Introduction for "Keys to Success in the 21st Century"
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Date Published: April 27, 2025
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- The Introduction by B. C. Forbes' to "Keys to Success in the 21st Century"
Nobody can hand you a ready-made key to open the door of success. You must fashion your own key and find the combination of the lock for yourself.
No magician can waft you to the heights of fortune and fame.
You cannot fly there on the wings of an airplane.
The road, often rocky, has to be traversed on foot. You, and you alone, can supply the motive power—the driving force. You, and you alone, must put forth the necessary exertion. No one can remove from your shoulders the burden of the effort.
You must do your own climbing.
Nor are there any mystic short-cuts. The full distance must be honestly, even painstakingly traveled.
Then why publish such a book as this?
What help can it afford?
It can afford either much help or no help: It all depends upon the spirit in which it is read and used.
Curiously, I do not feel that I have written this book.
Its authors, rather, are a hundred or more of our best-known captains of industry, statesmen, writers, and a few sages of former days. Much of the material comes direct from business men who have become recognized as the foremost authorities in their line. They have given of their best in the hope of helping others to rise.
While there are no escalators to the hilltop of success, and while every man or woman must do his or her own climbing, there is yet a right road to it—and also many wrong roads which never lead the traveler to the desired goal.
The aims of the book are:
One comforting thought driven home to me by these studies of the careers of successful men—a thought which I record here in the hope that it will induce the reader to act, is that an earnest, persistent effort to cultivate a single “success quality” makes the cultivation of other helpful qualities very much easier. Indeed, the pursuit of one virtue often leads to the attainment of a group of equally valuable virtues.
Take, for example, the elementary—but all too uncommon—virtue of politeness. You cannot strictly adhere to the habit of politeness without refraining from a string of minor or major offences of which many people are constantly guilty. Politeness breeds gentleness, thoughtfulness, consideration for others, and unselfishness; and it is selfishness which lies at the root of almost all our shortcomings.
Finally, there is more genuine joy in climbing the hill of success, even though sweat may be spent and toes may be stubbed, than in aimlessly sliding down the path to failure. The morass of failure reached through laziness, indifference, or other avoidable faults, yields nothing but ignominy and sorrow for self, family and friends. If a straight, honorable path has been chosen, the gaining of the summit yields lasting satisfaction.
The author [B. C. Forbes] of these “keys” to success is a businessman who has attained national prominence in developing young men, and in applying to everyday business problems, a knowledge and understanding of human beings and their psychology.
Use of these articles in educational surroundings has already been inaugurated in various parts of the country, and the prospect that this volume may become helpful in molding the characters and correctly directing the careers of many of our ambitious young men and women has invested the compilation of it with deep creative pleasure.
No magician can waft you to the heights of fortune and fame.
You cannot fly there on the wings of an airplane.
The road, often rocky, has to be traversed on foot. You, and you alone, can supply the motive power—the driving force. You, and you alone, must put forth the necessary exertion. No one can remove from your shoulders the burden of the effort.
You must do your own climbing.
Nor are there any mystic short-cuts. The full distance must be honestly, even painstakingly traveled.
Then why publish such a book as this?
What help can it afford?
It can afford either much help or no help: It all depends upon the spirit in which it is read and used.
Curiously, I do not feel that I have written this book.
Its authors, rather, are a hundred or more of our best-known captains of industry, statesmen, writers, and a few sages of former days. Much of the material comes direct from business men who have become recognized as the foremost authorities in their line. They have given of their best in the hope of helping others to rise.
While there are no escalators to the hilltop of success, and while every man or woman must do his or her own climbing, there is yet a right road to it—and also many wrong roads which never lead the traveler to the desired goal.
The aims of the book are:
- First: To guide the reader onto the right paths.
- Second: To warn him or her of difficulties they will encounter, show them how others overcame similar or greater difficulties, and hearten them to wrestle with and triumph over these obstacles.
- Third: To inculcate correct ideas on what constitutes worthwhile success, so that the ambitious youth may be able, before it is too late, to differentiate between the true and the false, the tinsel and the real, the showy shadow and the twenty-four carat substance.
- Fourth: To invest life with a purpose that will yield satisfying joy at the end as well as during the early and midway stages.
One comforting thought driven home to me by these studies of the careers of successful men—a thought which I record here in the hope that it will induce the reader to act, is that an earnest, persistent effort to cultivate a single “success quality” makes the cultivation of other helpful qualities very much easier. Indeed, the pursuit of one virtue often leads to the attainment of a group of equally valuable virtues.
Take, for example, the elementary—but all too uncommon—virtue of politeness. You cannot strictly adhere to the habit of politeness without refraining from a string of minor or major offences of which many people are constantly guilty. Politeness breeds gentleness, thoughtfulness, consideration for others, and unselfishness; and it is selfishness which lies at the root of almost all our shortcomings.
Finally, there is more genuine joy in climbing the hill of success, even though sweat may be spent and toes may be stubbed, than in aimlessly sliding down the path to failure. The morass of failure reached through laziness, indifference, or other avoidable faults, yields nothing but ignominy and sorrow for self, family and friends. If a straight, honorable path has been chosen, the gaining of the summit yields lasting satisfaction.
The author [B. C. Forbes] of these “keys” to success is a businessman who has attained national prominence in developing young men, and in applying to everyday business problems, a knowledge and understanding of human beings and their psychology.
Use of these articles in educational surroundings has already been inaugurated in various parts of the country, and the prospect that this volume may become helpful in molding the characters and correctly directing the careers of many of our ambitious young men and women has invested the compilation of it with deep creative pleasure.
B. C. Forbes, Introduction to "Keys to Success in the 21st Century"
