"WHAT do you want more than anything else in the world?"

I have asked that question many, many times during the last fifteen years, from
friend and stranger alike, during extensive business and speaking trips from
coast to coast. And invariably the answer has been the same: "I want more than
anything else in the world to be successful in my work!"

Well, there you have it in a nutshell. Men and women everywhere want, more than
anything else in the world, to be successful in their work. Nothing else seems
quite so important as that. And nothing else can fill the void that settles in
one's heart when success is unattained.

Fortunately, success is within the grasp of everyone. God has blessed every
human being on earth with a certain measure of ability. And that talent is
sufficient, if intelligently developed and utilized, to guarantee success in
accordance with one's ability, training and developed skill — in the words of
the Biblical parable: "to every man according to his several ability."

You Have The Talents

Remember the parable from the twenty-fifth chapter of the gospel of Saint
Matthew — the story of a master, who, planning a long journey into a far
country, called his servants together and divided his goods among them. One
received five talents, another two, and another one.

After a long time, the master returned, and calling his servants together, asked
for an account of their work in his absence.

The one who had received the five talents reported that he had put his talents
to work and had gained five more; likewise, the servant who had received two
talents reported doubling of his gift; but the third servant who had received
but a single talent, berated the master for his modest gift. The master lost
patience with this slothful servant for his failure to put his talent to work,
and commanded that the single talent which he had given him be now taken from
him.

The world is made up of people just like that — some with five talents, some
with two, and others with only one. There are those who are using their
God-given talents to the fullest; others are using only a small measure of their
abilities; and far too many are slothful and negligent, foolishly frittering
away their precious God-given assets.

God will hold every human being on earth accountable for his stewardship of the
talents with which he has been endowed. They are a sacred trust!

And those who do not use and develop their abilities shall surely lose them —
that is the law of God; and the slothful shall taste the bitter dregs of
frustration, and mediocrity, and failure.

You Are The Master

In the days of myths in ancient Greece, men talked at great length, and with
superstitious fear, of the Goddesses of Fate — three sisters to whom the Gods
had given the power to determine the lives and fortunes of all human beings on
earth, of every age, and in every generation.

This ancient myth was so popular in medieval times that a Roman artist, supposed
to have been Michelangelo, painted these Goddesses as they were supposed to be —
three old women in a group, manipulating the life and fortune of every human
being on earth.

Clotho is the youngest sister. She holds the distaff which carries the thread of
life. Lachesis, the second sister fate, winds off the thread of life. And
Atropos, the oldest sister, stands by with huge shears, impatiently waiting for
the right moment to clip the thread of life.

The teaching of this ancient myth is that every human being, of every age, and
in every generation, is but the plaything of the fates; that life is longer or
shorter as the fates may decide; and that no act of man can change his own
destiny.

Here, then, is the difference between ancient myth and modern science. Today
science tells us in unequivocal terms that man is by no means helpless
concerning his own future; that only the fool believes he cannot help himself.

And laden with facts to prove each point, science goes on to show how man may
lengthen his life or shorten it; how he may make his life or mar it; how he may
bless his life or curse it — by what he knows, and by the way he puts his
knowledge to use. Science has made it clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that
man is not the slave of his environment and his circumstances, but that he is in
truth the master and maker of his own destiny. In the words of the great
Disraeli: "Man is not the creature of circumstances ; circumstances are the
creatures of man."

My word, how we do need that kind of philosophy of life today — a creed to
challenge a man to the very best that is in him!

It was this kind of belief that was the very essence of the thinking of
America's early settlers, the courageous and persevering pioneers who pushed the
American frontier westward from the Atlantic to the distant Pacific.

These men and women endured incredible hardships, and often risked their lives,
to carve out new opportunities in this promising new world. It took great faith,
and courage, and fortitude, and perseverance. And to keep up their courage in
times of great danger and frustration, they reminded themselves of an old saying
that had grown out of the sweat and blood of early frontier days: "The cowards
never started, and the weak died along the way." That was a challenge to stir
men's hearts!
This great new world of America was founded and built by free men and women who
believed that they were the masters and makers of their own fates. In that faith
they built a vast new world of freedom and opportunity, the dream of all
mankind.

