A Teacher
Orison Swett Marden
Pushing to the Front — success-attitude conditioning
The transmission
Orison Swett Marden (1848–1924) was an American author and founder of Success magazine (1897), and the most prolific architect of the success-attitude genre.
Orphaned young and self-made, he distilled his experience into his first and most famous book, Pushing to the Front; or, Success Under Difficulties (1894), an instant best-seller, and went on to publish fifty or more books and booklets at a pace of roughly two titles a year.
His work blended the self-help of Samuel Smiles, the optimism of Emerson, and the metaphysics of New Thought into a single message: cultivate the inner attitude of success and outward achievement follows.
His significance is as the bridge between 19th-century New Thought and 20th-century success literature. Marden taught that circumstances yield to character, confidence, and persistent positive expectancy — that a person becomes what they habitually hold in mind.
Through Success magazine and his torrent of books he conditioned a mass readership in this mindset, directly shaping the next generation of success writers, including Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie, and establishing the template for the entire achievement-and-attitude self-help industry.
What they gave
Pushing to the Front: A best-selling manual conditioning the reader in a success-oriented mental attitude.
- Success magazine: Founded the periodical that carried success metaphysics to a mass audience.
- Attitude conditioning: Taught that inner expectancy, confidence, and character determine outward achievement.
- Genre architect: Established the template later built on by Hill, Carnegie, and modern success literature.
In their words
Before a man can lift himself he must lift his thoughts.
It is to what you see, to what you believe, to what you struggle incessantly to attain, that you will approximate.
The moment you harbor doubt and begin to lose faith in yourself, you capitulate to the enemy.
The line they stand in
Influenced by: Samuel Smiles’s self-help; Emerson; New Thought; the self-made-man literature of the era.
- Influenced: Napoleon Hill; Dale Carnegie; the 20th-century success and self-help industry.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- Pushing to the Front1894
- He Can Who Thinks He Can1908
- The Miracle of Right Thought1910