The Triumph of the Man Who Acts (Annotated) E-Book

Edward Earle Purinton

• Herausgeber: ePembaBooks
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

• This edition includes the following editor's analysis: The current success of self-help books

Originally published in 1916, “The Triumph of the Man Who Acts” is a self-help book by American writer Edward Earle Purinton, the early twentieth century's leading health and efficiency expert, a best-selling author, and advisor to titans of industry.

Do you know what you most want to do and be in the world?
“The Triumph of the Man Who Acts” shows you how to find the answer, act on it, and succeed.
This book will allow you to uncover your greatest self. Discover the transformative wisdom contained within this self-improvement classic. Indeed, this essay collection sold over 700,000 copies within months of its initial release.

Leseprobe

Edward Earle Purinton

The Triumph of the Man Who Acts

Table of contents

The current success of self-help books

THE TRIUMPH OF THE MAN WHO ACTS

Chapter 1. The Triumph Of The Man Who Acts

Chapter 2. Daily Guide To Success

Chapter 3. The Efficient Optimist

Chapter 4. Freedom The Goal Of Life

Chapter 5. How To Succeed

Chapter 6. Unused Powers

Chapter 7. How To Achieve Happiness

Chapter 8. Causes Of Unhappiness

Chapter 9. How To Be Happy

Chapter 10. The Boon Of Concentration

Chapter 11. A Sound Body And The Efficient Life

Chapter 12. Woman’s Work

Chapter 13. Bravery, Breadth, Brotherhood

Chapter 14. Enjoying Ourselves

Chapter 15. A Declaration Of Freedom

Chapter 16. “Thank You, Pain”

Chapter 17. Man And His Community

Chapter 18. The Fine Art Of Giving

Chapter 19. Ought To Versus Want To

Chapter 20. Ways Of Reading Character

Chapter 21. The Future Life

Chapter 22. Efficiency Is Service

Chapter 23. The Man Prepared

Chapter 24. Save Your Nerves

Chapter 25. When Love Comes

Chapter 26. Maxims Of Life

The current success of self-help books

Self-help books are very successful and to check it out you just have to go to the book section of any shopping mall or any bookstore. In these spaces, the section dedicated to non-fiction books is usually full of these self-help books, although it is also true that we usually find tutorials, colouring books for adults or cookbooks mainly.

It is not easy to deduce why self-help books are so successful, but perhaps one of the reasons is that there are self-help books for all kinds of problems and for all audiences. The fact that, in addition, these books are affordable and that they use a simple and very accessible language, makes them a success.

We can find books for all tastes: from books to quit smoking, coaching and self-improvement books, emotional intelligence books, with financial concepts and a long etcetera of topics of all kinds.

If we add to these reasons that self-help books are well regarded and that word of mouth works quite well with them, the result is that many of them become a sales success.

One of the most successful themes of self-improvement books are those that guide to success, both personal and professional. One of the most recognized authors in this field was Edward Earle Purinton, American businessman, naturopath, philosopher and author of one of the best-selling titles "The Triumph of the Man Who Acts."

The Editor, P.C. 2022

THE TRIUMPH OF THE MAN WHO ACTS

Edward Earle Purinton

Chapter 1. The Triumph Of The Man Who Acts

THIS is the day of the man who acts.

The world wants him, well knowing that he is bound to forge ahead and achieve what compels rightful admiration.

We respect a man because he has taken what we had, or acquired what we haven’t. We respect the man who acts because he displays control over crises. This spells opportunity, this makes history, this creates destiny. For to see what should be done — then do it on the instant, caring nothing for appearance, precedent or preachment, is the common mark of the great of all time.

The man who acts possesses courage, promptness, faith, quick-wittedness, farsightedness, a huge will, a holy zeal, and the power to mass his forces on a set point at a set time for a set purpose. Such traits are rare, worth money, and a meed of praise. They command the rewards of the world, they summon the gifts of the gods. If any boon to you be lacking, see why it goes to the man who acts.

