Basic HTML Version
"The WORLD TOMORROW"
A WORLDWIDE BROADCAST
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
Proclaims to the World the
GOOD NEWS OF THE WORLD TOMORROW
BOX 111, Pasadena, California
Publishing:
The PLAIN TRUTH
a Magazine of UNDERSTANDING
November 28, 1956
Dear Co-Workers with Christ:
This is my annual letter sent to all our new listeners and
readers of the PLAIN TRUTH. Even though you may have received a
similar letter a year ago, I thought you also might like to have
this one.
Hundreds continually write in asking "WHAT DENOMINATION do
you represent?" Or "who sponsors and pays for your broadcasting,
magazines and booklets?" Or "For what reason do you offer these
FREE---WHY don't you ever ask for money?"
And so as briefly as possible I try at least once a year to
give all our interested listeners and PLAIN TRUTH readers the frank
and straightforward answer. You have a right to know all about me
and this work of God.
Getting into the ministry was the very last thing I wanted
to do. I tried to go the other way but God changed my course. Let
me briefly skim thru the strange and most unusual experience from
the beginning.
Until age 16 I drifted, with no special goal or incentive,
a follower instead of a leader among boys, with mediocre grades in
school. Then I got a summer vacation job in another town---my
first time away from home. My employer expressed great confidence
in me---told me I would have a very successful future. This had an
electrifying effect. It aroused ambition stimulated incentive.
Now, in addition to school studies I began to frequent the
technical, philosophy, and thought-provoking sections of the public
library. I began to "burn the midnight oil." I was fired with
initiative and dynamic zeal.
At age 18 a thorough course of self-analysis with a book
titled "Choosing a Vocation" pointed me to the publishing field of
newspapers and magazines, specializing in the advertising end.
Immediately I went to the leading advertising man of my state, who
happened to be my uncle. He advised me to start out by devoting
one year to soliciting and learning to write want-ads on a daily
newspaper. I succeeded in convincing the manager of the want-ad
department of a daily paper that he ought to hire me---at $6 per
week!
I was a hustler by day, a student by night. The salary
soon was raised to $8. The opposition newspaper was losing
business and traced the cause to my competition. They offered me
$10 a week to come with them. But my uncle advised me to learn the
important lesson to STICK WITH A THING at a cost of $2 a week. It
proved a good investment in later life. This "kindergarten" year