Orison Swett Marden
New England, 1848.
American author.
Many a man has been ruined by not confining himself within sufficiently narrow limits to give concentration and direction to his energies.
Said Andrew Carnegie: "One great cause of failure of young men in business is lack of concentration. They are prone to seek outside investments, side-lines. The cause of many a surprising failure lies in so doing.
Every dollar of capital and credit, every business thought, should be concentrated upon the one business upon which a man has embarked. He should never scatter his shot. It is a poor business which will not yield better returns for increased capital than any outside investment.
No man or set of men or corporation can manage a business man's capital as well as he can manage it himself. The rule, `Do not put all your eggs in one basket,' does not apply to a man's life-work."
Don't be afraid of being known as a man of one idea. The men who have moved the world have been men of this kind. It is the man who has his purpose burned into every fiber of his being, who has the faculty of focusing his scattered energies on one point as a burning glass focuses the scattered rays of the sun, that succeeds.
"When I have a subject in hand I study it profoundly," said Alexander Hamilton. "Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the success I make, the people are pleased to call genius. It is the fruit of thought and labor."
Concentration without genius will accomplish more than genius without concentration.
Orison Swett Marden
An iron will
by Orison Swett marden