Health attends the man who acts, Wisdom guides him, Hope frees him, Joy helps him, Power moves him, Progress marks him, Fame follows him, Wealth rewards him, Love chooses him, Fate obeys him, God blesses him, Immortality crowns him.

Health attends the man who acts. Loss of health is, first, loss of initiative. Disease attacks inert bodies. Germs feed on dead tissue. Every sick man has begun to die; and conversely, no man thoroughly alive can be sick. To be energized from head to foot — body, brain, heart and soul — is to be radio-active and hence immune. Never blame or fear a germ — typhoid, rheumatic, catarrhal or tubercular — blame your own negligence, fear your own ignorance, and make friends with the germs so they will do their work more eagerly. If a householder left a pile of garbage in his dining-room, then were driven to despair by rats and flies, who would pity him? We should say to him, “You are lazy, shameless and reckless — clean up or go to jail!” Yet we pity the invalid — who also has garbage in his dining-room or elsewhere in his body — and we say to him, “The way to be well is to fill, up on more poison from the drug store!” When pills are used for pillars, health is bound to topple.

The finest remedy in the world is for a sick man to realize that he himself must do something. He must eat less and exercise more; learn to breathe to the bottom of his lungs; find what water will do for him inside and out; smash the fripperies and follies of custom and expediency; understand what life means and get a real object for living; cultivate faith.in himself and his fellows; work and play all over; study the birds and the trees and the stars, and be as frank and free as they — in short, get down to first principles, back to Nature, on to Destiny, up to God. Nothing is “incurable” save lack of courage. Many a man doomed to die has outlived his doctor, first by willing to have health, then by working to secure it. For perfect health is only a by-product of efficiency; whoever does things and delights in the doing thereby unconsciously grows deep-chested, lithe-limbed, red-blooded, stout-hearted, clear-eyed, strong-nerved, calm-visaged, clean-souled.

Wisdom guides the man who acts. No book contains wisdom. A book merely echoes what a man learned by doing things. Hence most of our pedagogues are busily engaged telling the young how to follow echoes. The crime in popular education lies in regarding the mind as a memory-box instead of as a motor. The only hopeless fool is a highly educated fool. Many a “fool” who knew nothing but dared all became the world’s idol. You see we begin to have real education only as we long and dare to plan and execute our own adventures in life. What if we err? We have been honest. What if we suffer? We have been bold. What if we come to disaster? We have chosen the path of our heart, and though our possessions vanish, our principles rise immortal.

No man has mounted the first step to achievement who has not learned to make mistakes nobly and retrieve them gracefully. The child walks by trusting his muscles despite his falls. The man wins by trusting his aspirations, desires and hopes despite his failures. Civilization throttles instinct, doubts intuition, denies inspiration, attempting to substitute logic or policy or mob-rule for the deeper, higher, finer voices of the soul. Not by heeding the warnings of timid friends or the mutterings of rabid enemies but by forgetting, and if need be defying, the words and habits of others, choosing to heed the inner voices and follow to the end, do we grow apace in wisdom.

Hope frees the man who acts. The chick is a timorous bird, the eagle a valiant. Why? Because the eagle knows the strength of his wings, by his action he overcomes his fear; whereas the chick, feeling his wings helpless, merely squawks and flutters at the approach of danger. Most men, and the vast majority of women, have had their wings clipped. Freedom in action they know not, hence they fear. What do they fear? Poverty, illness, enmity, old age, solitude, night, sorrow, unpopularity — countless things that lie in the shadows of ignorance and indolence. Fear is but chronic inability to act. And what we fear, we invite. If the business of being a desperado were as moral as it is hygienic, we might all profit by a course in brigandage. No man fears himself; hence the way to rout fear is to be oneself so thoroughly and constantly that no outer shadow may intrude. Fears are the centipedes and lizards of the mind, hopes are the butterflies and larks. Hopes lead when we do as impulse or inspiration prompts; fears haunt as we lie prone. When a man despairs call him a drone. At least that will anger him — and ire gets action!

