The Victorious Attitude

About this book

For readers seeking guidance in conduct and self-development, Orison Swett Marden argues that ambition and ideals can direct mental growth and shape a person’s prospects. A country boy imagines himself running a large business and eventually reaches the city as an office boy, an example Marden uses to connect sustained aspiration with opportunity. More troubling is his account of a capable man whose childhood sense of inferiority still holds him back when others urge him to accept responsibility or speak in public. Turning to Hawthorne’s “The Great Stone Face,” Marden describes a boy whose long attention to a mountain likeness gradually makes him resemble the ideal he admires.