Earle (Chuck) Charlton II, is still giving to this day. Earle's Demandments” are an excellent guide to work by. They are good both in life and as a work ethic. I also feel that these demandments are still valid today. For example, don't tell your boss what you want to hear but what he should hear. [...]
[...] Kapstein saved Charlton a lot of time and money, and he solved many problems, that Earle didn't have time to take care of himself. After the merger Kapstein was to work as a buyer for one of the New York stores, but because of “strong anti-Semitism” he wasn't hired for the job. However he did go on to manage one of the biggest stores in the chain, for eight years. That was until the district manager came down to see him and told him that the New York office had said that they didn't want a Jew running such a large store. [...]
[...] What I found surprising about the book when I read it was how determined Earle was at a very young age. He started working around the age of fifteen and kept working his entire life. He had a plan when he was seventeen to start a business of his own and he followed through with that plan when he was twenty-six. During the years prior to his first 5 and 10 all he did was work and save his money. [...]
[...] This first partnership taught Charlton a lot of lessons that he would later on use when he merged with the Woolworth Company. Charlton's partnership taught him how to trust his partner. This is a very important lesson in business. Trust is still a very important aspect in business today, in both large and small businesses. In small businesses the owner needs to trust that if he's not around that his employees will get the job done. In big business, the managers need to be trusted by the district managers and they need to be trusted by the owner. [...]
[...] Earle was the first person to put a 5 and 10 cent store in Canada, and before the merger his determination had drove him to having 53 stores in America and 18 in Canada. He also had stores cost to cost. His type of thinking was very different from his competition because it enabled him to look at the whole picture before he set his plan into motion. He would investigate every detail that was going into his purchase before he would buy the land he needed. [...]
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