The Secret of Success - According to Dr Orison Swett Marden

Dr Orison Swett Marden was perhaps the most prolific author of inspirational, self-help material at the turn of the twentieth century. After raising himself out of poverty through a series of prosperous businesses, he took to writing. He shared the lessons he had learned - the secret of success, as he saw it - with the millions of Americans who read his books.

Orison Swett Marden is credited with too many quotes to list here - they would fill hundreds of articles! Rather, I want to give you a potted version of the contents of some of his seventy-seven books. The main thrust of his advice was that you cannot succeed at anything without being a "do-er". You have to do something! You can't just sit around thinking and dreaming - or even just spend time setting out plans to make them come about.

Although dreaming and planning are important, they are often simply an excuse for laziness or indecision. So give yourself only a limited time to come to a decision - then get on with it!

Be confident that you are capable of achieving what you set out to do. It's no good thinking "well, I'll try, and if it doesn't work out, I can always do this instead ...". Set an intermediate goal which you know you can attain, complete it as quickly as possible, then build on that.

As you take these incremental steps towards your main goal, your confidence will grow with each milestone reached. Confidence is one of the most important ingredients of success. The biggest part of being successful is truly knowing, deep down, that you will obtain your success articles, whatever they are. Your inner belief will show itself to others. Their response to your confident demeanor, even though you will only be aware of it subconsciously, will serve to enhance your confidence still further.

Of course, all this comes after deciding what it is you want, and seeing how you will achieve it. This is a major stumbling block for many people - but that's because they view the whole process of setting goals and action plans as being complicated. It isn't. Nor is it a once-and-forever process. Just set some simple, short-term goals and outline your step-by-step plan. And stop procrastinating! You know what you want and you know how you will get it. So this is the time to direct all your efforts at obtaining the result.

You just have to ask yourself one question: Why are you still reading? Get busy! Or, to borrow a famous brand's slogan "Just Do It!"


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This is part of a series of success articles written by Brendan McKeogh, editor of the Marden's Keys to Success website http://www.MardensKeysToSuccess.com where you can find additional success articles, and claim a free Success Report and preview of the 100 page book "Marden's Keys to Success".