Recently I have read the book titled “The Greatest Secret in the World” authored by Og Mandino. The book unveils the ways and means to shed bad habits and wed good habits. It provides success recorders and appointments and achievements for the forty fifth weeks. It reveals reflections for each week.
The author rolls out roadmap for achieving all-round success. He provides the readers with a blueprint, a comp0ass, a recorder and a reminder. He illustrates with examples of leaders like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin who replaced their early bad habits by good habits. George Washington was quick tempered and replaced it by self-control, calmness and coolness through good habits and became the first President of America. Benjamin Franklin crafted 13 virtues and strictly followed and became patriot, scientist, author, diplomat, inventor, printer and philosopher.
What Does The Author Say?
The author says, “In truth, the only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the difference of their habits. Good habits are the key to all success. Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure. Thus, the first law I will obey, which precedeth all others is – I will form good habits and become their slaves.”
“I will never consider defeat and I will remove from my vocabulary such words and phrases as quit, cannot, unable, impossible, out of the question, improbable, failure, unworkable, hopeless, and retreat; for they are the words of fools.”
“I have unlimited potential. Only a small portion of my brain do I employ; only a paltry amount of my muscles do I flex. A hundredfold or more can I increase my accomplishments of yesterday and this I will do, beginning today.”
“I am not on this earth by chance. I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply all my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.”
“I will live this day as if it is my last.”
“The duties of today I shall fulfill today. Today I shall fondle my children my children while they are young; tomorrow they will be gone, and so will I. Today I shall embrace my woman with sweet kisses; tomorrow she will be gone, and so will I. Today I shall lift up a friend in need; tomorrow he will no longer cry for help, nor will I hear his cries. Today I shall give myself in sacrifice and work; tomorrow I will have nothing to give, and there will be none to receive.”
“Stand on any busy corner and look at faces. How many are smiling? How many even seem pleased, or happy? We are becoming a nation of frowning robots, rushing like blind ants from place to place, worrying about, well, you name it. I wish we had some statistics on smiles and laughter for I wonder that percentage of us, on any particular day, never laugh or even smile, from the time we rise to the time we retire.”
“I am liken to a grain of wheat with one difference. The wheat cannot choose whether it be fed to swine, ground for bread, or planted to multiply. I have a choice and I will not let my life be fed to swine nor will I let it be ground under the rocks of failure and despair to be broken open and devoured by the will of others.”
“To grow and multiply it is necessary to plant the wheat grain in the darkness of the earth and my failures, my despairs, my ignorance, and my inabilities are the darkness in which I have been planted in order to ripen.”
“Only a worm is free from the worry of stumbling. I am not a worm. I am not an onion plant. I am not a sheep. I am a man. Let others build a cave with their clay. I will build a castle with mine.”
“If a business day is a social success, it has been a business failure.”
“There are days when you’d like to crawl into a hole and just hide from the world. Everything you touch turns to sawdust.”
“Success will not wait. If I delay she will become betrothed to another and lost to me forever.”
“Failure will never overtake you if your determination to succeed is strong enough.”
The author lists out twelve greatest self-help books that are worth reading. He forearms the readers to defend themselves from the critics of all self-help literature. The private life of Horatio Alger is gleefully exposed, Benjamin Franklin is painted as a snob with a phony “homespun” exterior, Andrew Carnegie with a schizo-type personality, Norman Vincent Peale as a materialistic businessman masquerading as a preacher, Orison Swett Marden as a bumbling editor, and Dale Carnegie as a seducer of man’s ego.
The author reveals the greatest secret in the world as to acquire the right habits and attitudes for achieving all-round success. He concludes the book in the words of Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr, “Nothing that is worth doing can be accomplished in your lifetime; therefore you will have to be saved by hope. Nothing that is beautiful will make sense in the immediate instance; therefore, you must be saved by faith. Nothing that is worth doing can be done alone, but has to be done with others; therefore you must be saved by love.”
Conclusion:
“Failure will never overtake thee if thy determination to succeed is strong enough.”
It is an inspiring and motivational book for successful living. It stirs and stimulates your mind, it tugs and warms yourheart. It contains thought provoking ideas and insights. It contains excellent metaphors that relate the content effectively to real life events and examples. The takeaways are punchy. The book motivates the readers and especially the downhearted. Although some of the ideas are known to many people they rarely realize when confronted with challenges in life. The book energizes the readers with motivational doses and quotes. The book is worth investing your time. It is useful to those who want to improve their personality.
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