Joy helps the man who acts. The pessimist is always a theorist — never a practical man. From the nagging housewife, lacking system, love and tact, to the magazine “muckraker,” lacking a job and envious of men with good ones, the preacher of woe is always a person with an unsolved problem. But to the earnest and the energetic, life is a splendid game; and he who knows the game and “plays fair” is always expecting a victory. Men and women need to limber up; they are too dignified, too conventional, too timid, too expressionless, too unreal — and too rheumatic. A little boy in mischief is always contented. We may not like the mischief, but the action of him is ideal, also the courage that defies a rule-of-thumb. And in mature life, the youngest, cheeriest, soundest man is he who always delves in something new. A destiny, like a diamond, is a matter of digging. Happiness lies at the heart of some herculean task. And the mere act of stretching our mental and spiritual muscles creates a physical buoyancy, to thrill and impel and renew us. Woe is merely a blind wish of a weakling. The lion, fettered and bound in his cage, presents a sorry countenance; the lion, speeding from his lair to the open, grapples with his foe and mightily exults in life.

Power moves the man who acts. From the new science of experimental psychology we learn that the average man uses only a small fraction — a third to a tenth — of his inherent brain-power. The rest lies dormant. Why? Because original thought is lacking, and that is the only kind that really builds the cells of the brain. Now original thought and independent action are closely related. All discoveries and inventions, all great commercial undertakings, all humane projects and philanthropic institutions, were the outcome of the brain of a man who had a new idea, recognized its value, became absorbed in it, worked it out for himself, and by proving it challenged the world’s attention. The human brain is an electric battery, Universal Spirit the power house, and personal ambition the set of wires on which the current runs. Seldom is the battery connected aright, with the source of power above, or with the channels of power in human life. Great deeds are the product of great desires. And most human beings are so trivial, so unattractive, so commonplace, because whatever desires they had in childhood have been crushed in the world’s routine of repression, monotony and apathy.

Try this experiment: The next time you feel a conviction, inspiration or desire that seems unusual or even untenable — act on it, fully, promptly and implicitly. If the result seems a mistake, never mind — a new channel of power will have been opened in your brain, and as you grow familiar with this, you will be astonished at the increase in efficiency.

Progress marks the man who acts. One of the popular fallacies of the day is that we can grow healthy, wealthy, happy or great by merely thinking ourselves so. Does an artist need only a frame? The artist of character or achievement may well choose the right frame of mind — but to create the picture, he must toil hard and long. The worst cases of failure, mental, moral and financial, that the writer has ever seen were those of habitual, professional thinkers and dreamers who scorned the busy life of the world, imagining themselves beyond the need of exertion. A definite plan of action, and a determined execution of that plan, must underlie all permanent advancement. History is peace where prophecy was action. The whole aviation art and industry is based on the unremitting efforts of two plain men — the Wright brothers, who kept trying while others merely talked. Schwab, the greatest mechanical genius of the steel trade, liked his work so much that he preferred it to play. Ask any captain of the world’s progress what brought him where he is — he will say, “I did more than was expected of me.”

Fame follows the man who acts. Not that fame is desirable — it is rather most uncomfortable. But to those who have not outgrown the small-boy habit of wanting to carve their names on the scenery, this is an argument for action. Study the names of the famous men of the present time — Edison, Marconi, Roosevelt, Kipling, Burbank. Each of these can do, has done, some one thing better than anybody else. They were not content to be idle while things could be improved. They are great because they kept going in spite of great discouragements. Fame is but the echo of a man’s determination. Only those remain obscure who did not take a strong enough vow.

Wealth rewards the man who acts. The fortunes of the plutocratic families — The Astors, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Cecil Rhodes — were founded on the action of a man who first saw and filled a great public need. Money is the measure of what people want; but they have to be shown before they know what they want. They did not know they wanted the telephone, telegraph, sewing-machine or automobile — until somebody foresaw the demand and prepared to meet it while his neighbors slept. Somewhere, in the acquiring of every great fortune, a man took his future in his hands and stepped off into space. Somewhere, also, he came back to earth so completely that his method, his machinery, his regularity, surpassed that of his rivals no less than his dream outshone theirs. Both in imagination and in execution the builder of riches displays a lordly stride.

