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46
-Set
'9
September-October, 1949
he cut the price. Finally he was try ing to peddle them at cost, but with no luck.
He ran an ad for lamplighter salesmen, and turned up a bunch of downat'thc'heel characters without two nickels among them to invest in the enterprise.
In desperation, he approached a hardware store. "Let me leave these gadgets here," he propositioned. "Sell them whenever you can, for whatever the traffic will bear. We'll split the profit." Then he walked away, fast.
He never returned to the store, for fear they'd try to give the rods back to him. Even today, he is wary when in Colorado. There are a hundred lamplighters around there some place, and he doesn't want to get involved with them again.
IN spite of that early failure, Tom Grant was born to sell. It was a matter of finding the right product. From the hardware store he went to an insurance agency. He got a contract, and by fall was doing so well he couldn't afford to return to school. In the years since, he has sold either directly or through his agents several billion dollars' worth of accident, health and life insurance. He has organized and operated his own company, and has held the three highest positions in the entire insurance field.
The outstanding feature of Tom Grant's personality is his genuine fondness for people. He is extremely gregarious, and puts off such solitary hobbies as reading until sometime after the rest of the world is down for the night. As long as there are people around, he wants to be with them. He loves to entertain, and in the
eyes of his wife, Tom Grant's greatest fault is his long-established habit of inviting friends or even chance acquaintances home to dinner on the spur of the moment. "Come on out to the house and bring the family," is his favorite line. Mrs. Grant sometimes doesn't learn of the invitation until the guests arrive. So for her, the keeping of a well-stocked larder is almost a full-time job.
Occasionally, the Grants do run out of food. There was one evening, for instance, when so many last-minute guests arrived for dinner that Tom had to go out foraging. All stores were closed, and he ended up at his country club, paying the steward a fancy price for several chickens and additional supplies of other items.
W. T. Grant was born in Middleport, Ohio, a small town on the Ohio River which takes its name from the fact that it is halfway between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. While Tom was still a baby, his family moved to Ellinwood, Kansas; so at an early age he fell heir to the chore of milking 2? cows, morning and night.
Tom didn't think much of that assignment, but he was 19 before he could slide out from under it. Then, with a high school diploma and a clean white shirt, he went to work in the town bank for five dollars a week.
In time, young Grant learned he could augment his income by selling accident insurance on the side. That was an important discovery because a bad wheat year wiped out his raison d'etre at the bank.
Looking back. Grant thinks the loss of his bank job was one of the most fortunate things that ever happened to