Promotion comes to him who sticks
Unto his work and never kicks,
Who watches neither clock nor sun
To tell him when his task is done;
Who toils not by a stated chart,
Defining to a jot his part,
But gladly does a little more
Than he’s remunerated for.
The man, in factory or shop,
Who rises quickly to the top,
Is he who gives what can’t be bought:
Intelligent and careful thought.
No one can say just when begins
The service that promotion wins,
Or when it ends; ’tis not denned
By certain hours or any kind
Of system that has been devised;
Merit cannot be systemized.
It is at work when it’s at play;
It serves each minute of the day;
‘Tis always at its post, to see
New ways of help and use to be.
Merit from duty never slinks,
Its cardinal virtue is — it thinks!
Promotion comes to him who tries
Not solely for a selfish prize,
But day by day and year by year
Holds his employer’s interests dear.
Who measures not by what he earns
The sum of labor he returns,
Nor counts his day of toiling through
Till he’s done all that he can do.
His strength is not of muscle bred,
But of the heart and of the head.
The man who would the top attain
Must demonstrate .he has a brain.
