Chapter I: Foreword

This revised and greatly enlarged edition of "Pushing to the Front" is the outgrowth of an almost world-wide demand for an extension of the idea which made the original small volume such an ambition-arousing, energizing, inspiring force.

It is doubtful whether any other book, outside of the Bible, has been the turning-point in more lives.

It has sent thousands of youths, with renewed determination, back to school or college, back to all sorts of vocations which they had abandoned in moments of discouragement. It has kept scores of business men from failure after they had given up all hope.

It has helped multitudes of poor boys and girls to pay their way through college who had never thought a liberal education possible.

The author has received thousands of letters from people in nearly all parts of the world telling how the book has aroused their ambition, changed their ideals and aims, and has spurred them to the successful undertaking of what they before had thought impossible.

The book has been translated into many foreign languages. In Japan and several other countries it is used extensively in the public schools. Distinguished educators in many parts of the world have recommended its use in schools as a civilization-builder.

Crowned heads, presidents of republics, distinguished members of the British and other parliaments, members of the United States Supreme Court, noted authors, scholars, and eminent people in many parts of the world, have eulogized this book and have thanked the author for giving it to the world.

This volume is full of the most fascinating romances of achievement under difficulties, of obscure beginnings and triumphant endings, of stirring stories of struggles and triumphs. It gives inspiring stories of men and women who have brought great things to pass. It gives numerous examples of the triumph of mediocrity, showing how those of ordinary ability have succeeded by the use of ordinary means. It shows how invalids and cripples even have triumphed by perseverance and will over seemingly insuperable difficulties.

The book tells how men and women have seized common occasions and made them great; it tells of those of average ability who have succeeded by the use of ordinary means, by dint of indomitable will and inflexible purpose. It tells how poverty and hardship have rocked the cradle of the giants of the race. The book points out that most people do not utilize a large part of their effort because their mental attitude does not correspond with their endeavor, so that although working for one thing, they are really expecting something else; and it is what we expect that we tend to get.

No man can become prosperous while he really expects or half expects to remain poor, for holding the poverty thought, keeping in touch with poverty-producing conditions, discourages prosperity.

Before a man can lift himself he must lift his thoughts. When we shall have learned to master our thought habits, to keep our minds open to the great divine inflow of life force, we shall have learned the truths of human endowment, human possibility.

The book points out the fact that what is called success may be failure; that when men love money so much that they sacrifice their friendships, their families, their home life, sacrifice position, honor, health, everything for the dollar, their life is a failure, although they may have accumulated money. It shows how men have become rich at the price of their ideals, their character, at the cost of everything noblest, best, and truest in life. It preaches the larger doctrine of equality; the equality of will and purpose which paves a clear path even to the Presidential chair for a Lincoln or a Garfield, for any one who will pay the price of study and struggle. Men who feel themselves badly handicapped, crippled by their lack of early education, will find in these pages great encouragement to broaden their horizon, and will get a practical, helpful, sensible education in their odd moments and half-holidays.

Dr. Marden, in "Pushing to the Front," shows that the average of the leaders are not above the average of ability. They are ordinary people, but of extraordinary persistence and perseverance. It is a storehouse of noble incentive, a treasury of precious sayings. There is inspiration and encouragement and helpfulness on every page. It teaches the doctrine that no limits can be placed on one's career if he has once learned the alphabet and has push; that there are no barriers that can say to aspiring talent, "Thus far, and no farther." Encouragement is its keynote; it aims to arouse to honorable exertion those who are drifting without aim, to awaken dormant ambitions in those who have grown discouraged in the struggle for success.

THE PUBLISHERS.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. THE MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITY
II. WANTED--A MAN
III. BOYS WITH NO CHANCE
IV. THE COUNTRY BOY
V. OPPORTUNITIES WHERE YOU ARE
VI. POSSIBILITIES IN SPARE MOMENTS
VII. HOW POOR BOYS AND GIRLS GO TO COLLEGE
VIII. YOUR OPPORTUNITY CONFRONTS YOU--WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH IT?
IX. ROUND BOYS IN SQUARE HOLES
X. WHAT CAREER?
XI. CHOOSING A VOCATION
XII. CONCENTRATED ENERGY
XIII. THE TRIUMPHS OF ENTHUSIASM
XIV. "ON TIME," OR, THE TRIUMPH OF PROMPTNESS
XV. WHAT A GOOD APPEARANCE WILL DO
XVI. PERSONALITY AS A SUCCESS ASSET
XVII. If YOU CAN TALK WELL
XVIII. A FORTUNE IN GOOD MANNERS
XIX. SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND TIMIDITY FOES TO SUCCESS
XX. TACT OR COMMON SENSE
XXI. ENAMORED OF ACCURACY
XXII. DO IT TO A FINISH
XXIII. THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE
XXIV. NERVE--GRIP, PLUCK
XXV. CLEAR GRIT
XXVI. SUCCESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES
XXVII. USES OF OBSTACLES
XXVIII. DECISION
XXIX. OBSERVATION AS A SUCCESS FACTOR
XXX. SELF-HELP
XXXI. THE SELF-IMPROVEMENT HABIT
XXXII. RAISING OF VALUES
XXXIII. PUBLIC SPEAKING
XXXIV. THE TRIUMPHS OF THE COMMON VIRTUES
XXXV. GETTING AROUSED
XXXVI. THE MAN WITH AN IDEA
XXXVII. DARE
XXXVIII. THE WILL AND THE WAY
XXXIX. ONE UNWAVERING AIM
XL. WORK AND WAIT
XLI. THE MIGHT OF LITTLE THINGS
XLII. THE SALARY YOU DO NOT FIND IN YOUR PAY ENVELOPE
XLIII. EXPECT GREAT THINGS OF YOURSELF
XLIV. THE NEXT TIME YOU THINK YOU ARE A FAILURE
XLV. STAND FOR SOMETHING
XLVI. NATURE'S LITTLE BILL
XLVII. HABIT--THE SERVANT,--THE MASTER
XLVIII. THE CIGARETTE
XLIX. THE POWER OF PURITY
L. THE HABIT OF HAPPINESS
LI. PUT BEAUTY INTO YOUR LIFE
LII. EDUCATION BY ABSORPTION
LIII. THE POWER OF SUGGESTION
LIV. THE CURSE OF WORRY
LV. TAKE A PLEASANT THOUGHT TO BED WITH YOU
LVI. THE CONQUEST OF POVERTY
LVII. A NEW WAY OF BRINGING UP CHILDREN
LVIII. THE HOME AS A SCHOOL OF GOOD MANNERS
LIX. MOTHER
LX. WHY SO MANY MARRIED WOMEN DETERIORATE
LXI. THRIFT
LXII. A COLLEGE EDUCATION AT HOME
LXIII. DISCRIMINATION IN READING
LXIV. READING A SPUR TO AMBITION
LXV. WHY SOME SUCCEED AND OTHERS FAIL
LXVI. RICH WITHOUT MONEY

ILLUSTRATIONS

Orison Swett Marden . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_

House in which Abraham Lincoln was born

Ulysses S. Grant

William Ewart Gladstone

John Wanamaker

Jane Addams

Thomas Alva Edison

Henry Ward Beecher

Lincoln studying by the firelight

Marshall Field

Joseph Jefferson [Transcriber's note: Jefferson was a prominent actor during the latter half of the 1800's.]

Theodore Roosevelt

Helen Keller

William McKinley

Julia Ward Howe

Mark Twain

PUSHING TO THE FRONT