PUSHING TO THE FRONT

Book: Orison Swett Marden

Summary: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

The Man and the Opportunity

History furnishes thousands of examples of men who have seized occasions to

accomplish results deemed impossible by those less resolute. Prompt decision and
whole-souled action sweep the world before them.

Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them
great.

Weak men wait for opportunities, strong men make them.

Every responsibility thrust upon your strength and your honor is priceless. Existence is
the privilege of effort, and when that privilege is met like a man, opportunities to
succeed along the line of your aptitude will come faster than you can use them.

He who improves an opportunity sows a seed which will yield fruit in opportunity for
himself and others. Everyone who has labored honestly in the past has aided to place
knowledge and comfort within the reach of a constantly increasing number.

Wanted a Man

Wanted, a man who is larger than his calling, who considers it a low estimate of his
occupation to value it merely as a means of getting a living. Wanted, a man who sees
self-development, education, and culture, discipline and drill, character and manhood, in
his occupation.
The world wants a man who is educated all over; whose nerves are brought to their
acutest sensibility; whose brain is cultured, keen incisive, broad; whose hands are deft;
whose eyes are alert, sensitive, microscopic; whose heart is tender, magnanimous,
true.

There is an inherent love in human mind for ‘wholeness’, a demand that man shall come
up to highest standard; and there is an inherent protest or contempt for preventable
deficiency. Nature, too, demands that man be ever at the top of his condition.

To have done no man a wrong; to have put your signature to no paper to which the
purest angel in heaven might not have been an attesting witness; to walk and live,
unseduced, within arm’s length of what is not your own, with nothing between your
desire and its gratification but the invisible law of rectitude; …. This is to be a ‘Man’.

Man is the only good thing in the universe. All the ages have been trying to produce a
perfect model. Only one complete man has yet evolved. The best of us are but
prophesies of what is to come.

Boys with ‘No Chance

Abraham Lincoln inherited no opportunities, and acquired nothing by luck. His good
fortune consisted simply of untiring perseverance and a right heart.

Among the world’s greatest heroes and benefactors are many whose cradles were
rocked by want in lowly cottages, and who buffeted the billows of fate without
dependence, save upon the mercy of God and their own energies.

The Country Boy

The sturdy, vigorous, hardy qualities, the stamina, the brawn, the grit which characterize
men who do great things in this world, are, as a rule, country-bred. There seems to be a
close connection between robust character and the soil, the hills, mountains, and
valleys, the pure air and the sunshine.

We are largely copies of our environment. We are under the perpetual influence of our
surroundings. The city-bred youth sees and hears almost nothing that is natural, aside
from the faces and forms of human beings. He sees hardly anything that God made,
that imparts solidarity, strength and power, as do the natural objects of the country.

In other words, vitality, forcefulness, physical and mental stamina reach their maximum
in those who live close to the soil. The moment a man becomes artificial in his living, he
begins to deteriorate, to soften.
It is not natural for human beings to live far from the soil. It is mother earth and country
life that gives vitality, stamina, courage and all the qualities which makes for manhood
and womanhood. What we get from the country is solid, substantial, enduring, reliable.

Self-reliance and grit are oftenest country-bred. The country boy is constantly thrown
upon his own resources; he is forced to think for himself, and this calls out his ingenuity
and makes him self-reliant and strong.

It is human nature to exaggerate the value of things beyond our reach.

We are immersed in a wilderness of mysteries and marvelous beauties. Miracles

innumerable in grass and flower and fruits are performed right before our eyes.

The history of most great men shows that there is a disadvantage in having too many
advantages.

Opportunities Where You Are

The world is all gates, all opportunities to him who will use them. Many of us who
think we are poor are rich in opportunities, if we could only see them in
possibilities all around us, in faculties worth more than diamond bracelets.

We cannot all of us perhaps make great discoveries like Newton, Faraday, Edison, or
Thompson, or paint immortal pictures like an Angelo or Raphael. But we can all of us
make our lives sublime, by seizing common occasions and making them great.

Possibilities in Spare Moments

One hour a day withdrawn from frivolous pursuits and profitably employed would enable
any man of ordinary capacity to master a complete science. An hour a day might make
all the difference between bare existence and useful, happy living.

Every young man should have a hobby to occupy his leisure hours, something
useful to which he can turn with delight. It might be in line with his work or
otherwise, only his heart must be in it.

