Written by a retired Reader in English, Shyamlal College, Delhi, this book on the great American thinker and humanist, Orisson Swett Marden is about a boy who was only three-years old when his mother died and only seven, when his father passed away. This orphan began by grazing cows and sheep for a farmer, before running away and joining a sawmill. The turning point in his life came when he ran into Samuel Smile'sself-help book and decided to join a boarding school, where he waited upon students and washed dishes in the kitchen. At the age of 17, he worked his way through Boston and Harvard universities to complete his doctorate in medicine. He entered the hotel business and when his hotel was burnt down in 1894, he wrote a book, Pushing to the Front to convey the message that ?the world makes way for a determined man.? He strongly believed that man could attain his highest ambition through indomitable will and persistent effort. Subsequently, he wrote a number of self-help books to show that success in life is not associated with mere money-making; it means ?the unfolding, the flowering and fruitage of the finest and noblest qualities in human nature.?
In 1905, at the age of 55, he married a 22-year old girl whom he simply adored. She bore him three children. He wrote a letter to his youngest son, ?Remember, my son, there is no real satisfaction in wrongdoing; there is nothing in it compared with the pain, the regret, the sting of the bitter memory of it all. Doing right is the only thing that will give you satisfaction?living rightly, telling the truth, always being square, straight and clean.? At the age of 74, he passed away.
Now that I have given his life in brief, let us come to his ideas; some of the more relevant ones are given below:
Put your best into everything. Your life is worth too much to be thrown away in half doing things, or botching anything you undertake.
There is tremendous creative power in the conviction that we can do anything. Believe in it yourself.
What fools call misfortune, I call opportunities for advancement in life. What are stumbling blocks and defeats to the weak and vacillating are but stepping-stones and victories to the strong and determined.
Nobody has the right to rob other people of their happiness. It is easy to be pleasant when life flows along like a song, but the man worthwhile is the one who will smile when everything goes dead.
There is nothing like so fascinating in history as the romance of achievement under difficulties?the stories of men who have succeeded by dint of indomitable will and inflexible purpose.
No fate or destiny can stop a man who is dominated by a mighty purpose. The world makes way for the determined man.
If money-making has become your one unwavering aim, you have failed, no mater how much you have accumulated.
No one can make real success of his life when he is all the time grumbling. Every time you complain and grumble, you lose a blessing.
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 secret of human blessedness. Then a new era will dawn for the human race. ?M.G.
(Govindram Hasanand, 4408 Nai Sarak, Delhi-110006.)
