THUMB-NAIL SKETCHES of GREAT LIVES

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 5, 26 June 1930, Page 11

THUMB-NAIL SKETCHES of GREAT LIVES

KING C. GILLETTE

"¥?Iio is the. most remarkable salesman you have ever.known?" asked a friend in Birmingham. Thia is not an easy question, but after '!. moment's thought' I replie:l:— "GiiH^tto, the inventor of the wafer,t bludo :'azor." \ in I'iy opinion, he was the most remarkabk* because he was a saleman, an* inv«nfor,au idealist,'a manufacturer and a financier. fie made money happily, no doubt About that. He made a suciVss in five entirely different linos—wlio eJse has dono tifca't ? rYw people know the extraordinary, story of Gillette. He lived in Londonrhiring 1904, when he was selling "Crown Seal" .corks, but at that time his .raaor was a failure and quite unknown. His photograph is in every town in the world, almost- in every street, as it is on every razor blade. In the- last 1.7 years he has built up a company that is Worth. £6,000,000; with net profits of £1,500,000 a year. He has three factories—in England, . Canada and the States. He created an ■entire^* new typo of "razor, and he has sol-d Hto millions of .■men at a good price. Ho j.s <tiU alive and full of new ideals. His J&'i^st 'hobby is the Hera ear—a now kind bf motor cycle. He is (5S years old and, a citizen of tli-o world. Ho has lived in London, I >aris, Florida and New Yoi'k. At presort';s»<j is in California. -(xi'lil'otfr.e Js full name is King Camp Gillette. He was born iii a small town in tbo forests of Wineonsin. His father was a struggling business man, sometimes wp and sometimes down. When young GiHette^ was 17, his father lost 'everything by a 4re, and the «Tad had to make his awn living. At 21 the was a saleman. He, was a visionary man and fond of new idea*. I kn<3rw-'him in 1894. He eaanc to a series of lectures I was giving, and «tftenwards he sent, me a copy of a book ho fold written. He had written this book about a new type of house that foe »iad invented—a huge structure in the shape of a .iinie, large enough to contain several JJjJbßdTed families. . Ho and I, both in those days were trying to iind a way to abolish slums. We believed that the supreme crime of the world was to allow children to be born in the midst of filth and squalor. Gillotte 'a father was an inventor; of a sort; and in -his spare moments, G'iiJfttte was always inventing things. He alrwaya tad the idea-'that some day lie ■wouild invent something wonderful and make his fortune by it. % At 36 he mot a rich inventor— "Wniiam Painter, who had originated the *' Crown Seal" metal cork^. whicli is norer usied on beer and mineral water bottles. One day, Painter said to GiMette— "WDby don't you invent, something that makes a. man keep on buying from you as long as he lives No use selling just owe thing to a man. Sell him something thut he. uses and throws away. This .suggestion was the originating cause of the Gillette razor. Gillette thought aibout it toy T,TeeksT-^how. to invent, a, perishable neoessityv Then, one morning, he was shaving himself. The razor was dull- His beard was stiff. Be was scraping painfully anray at fads face, when, in a fla&h, he thought—why not invent a better kind of razor? : Why not invent one wi°h a removaTile edge? Ho put down his razor amd, with lather on 'his face, began to sketch out tihe design of a new razor, which would consist of a blade and a blade-eontain-er.

In half an hour he had made his plan. Then 3io finished scraping iris face and roshed out to an ironmonger's to buy VrQme steel tape and a file.

He made his first, razor and had it patented. That was in 1895. He was 40 years old before his great success began.

At first, his razor was a failure. It was a joke, for nine years.. His friends and he always -had plenty of them, Chaffed him unmercifully about his froak razor. : . .

Oikile-tte and his silly razor were "laughed at for nine years—that- is th-e point to rcmemiber. Every capitalist -who anet Gillette during those nine years

"might have had sonic of the Gillette shares for a song. In 1901, Gillette-, found a master mechanic-—W. E. Nickerson. He was a man of unusual skill. He perfected the razor, and a company was formed. He gave one to a business man named John Joyce. Joyce shaved with it. He •liked it. He agreed to buy £12,00 worth of shares. The littl-o razor company then began to soil a few razors, but Gillette -had to support 'hdinsel'f and his family by selling steel corks in England and the States. . ■ In 1904, the right advertising man came on the scene. Whom he was, I do not know; but he was the last link in the chain of success. • Tihe razors began to soil. Money fell on Gillette in thousands'. His old employer, in the steel cork biisiness, bought £8,000 of shares and has been glad of it ever since. ■Gil'Tette. was wise enough to keep a large number of shares for himself. So, at 49 years of age, Gillette had made •his dream come true. . : . He "had invented a perishable necessity. He had "invented something which compelled buyers to become permanent customers. " -Frame first to last, please, notice, Gillette 's success was a matter of ideas. He Jirst got an idea and then he put his will behind it. Ho was a failure at 49, you migiht say; but he 'has had money and fairoe for 18 years. -' , King C. Gillette put ideas first, arid he always had large ideas. He created a new idea. He shaped the idea into, a "fact;- and thence sold this fact to tie clean-shaven men of .the civilised world.. That is why I call him the greatest sa;lcman I have ever known.