Orison Swett Marden

Pushing to the Front

Self-Help, Money and Success

Cover of Pushing to the Front

Free to read. No account needed.

Language: English
First published: 1894
Reading time: 1090 minutes
Chapters: 66 chapters

About this book

Orison Swett Marden's best-known book is a long, warm-hearted pep talk for anyone who feels held back by poverty, shyness or a late start.

In 66 short chapters on opportunity, choosing a career, good manners, thrift, persistence and the habit of happiness, he tells story after story of people who rose from hard beginnings, from Abraham Lincoln to Thomas Edison. First published in 1894 and greatly enlarged in 1911, it inspired a generation of ambitious young readers. Dip into any chapter that speaks to you; each one stands on its own.

No man is born into this world whose work is not born with him.--LOWELL.

Chapter I. The Man and the Opportunity

About this edition

Source
Project Gutenberg (eBook #21291)
Text version
Project Gutenberg eBook #21291 (released 4 May 2007), downloaded 7 November 2026: the revised and greatly enlarged edition (The Success Company, copyright 1911) of the book first published in 1894. The title page, the publishers' foreword, the contents list, the list of illustrations, the 15 portrait illustrations with their captions and two transcriber's notes were not imported; the 66 chapters are unchanged.
License
Public domain
Copyright status last verified: 9 November 2026
Category
Self-Help, Money and Success
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Chapters

66 chapters

Chapter I. The Man and the Opportunity23 min
Chapter II. Wanted--A Man9 min
Chapter III. Boys with No Chance38 min
Chapter IV. The Country Boy15 min
Chapter V. Opportunities Where You Are14 min
Chapter VI. Possibilities in Spare Moments13 min
Chapter VII. How Poor Boys and Girls Go to College23 min
Chapter VIII. Your Opportunity Confronts You--What Will You Do with It?17 min
Chapter IX. Round Boys in Square Holes15 min
Chapter X. What Career?18 min
Chapter XI. Choosing a Vocation19 min
Chapter XII. Concentrated Energy15 min
Chapter XIII. The Triumphs of Enthusiasm19 min
Chapter XIV. "On Time," or the Triumph of Promptness14 min
Chapter XV. What a Good Appearance Will Do14 min
Chapter XVI. Personality as a Success Asset18 min
Chapter XVII. If You Can Talk Well20 min
Chapter XVIII. A Fortune in Good Manners30 min
Chapter XIX. Self-Consciousness and Timidity Foes to Success8 min
Chapter XX. Tact or Common Sense18 min
Chapter XXI. Enamored of Accuracy19 min
Chapter XXII. Do It to a Finish28 min
Chapter XXIII. The Reward of Persistence19 min
Chapter XXIV. Nerve--Grip, Pluck10 min
Chapter XXV. Clear Grit17 min
Chapter XXVI. Success Under Difficulties13 min
Chapter XXVII. Uses of Obstacles19 min
Chapter XXVIII. Decision16 min
Chapter XXIX. Observation as a Success Factor10 min
Chapter XXX. Self-Help22 min
Chapter XXXI. The Self-Improvement Habit15 min
Chapter XXXII. Raising of Values9 min
Chapter XXXIII. Self-Improvement Through Public Speaking18 min
Chapter XXXIV. The Triumphs of the Common Virtues12 min
Chapter XXXV. Getting Aroused8 min
Chapter XXXVI. The Man with an Idea18 min
Chapter XXXVII. Dare26 min
Chapter XXXVIII. The Will and the Way19 min
Chapter XXXIX. One Unwavering Aim21 min
Chapter XL. Work and Wait18 min
Chapter XLI. The Might of Little Things17 min
Chapter XLII. The Salary You Do Not Find in Your Pay Envelope21 min
Chapter XLIII. Expect Great Things of Yourself18 min
Chapter XLIV. The Next Time You Think You Are a Failure15 min
Chapter XLV. Stand for Something13 min
Chapter XLVI. Nature's Little Bill23 min
Chapter XLVII. Habit--The Servant,--The Master17 min
Chapter XLVIII. The Cigarette22 min
Chapter XLIX. The Power of Purity22 min
Chapter L. The Habit of Happiness18 min
Chapter LI. Put Beauty Into Your Life20 min
Chapter LII. Education by Absorption11 min
Chapter LIII. The Power of Suggestion16 min
Chapter LIV. The Curse of Worry10 min
Chapter LV. Take a Pleasant Thought to Bed with You10 min
Chapter LVI. The Conquest of Poverty12 min
Chapter LVII. A New Way of Bringing Up Children20 min
Chapter LVIII. The Home as a School of Good Manners3 min
Chapter LIX. Mother19 min
Chapter LX. Why So Many Married Women Deteriorate20 min
Chapter LXI. Thrift17 min
Chapter LXII. A College Education at Home20 min
Chapter LXIII. Discrimination in Reading13 min
Chapter LXIV. Reading a Spur to Ambition16 min
Chapter LXV. Why Some Succeed and Others Fail18 min
Chapter LXVI. Rich Without Money13 min