"It is with some hesitation that we bring ourselves to write this little book, entitled The Secret of Success. Not that we are not in sympathy with the subject - not that we do not believe that there is a 'Secret of Success' - but because there has been so much written on the subject of 'Success' that is the veriest twaddle - masses of platitudinous wordiness - that we hesitate to take the position of a teacher of Success. It is so easy to fill pages of paper with good advice - it is so much easier to say things than to do them - so much easier to formulate a code of precepts than to get out into the field of active endeavor and put into practice the same precepts. And, you may imagine why we hesitate to assume a role which would lay us open to the suspicion of being one of the 'do as I tell you, and not as I do' teachers of the Art of Success.

But there is another side of the question. There is, besides the mere recital of a List of Good Qualities Leading to Success - a list with which every schoolboy and reader of the magazines is acquainted - a Something Else; and that Something Else, is a suggestion that the Seeker for Success has a Something Within himself which if expressed into activity and action will prove of great value to him - a veritable Secret of Success, instead of a code of rules. And, so we propose to devote this little book to unfolding our idea of what this Something Within is, and what it will do for one who will unfold it and thus express it into action. So, therefore, do not expect to find this book a 'Complete Compendium of Rules Conducive to Success, Approved of and Formulated by the Successful Men of the World who became acquainted with these Rules only after they had Attained Success, and consequently had Time and Inclination to Preach to Others.' This is not a book of that sort."