Love chooses the man who acts. When woman suffrage has become universal, the science of eugenics a part of the college curriculum, and sex instruction a feature of sound home training, the present standards of marriage will be standards no longer. Then the question will be, not “Is the girl a beauty, a social queen, and a deft caterer to man’s conceit?” but rather “Is the man a worthy specimen, physically, mentally and morally; will he make a true husband and a good father?” The right marriage-dower is not coin for the woman — it is character for the man. So, when women legislate, the dower-customs will be changed. Such a revolution will be hard for the ousted lords of creation to accept. The way to prepare for it is to do things, morally and spiritually, as eagerly and effectively as they have always done with brute strength. For the woman always yields to strength in the man. Even the poet — wan, soft thing — has a power of imagery that the millionaire must acquire if he keeps all of his lady’s heart. The matinee idol and the soldier on parade maintain a semblance of action. This is what endears them to feminine worshipers. Would you win your lady’s adoration? Do something, anything, that no other man she knows could or would do. For every woman’s king must be a conqueror.

Fate obeys the man who acts. Luck is a myth. Chance plays no part in success. Whoever looks on a leader with envy merely looks at him with ignorance. For every man who attains supremacy of any kind has done something to earn it. Paderewski was born musical — yet so were thousands of others. What made Paderewski the world’s greatest pianist was the habit he had of playing a note or phrase until he got it right — often three hundred times at a stretch. Edison was born with a gift for mechanics; but his matchless wizardry is only his capacity for work, he can go for weeks on half the food and sleep that his helpers demand. Beethoven, meeting deafness, went on writing music in his mind. Milton, stricken with blindness, learned to see with his soul. Napoleon, weak and sickly, grew healthy by growing lion-hearted. All these men did things, either using a good heritage or overcoming a poor one, to an extent beyond the zeal or courage of the many. Each act, each word, each thought of our life to-day becomes a mosaic in the mansion of our destiny. Thus we decree our fate to ourselves.

God blesses the man who acts. God is Light and Light is energy. God is Love and Love is power. Thus vitality is the backbone of virtue, and no man can be good who is lazy. The great religious leaders have called themselves most blest of God. And they were all men of action — Luther, Calvin, Savonarola, Spurgeon, Moody, Mott. God even prospers “bad” men who use their brains and bodies to effect. Their sins are punished, but equally their talents are rewarded. Why are the churches losing ground, why are false sects springing up? Because the churches have as a rule wasted their finest energies and opportunities in talking. You can’t build a kingdom by splitting hairs. If clergymen had waked up fifty years ago, as they are now doing in the glorious effort called the Men and Religion Forward Movement, they would not now be apprehensive of Christian Science, New Thought, Mysticism, Socialism, or any other cult that really aims to supply what the church failed to consider. In theology, the doctrines are dying, because bereft of deeds. A zealous Buddhist is a better Christian than a lukewarm Baptist. And there comes a time, in the growth of every soul, when he regards weakness more unpardonable than wickedness. For sin is generally blind, while indifference knows well its own guilt.

Honest effort just that and nothing more, builds our estate in Heaven. So the ignorant, the poor, the afflicted, the oppressed, have a better chance to be exalted hereafter, because they are forced by harsh necessity to exert themselves.

Immortality crowns the man who acts. The royal insignia of Albert of Belgium gave him no crown among the immortals; but the royal stature of his soul, as revealed to the world in his glorious defense of his people under fire, has now been writ in gold for the eyes of generations unborn. When before, in all recorded time, did the world’s geniuses render a fellow-mortal such a tribute as the Book of King Albert? Whether it be Joan of Arc burning on her pyre, or a common soldier bleeding in the trenches, they who risk their lives for the cause they love are illumined by the fame that shall be as light forever. The world is full of heroes, whom perhaps only the angels sing. But of all those whom the world honors finally, each one has taken a superhuman risk, and so achieved a superhuman task. This alone repays for the ills and hurts and heartbreaks of life; and this alone makes one immortal.