Start Where You Are

Today there are altogether too many people who expect success and happiness for
a small price or nothing at all. So many seem to think that the "good life" is
every American's birthright. So few seem to understand that God meant the good
things of life to be earned by the "sweat of your brow." Most people today lack
a deep-down desire to achieve a worthwhile life by their own efforts, through
the full development and use of their own abilities. And so, glibly and
thoughtlessly, they alibi their own mediocrity by blaming others, or
circumstances, for lack of opportunity to reveal and utilize their talents.
George Bernard Shaw, the immortal Irish playwright, put it this way: "People are
always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in
circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and
look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."
Others whine: "If only I liked my work, then I would be successful!" Well, that
is self-deceit at its very worst. Only the self-indulgent fool can believe that
work must be "play" to bring success. The lives of countless men and women bear
witness to the truth that man can be master of his circumstances.

On February 8, 1957, for example, Judge Simon Ross left the First District Court
of Appeals in Cincinnati after almost twenty-eight years of distinguished
service on the bench, confiding that he would rather have been an electrical
engineer than a judge. "I never really enjoyed law practice," he said. "As a
judge, you're not actually a participant in anything; you're just a referee.
I've always envied those men who are constructive, building and creating things.
I always tried to be conscientious and do my best though."

Success is achieved by doing the best you can with "what you've got," and how
well the 73-year-old jurist — dean of Ohio's thirty Appellate Court judges —
succeeded was shown by a stack of letters from colleagues all over Ohio. They
congratulated him on his long career and wished him well in retirement. One
associate, Judge Arthur A. Doyle of Akron, wrote: "You're the most respected
judge in the state."
Work is work! And there isn't a vocation in the world that is entirely free of
at least a few distasteful tasks. The judge must "referee." The dairy farmer
must clean his barn. The salesman must keep his records, and so on ad infinitum.
The disagreeable must be taken along with the pleasant — that is part of living
a realistic and rewarding life. And when you take the bad with the good, lo and
behold, the work that seemed so tedious and uninspiring becomes endurable, often
stimulating and satisfying.

To make a go-of-it where you are — even if today you think your job is the most
boring occupation in the world and unworthy of your talents — is the first and
foremost challenge in the pursuit of a successful and a happy life.

And then — if perchance you are in truth outrageously miscast — there will
follow, as day follows night, undreamed-of opportunities to graduate into other
and more enticing fields of enterprise.

In further pursuance of this vital problem of job satisfaction, careful
investigation revealed this inspiring fact, that the attainment of success in
one's work — assuming, of course, that it is honorable work — almost without
exception means satisfaction with the job itself. Acknowledgement was well-nigh
unanimous that success, even if only in a modest measure, dissipates most if not
all serious gripes, which are usually nothing more or less than face-saving
alibis for lack of commendable achievement.

It is failure to achieve a reasonable measure of success that creates, in most
instances, dislike for the work one is doing, and consequently so often ends in
mediocrity, sometimes in utter failure.

It is true, however, that work is easier and more satisfying if it is work for
which one has a natural inclination. But the fact remains that you can succeed,
at least for a while, in your present work, no matter how boring and distasteful
it may be, if you will resolutely make up your mind to do it, pull yourself
together mightily, buckle down to hard work, and utilize every one of your
God-given talents to the fullest. Resolute action works miracles!

During the terrible depression of the early thirties I saw many courageous men
and women accept whatever jobs were available — no matter how little natural
talent they seemed to have for the work, and often despite utter aversion and
personal humiliation — in order to provide for the simplest needs of their loved
ones, and to get a new start in life. I knew men who had been top executives —
several of whom had lost fortunes in the stock market crash of 1929 —who came
into the life insurance business in order to make a livelihood for their
families. And though these men had never before sold anything and frankly
admitted dislike of selling as a vocation, they studied and trained earnestly,
worked day and night, and achieved commendable success in the life insurance
business.

