Download Personal power by Keith Johnston Thomas PDF book 1917





"Man is his own star, and the soul that can

Render an honest and a perfect man,

Commands all light, all influence, all fate."



John Fletcheb.

"Be not afraid of greatness," says Shakespeare. " Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." Which are you? I will tell you. You were born great; you can achieve greatness if you will; and if you go about it the right way, you will have greatness thrust upon you. \y The mistake so many people make is to confuse greatness with riches.The great man can have all he wants, but he need not necessarily become rich. Carlyle was no more intended to be a millionaire than Andrew Carnegie was made to be a Milton. We cannot all be Nelsons, or Pitts, or Shakespeare, or Darwins, or Rockefellers, but we can all be great.If we want money we can get it, if we want power we can get it: the only condition being that we should want it badly enough. Whatever our desire is, we must be prepared to give up all pleasure and all ease to attain it. Fortune is a hard mistress and will brook no rivals, but to the man who is prepared to serve her whole-heartedly, she offers the sure promise of his heart's desire. When we look back over the pages of history and scan the records of the world's most successful men, we find that there is not so much wonder when a man rises from penury to supreme heights as when a man with wealth and influence does so. All the experience of the world goes to show that the lower down a man is on the ladder of fortune, the more likely is he to rise.The reason is that the rich man has so many distractions, and, more than this, does not have the same hard experiences which develop character and brain. As soon as a man makes up his mind that he will do something with his life, he changes over from a state of drift to one of action. It is easy to drift, but it is better to struggle, for the current of life drags men on to the rocks and into shallows unless they map their course along the right channels where the deep waters are that will bear them to their harbor.Imagine a five-million-dollar battleship, with steam in her boilers, being allowed to drift upon the ocean. What would happen? She would collide with something sooner or later, and be seriously damaged, if not totally wrecked. Someone, however, takes control of her. The huge engines are started, and put forth their strength; the course is set by the guiding intelligence, and the vessel journeys through calm or tempest wherever the ruling brain directs.