Suppose now that a man wished more of the health, wisdom, joy, power and progress of action, how might we suggest that he energize himself for greater efficiency? By starting right now, to put a few simple things into operation, letting their cumulative force renew and reconstruct his life. So our answer would be this:

Stop talking — learn to speak only as you and your friends will somehow profit thereby.

Stop worrying — when you can handle the present as well as God will handle the future, you will laugh at your worries.

Stop wishing — a wish is confession of weakness. Want what you want hard enough to get it, or else feel superior to the need.

Stop criticizing — only an ass wastes energy in braying.

Stop hesitating—it is the plunger who goes to the bottom of things. And whether gold or mud is at the bottom, the man who has found It rests.

Stop imitating — a real ruby is worth more than an artificial diamond.

Stop idling— either work; or play, or sleep, or travel; in short, make even your rest-period a thing of ambition, volition, system.

Stop hurrying — when you teach your brain to outrun your body your body will stay quiet.

Sit up straight, walk with your chest out, look every man in the eye and declare yourself as good as the best. Humility is not hump-shoulderedness.

Go to the open window and take a dozen huge breaths, deeply and slowly, stretching your legs and arms at the same time, and feeling the purified blood leap through your veins and arteries. Do this whenever you have a headache or a grouch.

Read books that build—not the mush in the six “best sellers.” Goethe, Shelley, Browning, Emerson, Whitman, Darwin, Epictetus, Kant — these men produced food for the minds of real men. And of all literature of action, biography is best — you can judge the progress of your neighbor on the achievement-path by the heroes whose lives he studies.

Eliminate idlers from your acquaintance. This includes all who enjoy play more than work.

Lose yourself in your work. Come early and stay late. Use every spare moment in developing methods first to work better and then faster. If there is a man higher up in the same business, devote an evening a week to studying how he got there.

Analyze your average day, and find how many hours a week you waste. Then consider that your time outside of working hours is worth twice as much — because that belongs to you, while the other is only your employer’s. Thus, if you earn ten dollars a day, every hour outside the office routine is worth at least three dollars — too much to squander.

Line your walls with portraits of the world’s conquerors, starting with Napoleon and Lincoln, finishing with the greatest man in your own special field. Traits of character map themselves on the face. The countenance of a winning pioneer is of itself a heaven-born stimulus. Picture yourself in absolute command of the place you aspire to, in permanent possession of the thing you want, with every ambition satisfied and every aspiration met. Failure is a fool’s name for lack of grit; not being a fool, you will not talk of failure.

Face to the front, unceasingly and unqualifiedly. Consider that the past never was, excepting in the lessons it has brought. No man regrets while still he marches on. Attack the hardest job in sight. Do this first. A little reflection will show what it is — probably a slipshod habit or ugly propensity or chronic weakness that needs handling without gloves. The man of might is he who was merciless to himself.

If you have done all these things, and whatever else occurs in the doing, then look for a chance to help somebody who is down, lift a burden that has grown too heavy, whisper a word of love and sympathy to the lonely, the forlorn, the misunderstood. For the sad and poor and helpless can most appreciate, and will most bless, the prompt and generous nature of The Man Who Acts.

Chapter 2. Daily Guide To Success

EVERY human mind is a miniature of Niagara.

The latent power it contains is huge, tireless, resistless.

Most minds, however, merely seethe, froth and rumble — they have not yet been electrified!

When we establish in our mind the electric plant of self-knowledge and self-will, we find we have the power to guide and move great communities, and to increase our value to ourselves a hundredfold. As Niagara is now, so shall we be when we utilize all our mental force.

The business of the writer, during the past twelve years, has been to rouse human minds and bodies into new health by new action under new stimulus. He has trebled his own efficiency, he has seen others treble theirs. The following paragraphs suggest various means whereby average minds have been electrified and made to yield unsuspected energy.

I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MIND-EFFICIENCY

Why do you work at all?

That is the first thing to settle in your mind, before your mind can gain power.

In any field of labor, whether finance or philosophy, music or surgery, mining or aviation, the big men are made big by their motive. And conversely, the small men are kept small by their motive.