I saw artists dig ditches, and cultured women clean offices, during those
difficult times, and they did their work gallantly and well.

Better days with better opportunities came eventually to these people, as they
always do come to those who are willing to do their very best and persevere
under the most trying circumstances.

Change If You Must

There are, however, some people who cannot, unfortunately, rid themselves of a
deep-rooted aversion to
their present jobs, often despite the attainment of a fair measure of success.

In order to achieve a full measure of success and happiness it would be wise for
those unfortunate persons to consider a change to a more appealing vocation as
soon as practicable. The ideal vocationally is, of course, for everyone to be
engaged in work for which he is suited by talent, skill, temperament and
training. This is the objective of our present-day vocational guidance agencies.

This problem of vocational change, though serious, can be solved smoothly and
happily without loss of prestige and financial security, if intelligently
planned and executed. It is amazing what miracles can be wrought if serious
thought and intelligent action are applied to the problems of life.

I know, from personal experience, how very true this is. Change can be made
successfully at any time of life, though it does naturally become more and more
difficult with increasing age.

I made my most important vocational change just three months short of my
forty-seventh birthday, and despite my age this change turned out to be the
wisest and most rewarding decision I have ever made. Briefly, my experience
developed as follows.

From early childhood I was always interested in selling something during my
spare time — pictures, magazines, books, etcetera. Selling was fun!

During the summer following graduation from college, I sold The People's War
Book and Atlas — priced at eight dollars and seventy-five cents — averaging a
profit of $32 a day; and during my graduate-school days at Harvard, I enjoyed a
brief but successful career in selling investment stocks.

My regular business career, however, started on January 2, 1924, at the home
office of The Aetna Life Insurance Company at Hartford, Connecticut. After a
year of training and successful selling — averaging over a million dollars in
life insurance sales — I established the sales training department of the
company. I wrote the first history of the Aetna Life, wrote its first
correspondence course, established and conducted its first field training school
in the company's leading agencies throughout the country. The whole program was
outstandingly successful.

After addressing the company's first General Agents' Convention at The Homestead
in October of that same year, I received and accepted many invitations to
address meetings of Life Underwriter Associations all over the country. I
enjoyed my work immensely, and a lifetime career at the home office seemed
self-evident.

In December of that first year, however, while in Philadelphia to address a
meeting of the Life Underwriters Association, the company's successful and
widely respected general agent in that city, after complimenting me highly on my
work, advised me to seek five to ten years of field experience as a general
agent as soon as possible in order to insure a permanent career in home office
work. Managerial experience, he emphasized, was essential for a successful
career in the agency department of the home office.

I thought his advice was good and immediately talked the matter over with my
vice president, who agreed, and promised to give me an appointment when an
agency was available.
A year and a half later the opportunity came, and I was appointed general agent
of the company's Columbus, Ohio, agency, with the understanding that I was
eventually to return to home office work. As the years rolled on, however, this
understanding was forgotten, and I remained in general agency work for about
sixteen years, five years for the Aetna Life, and eleven years at Toledo, Ohio,
for New England Mutual Life Insurance Company of Boston, Massachusetts.
During my early years as a general agent I never lost interest in my original
plan to return to home office work.

And as time went on, the conviction grew stronger and stronger that I would
never find real happiness in managerial work.

It was early in 1940 that I reached the definite decision to make a change,
either to home office work or to another vocation for which I was qualified by
nature and experience and inclination. In order to make an intelligent decision
to that end, I decided to have a scientific analysis made of my aptitudes and
talents, and accordingly made an appointment for that purpose with the Boston
branch of Stevens Institute of Technology Human Aptitudes Laboratory.

