What You Can Do with Your Will Power

Determination supplies the driving force in Russell H. Conwell's advice to young people choosing their work and pursuing an education. Drawing on his experience with students at Temple University, he argues that ambition must become steady effort, directed toward an occupation suited to both individual ability and public demand. His examples include an English boy who resolves to study law and a farm worker who returns to school before becoming a zoology professor.

Conwell combines direct encouragement with short accounts of people whose persistence, in his telling, opened opportunities for themselves or others. The discussion reaches beyond earning a living to political freedom, exploration, and the higher education of women, including Mary Lyon's work toward Mount Holyoke College. Readers interested in older approaches to personal development will find an emphatic statement of faith in purposeful work, along with practical advice about choosing a goal and preparing for it.