Publisher's Synopsis
An excerpt from the beginning of the first chapter: WHAT IS SUCCESS?
NEITHER the psychological, nor the chemical, nor the material laboratory has analyzed success. Like gold, it is non-composite and indivisible. Yet it is definable, for success is simply the result of doing your best.
More than your best is impossible. Less than your best is inexcusable.
Neither God nor man asks you, nor expects you, to travel beyond the road of your capacity. But your life will not be pleasing to God, or acceptable to man, if the result of your endeavor represents less than the exercise of the fullness of your ability.
You are not doing your best if you persistently try to do more than your capacity will permit, or less than your ability and opportunity allow.
Don't float, -swim.
The floater, making no headway of his own, cannot steer between the rocks of disaster, or keep to any course leading to a profitable harbor.
The swimmer, because he is self-propelling, can steer his way into success.
The world called you. You had no choice. WHAT IS SUCCESS? You had to obey the summons of Nature. Why, you do not know, nor does anybody else know. Will you sink, float, or swim? Will you sit, walk, or run?
While you are not responsible for your birth, you are responsible for your life.
No matter what your station, or how great or how little may be your natural ability, you, more than anyone else, are in command of yourself; and, while you may not be able to scale the mountain before you, you can, unless you are crippled, establish yourself upon a foothill of success. If this hill represents the highest eminence possible for you to attain, then, when you stand upon it, you have reached the pinnacle of attainment for you.
