After he had said that, I just stood there looking into his eyes for about five seconds, and then said softly and with genuine sincerity, because I meant it. But Mr. S, I'm calling tonight as your friend. Yesterday, he bought a $250,000 endowment policy. Saul Polk is popularly called the Appliance King of Chicago. Starting with nothing, Saul Polk now sells millions of dollars worth of appliances in a year in Metropolitan Chicago. Saul Polk credits a lot of his success to his attitude toward shoppers. Customers, says Mr. Polk, should be treated like they are guests in my home. Isn't that thinking toward people? And isn't it about the simplest success formula one can put to work? Just treat customers like guests in your home. This technique works outside the store, too. Substitute the word employees for customers so that it reads, employees should be treated like guests in my home. Give first-class treatment to your employees, and you get first-class cooperation, first-class output. Think first-class about everyone around you, and you'll receive first-class results in return. One of the reviewers of an early version of this book is a close personal friend who owns his own business management consulting firm. When he read the above illustration, he commented, that's the positive result of liking and respecting people. Let me give you a personal experience of a friend of mine which shows what happens if you don't like and admire people. His experience has a big point. Here it is. My firm obtained a contract to provide consulting services to a relatively small soft-drink bottling concern. The contract was substantial. The client had little formal education. His business was in bad shape, and in recent years he had made some very costly mistakes. Three days after we had got the contract, an associate and I were driving out to his plant, which was about 45 minutes from our offices. To this day I don't know how it started, but somehow we began talking about the negative qualities of our client. Before we realized it, we were talking about how his own stupidity had brought about the mess he was in, instead of discussing how we could best approach solving his problems. I remember one remark I made which I thought particularly clever. The only thing holding up Mr. F is fat. My associate laughed and came up with an equally choice observation.