If one chooses wisely, the study, research, and occupation that a hobby confers will
broaden character and transform the home.

Great men have been misers of moments.

The present time is the raw material out of which we make whatever we will. Do not
brood over the past, or dream of the future, but seize the instant and get your lesson
from the hour.

How Poor Boys and Girls Go To College

It is said that unearned money does not enrich. The money that a student earns for his
own education does enrich his life. It is true gold.

“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An
investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”

- Benjamin Franklin

Your Opportunity Confronts You. What will You Do with It?

An education which does not elevate, refine, and evolve its recipients is a curse
instead of a blessing.

The song of the money-siren today is so persistent, so entrancing, so overwhelming that

it often drowns the still small voice which bids one fellow the call that runs in his blood
that is indicated in the very structure in his brain.

The most unfortunate day in a youth’s career is that one on which ideals begin to grow
dim and his high standards begin to drop; that day on which is born in him the selfish
money-making germ, which so often warps and wrenches the whole nature out of its
legitimate orbit.

The world has a right to expect that the graduate, having once faced the light and felt its
power, will not turn his back on it; that he will not disgrace his ‘alma mater’ which has
given him his superior chance in life and opened wide for him the door of opportunity. It
has a right to expect that a man, who has learned how to use skillfully the tools of life,
will be an artist and not an artisan; that he will not stop growing. Society has a right to
look at the collegian to be a refining, uplifting force in his community, an inspiration to
those who have not had his priceless chance; it is justified in expecting that he will raise
the standard of intelligence in his community; that he will illustrate in his personality, his
finer culture, the possible glory of life.

If you have the ability and have been given superior opportunities, it simply means that
you have a great commission to do something out of the ordinary for your fellows; a
special message for humanity.

If the torch of learning has been put in your hand, its significance is that you
should light up the way for the less fortunate.
Your education means an increased obligation to live your life up to the level of your gift,
your superior opportunity. Your duty id to deliver your message to the world with all the
manliness, vigor and force you possess.

The knowledge that can be utilized, that can be translated into power, constitutes the
only education worthy of the name.

The best thing you can carry from your ‘alma mater’ is your aroused ambition, your
discovery of yourself, of your powers, of your possibilities; your resolution to be a little
more of a man, to play a manly part in life, to do the greatest, grandest thing possible to
you.

The most precious thing of all, however, if you have made the most of your chance, is
the uplift, encouragement, inspiration, which you have absorbed from your teachers,
from your associations; this is the embodiment of the college spirit, the spirit of your
‘alma mater’; it is that which should make you reach up as well as on, which should
make you aspire instead of grovel; look up, instead of down.

As a matter of fact, things are so arranged in this world that no one can use his divine
gift for himself alone and get the best out of it.

The way to get the most out of ourselves, or out of life, is not to try to sell ourselves for
the highest possible price but to give ourselves, not stingily, meanly, but royally,
magnanimously, to our fellows.

So conduct yourself that your life shall need no eulogy in words. Let it be its own eulogy,
let your success tell to the world the story of noble character. However much money you
may accumulate, carry your greatest wealth with you, in a clean record, an unsullied
reputation. Then you will not need houses or lands or stocks or bonds to testify to a rich
life.

Round Boys in Square Holes

You cannot look into a cradle and read the secret message traced by a divine hand and
wrapped up in that bit of clay, any more than you can see the North Star in the magnetic
needle. God has loaded the needle of that young life so it will point to the star of its own
destiny; and though you may pull it around by artificial advice and unnatural education,
and compel it to the star which presides over poetry, art, law, medicine, or whatever
your own pet calling is until you have wasted years of a precious life, yet, when once
free, the needle flies back to its own star.

Civilization will mark its highest tide when every man has chosen his proper work. No
man can be ideally successful until he has found his place.
“Like a boat on a river, every boy runs against obstruction on every side but one. On
that side all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over a deepening
channel into an infinite sea.”

- Emerson

Nature never duplicates men. She breaks the pattern at every birth. The magic
combination is never used but once.

Nature never lets a man rest until he has found his place. She haunts him and drives
him until all his faculties give their consent and he falls into his proper niche.

Fidelity to the work or everyday duties at hand, and a genuine feeling of responsibility to
our parents or employers, ourselves, and our God, will eventually bring most of us into
the right niches at the proper time.