The motor of a man is the motive in him. You can draw a toy engine by a string; but there are no strings on the train that makes a mile a minute — this engine carries its own fire. Every inefficient man is being pulled along by some child’s toy string, that has no connection with his mental machinery. But when a man starts to generate his own fire — then look out! An express train is coming.

What string moves you? Is it habit, or fear, or necessity, or greed, or cowardice, or people’s opinion? If any such force keeps you at work, you have never grown up. And you will always be a joke to strong men — as a boy’s play-engine is a joke to people who want to get somewhere.

There are three motives underlying, and impelling, good work

1. The enjoyment of the work itself.

2. Some kind of service rendered by means of it.

3. A great personal ambition ahead of it.

Unless you love your business or profession, or unless because of it you can help some one dear to you, or unless it leads to a splendid future for you — you would better stop here; without a new motive you can never be efficient. But if you want to find a new motive, to energize and speed you on, this book may help you do it.

The only unfortunate thing about work is to regard it unfortunate. If you think it a curse, it will curse you; if you think it a blessing, it will bless you. Therefore—

1. Look at your work as a wonderful opportunity. Measure it not by the pay you get, but by the power you gain. Your employer, whether Fate or a man, gives you two salaries when you wake up; — first the pay-envelope, second a blank cheque on the Bank of Fame for you to make out in the sum you desire. And the cash means less than the collateral. You can tell a big man from a little one by the way they view a dollar-sign ($) ; the big man climbs on the straight part, the little man loafs on the crooked. Until you can see over and beyond the money you get in return for work, you are likely to get no more money, and sure to get no opportunity. I would rather live on $5 a week and have a chore-boy’s job in a place with unlimited advancement a possibility, than take $50 a week in a Government position with my future guaranteed permanent — permanent because dead. Your true income is your outlook.

2. Believe yourself the best man in your line that ever lived. Of course you aren’t — but you may be. And maybees put their honey on the branches of the faith-tree. I do not boast my family tree, because I have an idea that small, fresh apples are better than large, dried ones. If you ever ate dried-apple pie, you know how to feel when a man starts to get proud of his family, his business or his reputation merely because it is established. Nothing stays good unless you try to make it better. And the way to succeed is to regard yourself not an artisan, but an artist! Whether you run a railroad or a typewriter, there is a better way of doing it. The best, of anything, was never yet discovered. Immortality is but an inkling of the best, only by improving everlastingly do we grow immortal. Work is a fascinating game when we treat it as a puzzle whose solution is perfection.

3. But be sure you are in the right work. My college chum is wearing out his life in an insane asylum. He was a born manipulator of men, with a taste for the big game of human seeking. Before he knew himself, he studied medicine and became a doctor. He was never happy, and finally his reason fled. He was meant, not to write prescriptions, but to rule empires! Many a bright youth is maddened by something the size of pills, when he craves the huge risks and rewards of life. A school, a business, or a household, that fails to teach and practice Vocational Training is offering the shell of education without the kernel. There are leaders of wide repute who are now endeavoring to banish the “square pegs” from the “round holes” Consult one of these authorities if you are in doubt as to your choice of vocation.

4. Learn to enjoy your work, whatever it is. When people who don’t like olives eat enough olives, they generally come to like olives. A good way to start liking distasteful work is to make’ yourself “eat it up,” as the slang goes. No man likes his own laziness, and the fellow who dawdles is bound to be disgusted with himself. Hence the grouchiness of the time-server. Good yeast can make any bread light — the shape or color of the pan doesn’t matter. Just so, good ambition can make any work light — the size or complexion of the job doesn’t matter. Nearly every great man has fought his way through a long, painful, ugly, mean period of drudgery. But he had a light in his eye, a fire in his heart, and a force to his “punch,” that made his foes quail and his obstacles vanish. Whatever a man is forced to do against his will contains some great lesson that Providence knows he must learn. When the fault is corrected, the weakness overcome, the impediment in himself removed — lo, the hard and uncongenial task disappears!

