试题预览
Another person’s enthusiasm was what set me moving toward the success I have attained. That person was my stepmother. I was nine years old when she entered our home. We lived in poverty in rural Virginia, but she had come from better circumstances, and she would not accept our circumstances without protest. My father introduced me to her with these words: “I would like you to meet the fellow who is distinguished for being the worst boy in this county and will probably start throwing rocks at you no later than tomorrow morning.” My stepmother walked over to me, titled my head upward, and looked me right in the eye. Then she looked at my father and replied, “You are wrong. This is not the worst boy in the county, but the smartest one who hasn’t yet found an outlet for his enthusiasm.” That statement began a friendship between us which was destined to produce these Seventeen Principles of Success and to carry their influence around the world. No one had ever called me smart. My family and neighbors had built me up in my own mind as being a bad boy, and I had done nothing to disappoint them. My stepmother, in one brief statement, changed all that. She changed many things. She persuaded my father to go to dental school, from which he was graduated with honors. She moved our family into the country seat, where my father’s practice could flourish and my brothers and I could be better educated. My father resisted these efforts at first, but her enthusiasm always won him over. When I turned fourteen, she bought me a secondhand typewriter and told me that she believed that I could become a writer. I knew her enthusiasm, I relished it, and I saw how it had already improved our lives. I accepted her belief and began to write for local newspapers. I was doing the same kind of writing that fateful day I went to interview Andrew Carnegie and received the charge that became my life’s work. My stepmother’s enthusiasm had not just put me in a position to grasp such an opportunity but given me the self-confidence and enthusiasm of my own to succeed at it. I wasn’t the only benefactor. My father became the most prosperous man in town. My brothers and stepbrothers became a physician, a dentist, a lawyer, and a college president.
What power enthusiasm has! When that power is released to support definiteness of purpose and is constantly renewed by faith, it becomes an irresistible force for which poverty and temporary defeat are no match. You can communicate that power to anyone who needs it. This is probably the greatest work you can do with your enthusiasm. Excite the imaginations of others; inspire their creative vision; help them connect with Infinite Intelligence.
Building, demonstrating, and sharing enthusiasm are a perfect manifestation of the moral principles behind the science of success. When you deliver your work with enthusiasm, you are already going the extra mile. You create a success consciousness around you that inevitably affects others for the better. The more enthusiasm you direct into the world, the better you are preparing yourself to attain exactly what your want.