No one should be disappointed because he was not endowed with the tremendous gifts
in the cradle. His business is to do the best he can wherever his lot may be cast, and
advance at every honorable opportunity in the direction towards which the inward
monitor points. Let duty be the guiding star and success will surely be the crown, to the
full measure of one’s ability and industry.

What Career?

Your talent is your call. Your legitimate destiny speaks in your character. If you found
your place, your occupation has the consent of every faculty of your being.

Go-at-it-iveness is the first requisite for success. Stick-to-it-iveness is the second. Under
ordinary circumstances, and with practical common sense to guide him, one who has
these requisites will not fail.

Don’t wait for a higher position or a larger salary. Enlarge the position you already
occupy; put originality of method into it. Fill it as it never was filled before. Be more
prompt, more energetic, more thorough, more polite than your predecessor or fellow
workmen. Study your business, devise new modes of operation, be able to give your
employer points. The art lies not in giving satisfaction merely, not in simply filling your
place, but in doing better than was expected, in surprising your employer; and the
reward will be a better place and a larger salary.

Manhood is greater than wealth, grander than fame. Character is greater than any
career. Each faculty must be educated, and any deficiency in its training will appear in
whatever you do. The hand must be educated to be graceful, steady and strong. The
eye must be educated to be alert, discriminating and microscopic. The heart must be
educated to be tender, sympathetic and true. The memory must be drilled for years in
accuracy, retention, and comprehensiveness.

Whatever you do in life, be greater than your calling. Most people look upon an
occupation or calling as a mere expedient for earning a living. What a mean, narrow
view to take of what was intended for the great school of life, the great man developer,
the character-builder; that which should broaden, deepen, heighten, and round out into
symmetry, harmony, and beauty all the God given faculties within us.

Choosing a Vocation

The occupation of the mind has a great influence upon the health of the body.

Man does not live by bread alone. The mind is by far the greatest factor in maintaining
the body in a healthy condition.

There is no doubt that the aspiration and success tend to prolong life. Prosperity tends
to longevity; if we do not wear life or burn it out in the feverish pursuit of wealth.

Brain-workers cannot do good, effective work in one line many hours a day. When the
brain is weary, when it begins to lose its elasticity and freshness, there will be the same
lack of tonicity and strength in brain product. Some men often do a vast amount of
literary work in entirely different lines during their spare hours.

Cessation of brain activity does not necessarily constitute brain rest, as most great
thinkers know. The men who accomplish the most brain-work, sooner or later; usually
later, unfortunately; learn to give rest to one set of faculties and use another, as interest
begins to flag and a sense of weariness comes. In this way they have been able to
astonish the world by their mental achievements, which is very largely a matter of skill in
exercising alternate set of faculties, allowing rest to some while giving healthy exercise
to others.

“Study yourself, and most of all, note well wherein kind nature meant you to excel.”

- Longfellow

“Give thyself wholly to thy fellow-men, they will give the back soon enough.”

- Norwegian precept

We can do the most possible for ourselves when we are in a position where we can do
the most possible for others. We are doing the most for ourselves and for others when
we are in a position which calls into play in the highest possible way the greatest
number of our best faculties; in other words, we are succeeding best for ourselves when
we are succeeding best for others.
After once choosing your occupation, however, never look backward; stick to it with al
the tenacity you can muster. Let nothing tempt you to swerve you a hair’s breadth from
your aim and you will win. Great tenacity of purpose is the only thing that will carry you
over the hard places which appear in every career to ultimate triumph. This
determination, or fixity of purpose, has a great normal bearing upon our success, for it
leads others to feel confidence in us, and this is everything. It gives credit and moral
support in a thousand ways.

Power and constant growth toward a higher life are the great end of human existence.
Your calling should be the great school of life, the great man-developer, character-
builder, that which should broaden, deepen and round out into symmetry, harmony, and
beauty, and all God given faculties within you.

Go to the bottom if you would go to the top. Be master of your calling in all its details.
Nothing is small which concerns your business.

Concentrated Energy

The successful men of today are men of one overmastering idea, one unwavering aim,
men of single and intense purpose.

Every great man has become great, every successful man has succeeded, in proportion
as he has confined his powers to one particular channel.

In all great success we can trace the power of concentration, riveting every faculty upon
one unwavering aim; perseverance in the pursuit of an undertaking in spite of every
difficulty; and courage which enables one to bear up under all trials, disappointments,
and temptations.