5. Find and trust your supreme desire. What do you most want to do and be in the world? Have you thought this out? Do it next Sunday, or some evening this week, or as you ride to and fro in the street-cars. The bird was born to sing, the flower to bloom, the star to shine; the bird sings, the flower blooms, the star shines — and each is healthy, happy, good. Every man was born to do something — some special thing. Doing it, he grows in strength, influence, character. Ignoring or evading it, he dies — in body, mind and soul. What were you born for? What are you aiming for? What would satisfy you? The first essential to efficiency is a fixed goal.

6. Plan your future in detail, then join it to your present. In other words, build an air-castle as lovely as you can, but dig a cellar under it, where to keep a furnace and a sack of potatoes, to warm and feed you while your dream is coming true. The conspicuous failures of the world are of two kinds — the dreamers who have no foothold, and the plodders who have no foresight. Both are inefficient, the one from too much imagination, the other from too little. Imagination must be your architect, but your builder’s name is Common Sense.

Let us illustrate our meaning. Suppose you are a clerk in a great department store. One of a thousand others, you chafe at the long hours, meager pay, harsh treatment and drear monotony. But suppose you are not one of a thousand others — for you have dreamed a dream! You would like to be an artist, a writer, a traveler, a somebody with a larger, freer, nobler calling. And you mourn that such a hope is doomed, where you are? A hope is never doomed until discarded. Wherever you are is the place to start for somewhere higher. Unseen opportunities are lying all around you. Wake up, and get going. You would be an artist? Hoard your pennies, take a night-course in Show Card Writing, ask to letter the placards used daily in the store, think out original designs, be transferred to that department on larger pay, and then climb! You would be a writer? Study advertising, see how to improve your own daily newspaper bulletins, practice writing ads in your spare time, submit them when good enough to your advertising manager, get to be his valued assistant, and cultivate a “style” that will make you a great author if that be your destiny. You would be a traveler? Find how the head buyer got where he is, and emulate him — he enjoys a deal of travel and is well paid besides. You would be an actor or public speaker? Learn how to enunciate better in your “selling talk,” how to choose your words, how to impress customers favorably, how to win their patronage and friendship, how to stick in their memory. You would be a corporation president? Study shorthand and typewriting, be private secretary to a famous man, acquire and ad-minster his methods, then strike out for yourself.

In short, analyze all avenues of approach to achievement, then choose one and enter now. The principle holds, whatever your work may be, that intention makes attention, attention sees and forces opportunities. The urchin lazily paddles a raft across a pond, eating an apple or whistling a tune; — he knows nothing of water as a rapid transit medium. But the Oxford oarsman, trained and stripped and eager, plies the water with a scientific stroke and unswerving aim;— he makes water serve his locomotion better than his own legs would do. It is not the stream of our surroundings that directs our fate, it is our choice of boat, and our way of handling it. Great men see, where small men sigh.

7. Having chosen your path, follow it though the skies fall. You can’t pick daisies and plow for Destiny at the same time. And every man whom Fate rewards, once walked in a furrow. Suppose that every time the sun shone, the farmer said to himself: “Nice day — let’s go fishing!” . . . How fast would he get his ten-acre field sowed in wheat? Most people’s minds are fixed on pleasure — not on progress. Yet all triumph, in the end, is just trudging along. Think of a picnic — and no day is too hot, no basket too heavy, to spoil your fun. Every good plodder has a picnic ahead. And there is no fun like work — when the stakes are high enough to play with a vim! The backbone of Purpose is persistence. To the great opportunity, great obstacles are way-marks; and if we remember this, we shall not faint when we grow tired and discouraged. When a man really starts to get somewhere and do something, everything and everybody seem against him. But it was always so — God had nothing but darkness and dust from which to create orbs of light and worlds of beauty. Neither enmity, sorrow, hunger, pain, poverty, weakness nor misunderstanding can affright you, or move you from your path, while a God-given purpose and strength carries you on. Whether you write an immortal song, or build a new empire of commerce, you will be sustained until the work is done, if that is your work to do.