This examination turned out to be one of the most important steps I have ever
taken. The report which I received a few weeks later gave me scientific guidance
of inestimable value in planning my future work. It revealed my natural talents
and aptitudes, my shortcomings and weaknesses, and pointed out the type of work
for which I was especially qualified. I knew, then, the direction in which I
should steer my course, and I began immediately with great enthusiasm to plan
for the future.

As the next step in building for the future I enrolled in the evening college of
Toledo University for the ensuing academic year. There were a number of courses
which I had felt the need of for many years; furthermore, I believed that the
process of learning would in itself be stimulating.

During that year in the evening college of Toledo University, I studied business
law, statistics, and advertising. These courses were tremendously interesting,
and have been invaluable to me ever since. Besides, I learned to my life-long
benefit that nothing builds morale faster and better than a constant flow of
useful facts and ideas into the human mind.

Meanwhile, in order to move from a position of strength — and this is vital — I
determined to achieve an outstanding success-record for the year 1941. I knew I
could do it if I put my mind and heart and will into a final great effort to set
up an attractive stage for my vocational change. To this end I decided to
achieve 1941's three-fold quota for my agency, set jointly by the home office
and myself. It was a real challenge!
Immediately, I planned the year's work thoughtfully and in detail. My blueprint
of the job was broken down into daily objectives, and from the very beginning of
1941, day after day, until the very end of the year, the plan was carried out
faithfully. I was fully confident that strict adherence to the daily schedule of
work would achieve the goal in the end. And though the early months were certain
to lag behind quota, I believed firmly that the cumulative effort would produce
the desired results for the year as a whole. I was confident that the law of
average would work for me, if I gave it a fair chance.

My confidence was not in vain. When 1941 came to an end, I had achieved my
objective in every category, and my agency led all company agencies in
percentage of annual quotas attained. It was a proud record, and proved to me
conclusively that at least for a time it is possible to achieve a superlative
record even if one does dislike his work — if he will but apply himself to the
task to the very best of his abilities.
As a result of 1941's fine record, and my previous experience as manager of
sales training at the Aetna's home office, I received a number of offers of home
office jobs from other companies. Several of these positions were under serious
consideration when suddenly at Christmastime 1942, out of a clear sky, I was
invited to the home office of The National Underwriter Company, Cincinnati, Ohio
— world's largest insurance publishers — and offered the position of Associate
Editor of the Diamond Life Bulletins, an eleven volume sales service for life
underwriters.

I realized immediately that this was the one great opportunity I had been
waiting and preparing for during all the previous years in the life insurance
business. It seemed almost miraculous to me that everything I had done and
experienced, including the courses I had taken in evening college the previous
year, should now turn out to be so pertinent to the work I was about to
undertake.

I accepted the new position with great enthusiasm and complete dedication. Once
again I felt the stimulating challenge of opportunity. And I was not
disappointed.

Change of vocation for me, though dangerously late, turned out to be the open
sesame to success and happiness.

It can be the same for you, too, if you will plan it carefully, prepare for it
intelligently, and then enter into your new work with enthusiasm and complete
dedication.

Dormant Power

Psychologists tell us that, on the average, people generate less than ten
percent of their potential powers. Dr. Nathan S. Kline, director of research at
a New York State Hospital, says: "Most humans are ambling along at probably no
more than five or six percent of their possible efficiency." And J. C. Penny,
the founder of the great chain of retail stores that bears his name, has said:
"In my business life I have been privileged to know many men of outstanding
ability, and my conviction is that in everyone of us there are untold
possibilities for increase of ability and skill that will lead to
opportunities."

Think of it, on the average over nine-tenths of human talents and powers are
dormant and unused. What a tragic and shameful waste!

It has been told that Gutzon Borglum, the great sculptor, when nearing the
finish of his famous head of Abraham Lincoln, was asked by a negro servant who
had watched with amazement the gradual shaping of the great emancipator's face:
"Master Borglum, how did you know Mr. Lincoln was in dat stone?"
Well, you too are like the raw stone out of which the sculptor chiseled the
image of the great and immortal Lincoln — potent with unimagined possibilities,
and powers, and beauty of spirit. Yes, there are untold resources within you,
waiting to be discovered, and revealed, and brought into full fruition.
Success is a personal challenge. It is something to be desired, something to be
achieved — the glorious realization of your God-given talents. To be successful,
you must want success earnestly, for it must be earned through tough
self-discipline, continuous self-development, endless hard work, courageous
perseverance, and complete dedication. It is within your reach, if you will but
pay this austere price.

Remember always that nothing of great value is ever acquired at a cheap price.

Psychologists say that all men and women, except morons, are able to achieve.
Many fail to achieve, however, because their hidden talents are never brought to
light and developed and utilized. To get out the best that is in you, to succeed
according to your God-given talents
— that is life's greatest challenge, life's highest attainment, and life's most
satisfying reward!

To help you find and uncover, vitalize and develop, marshal and use the talents
and powers latent within you; to help you give your life direction and inspiring
purpose
— that is the dedicated purpose of this book.

No matter what your age, man or women, you can achieve greater success and
happiness — a life truly worthwhile — if you will let this book be your guide.
Your future is in your hands!

You At Your Best

During the last fifty years the world has suffered through two terrible world
wars, several lesser conflicts, and a heart-rending depression.

Fortunately, these major disasters taught us a great deal about many things. One
of the most important of
the many lessons learned was the incalculable and many-sided value of efficiency
— the increased effectiveness of men and machines; the saving of man-hours of
work, of energy, of materials, of money costs, and above all the conservation of
life, and the strengthening of the human spirit.

Fifty years ago, in the business world, for example, most things were done by
habit and guess. Today businessmen want to know the reason "why." To know the
reason "why" is to increase efficiency enormously. Efficiency is the watchword,
and efficiency means getting maximum results with minimum effort.

Our problem as human beings is, then, to find out what we must do in order to
attain maximum efficiency
— what we must do to get out the best that is in us!

I suppose there is hardly a truer lesson in all science and philosophy than the
unity of man. Man has a threefold nature, a physical, a mental, and a spiritual
nature. This being true, no man can attain maximum efficiency — get out the best
that is in him — unless he attains a healthy and harmonious development of all
three of his natures.

During my senior year in college I studied and trained
— as an extracurricular activity — to become a book
salesman during the summer vacation months in order to earn additional funds to
enter Harvard University Law School in the fall.

One day my instructor made a statement that impressed me profoundly, and it has
been in my mind ever since. Discussing the rugged career of a book salesman, he
stressed the importance of personal efficiency, of being a "whole" man, a fully
developed person — physically, mentally, and spiritually. Then he added with
great seriousness: "Mr. Gravengaard, it is going to make a tremendous difference
to you what sort of a man you take to your prospect."

Later on during the summer when I went from house to house, and office to
office, and from field to field to find the farmer at his work, I came to a full
realization of the real and broader meaning of those words. And on the basis of
that summer's grueling experience, and the experience of over thirty-five years
in business, I want to emphasize to you this vital truth: It makes a tremendous
difference what sort of a man you take to your job in this hotly competitive
world in which we live and work.

Your body must be healthy and efficient — the instrument and not the tyrant of
your mind. Your mind must be sharp and alert, educated and trained — knowledge
and culture must be its power. And your spiritual nature must be developed and
utilized, to insure spiritual power, strength of character, emotional balance,
and breadth of vision — without which there can be no fullness of life, no
feeling of worthwhileness.

To be deficient in any of these parts is to be only in part a man. To develop
your three natures to the fullest, into a harmonious and vital oneness, to be a
whole man, to get out the very best that is in you — that is life's great
purpose, life's ringing challenge.

The celebrated English poet, Alexander Pope, once said: "The proper study of
mankind is man." This being true, let us study man — the whole man — by
examining each one of his three component parts, the physical, the mental, and
the spiritual natures; and find out how these great natural resources of man can
be developed to a maximum of efficiency, and brought into a harmonious and
powerful oneness in order that you may achieve a full measure of success and
happiness.