So in every well-balanced life, no matter how versatile in endowments or how broad

culture, there is one grand central purpose, in which all the subordinate powers of the
soul are brought to a focus, and where they will find fit expressions.

The Triumph of Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm gives the otherwise dry and interesting subject or occupation a new
meaning.

As the young lover has finer sense and more acute vision and sees in the object of his
affections a hundred virtues and charms invisible to all other eyes, so a man permeated
with enthusiasm has his power of perception heightened and his vision magnified until
he sees beauty and charm others cannot discern which compensate for drudgery,
privations, hardships, and even persecution.
Enthusiasm is the being awake; it is the tingling of every fiber of one’s being to
do the work that one’s heart desires.

Enthusiasm is that secret and harmonious spirit which hovers over the production of
genius, throwing the reader of a book, or the spectator of a statue, into the very ideal
presence whence these works have originated.

The most irresistible charm of youth is its bubbling enthusiasm. Youth sees no darkness
ahead, no defile that has no outlet; it forgets that there is such a thing as failure in this
world, and believes that mankind has been waiting all these centuries for him to come
and be the liberator of truth and energy and beauty.

The glory of age is only the glory of its enthusiasm, and the respect paid to white hairs
is reverence to a heart fervent, in spite of the torpid influence of an enfeebled body. The
‘Odyssey’ was the creation of a blind man, but the man was Homer.

‘On Time’, or the Triumph of Promptness

Success is the child of two very plain parents: ‘punctuality’ and ‘accuracy’. There are
critical moments in every successful life when if the mind hesitates or a nerve flinches
all will be lost.

‘Strike when the iron is hot’ and ‘Make hay while the sun shines’ are golden maxims.

Indecision becomes a disease and procrastination is its forerunner. There is only one
known remedy for the victims of indecision, and that is prompt decision. Otherwise the
disease is fatal to all success or achievement. He who hesitates is lost.

Punctuality is the soul of business, as brevity is of wit.

Promptness is the mother of confidence and gives credit. It is the best possible proof
that our own affairs are well ordered and well conducted, and gives others confidence in
our ability.

What a Good Appearance Will Do?

There are two chief factors in appearance; cleanliness of body and comeliness of attire.
Usually they go together, neatness of attire indicating a sanitary care of the person,
while outward slovenliness suggests a carelessness for appearance that probably goes
deeper than the clothes covering the body.

We express ourselves first of all in our bodies. The outer condition of the body is
accepted as the symbol of the inner.
In view of its effect on ourselves and on those with whom we come in contact, that it is
our duty, as well as the truest economy, to dress as well as our position requires and
our means will allow.

It is true that clothes do not make a man, but they have a much larger influence on
man’s life than we are wont to attribute to them.

One cannot but feel that God is a lover of appropriate dress. He has put robes of beauty
and glory upon all his works. Every flower is dressed in richness; every field blushes
beneath a mantle of beauty; every star is veiled in brightness; every bird is clothed in
the habiliments of the most exquisite taste. And surely He is pleased when we provide a
beautiful setting for the greatest of his handiworks.

Personality as a Success Asset

There is something about one’s personality which eludes the photographer, which the
painter cannot reproduce, which the sculptor cannot chisel. This subtle something which
everyone feels, but which no one can describe, which no biographer ever put down in
his book, has a great deal to do with one’s success in life.

Certain personalities are greater than mere physical beauty and more powerful than
learning. Charm of personality is a divine gift that sways the strongest characters, and
sometimes even controls the destinies of nations.

We are unconsciously influenced by people who possess this magnetic power. The
moment we come into their presence we have a sense of enlargement. They unlock
within us possibilities of which we previously had no conception. Our horizon broadens;
we feel a new power stirring through all our being; we experience a sense of relief, as if
a great weight which long had pressed upon us had been removed.

If you radiate sweetness and light, people will love to get near you, for we are all looking
for the sunlight, trying to get away from the shadows.

We little realize what a large part of our achievement is due to others working through
us, to their sharpening our faculties, radiating hope, encouragement and helpfulness
into our lives, and sustaining and inspiring us mentally.

When you learn to look upon everyone you meet as holding a treasure, something
which will enrich your life, which will enlarge and broaden your experience, and make
you more of a man, you will not think the time in the drawing-room wasted.

(To be continued)

Summary: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi