○  russell conwell : acres of diamonds  ○

re opportunities here still if you build with some trust and if you have two or three millions of dollars to begin with as capital.” young man, the history of the breaking up of the trusts by that attack upon “big business” is only illustrating what is now the opportunity of the smaller man. the time never came in the history of the world when you could get rich so quickly manufacturing without capital as you can now.

but you will say, “you cannot do anything of the kind. you cannot start without capital.” young man, let me illustrate for a moment. i must do it. it is my duty to every young man, and woman, because we are all going into business very soon on the same plan. young man, remember if you know what people need you have gotten more knowledge of a fortune than any amount of capital can give you.

there was a poor man out of work living in hingham, massachusetts. he lounged around the house until one day his wife told him to get out and work, and, as he lived in massachusetts, he obeyed his wife. he went out and sat down on the shore of the bay, and whittled a soaked shingle into a wooden chain. his children that evening quarreled over it, and he whittled a second one to keep peace. while he was whittling the second one a neighbor came in and said: “why don’t you whittle toys and sell them? you could make money doing that.” “oh,” he said, “i would not know what to make.” “why don’t you ask your own children right here in your own house what to make?” “what is the use of trying that?” said the carpenter. “my children are different from other people’s children.” (i used to see people like that when i taught school.) but he acted upon the hint, and the next morning when mary came down the stairway, he asked, “what do you want for a toy?” she begin to tell him she would like a doll’s bed, a doll’s washstand, and went on with a list of things that would take him a lifetime to supply. so, consulting his own children, in his own house, he took the firewoo

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