The Secret of Success
William Walker Atkinson 1908
Short self-help lessons explain how desire, willpower, and individuality can shape personal success. A chapter on personal magnetism treats attraction between people as a force readers can develop.
70 pages 1h 21m reading time
- A short work from the New Thought movement, an early 1900s American belief that the mind shapes a person's life and fortunes.
- Argues that success is not mainly luck or birth but comes from a hidden inner self, which the book calls "the Something Within," that anyone can learn to draw on.
- Belongs to the wave of New Thought writing, in which Atkinson was one of the busiest authors, that helped shape the modern self-help genre and its focus on positive thinking.
Rooted in a breakdown
Atkinson came to New Thought after his health collapsed while working as a lawyer, and recovery shaped his teaching.
Born in Chicago publishing
It came out in Chicago, a busy center for New Thought books and magazines, where Atkinson worked as an editor.
Signed with his real name
Atkinson used many pen names, such as Yogi Ramacharaka, but he put his own name on this book.
From the 1908 Advanced Thought Publishing text, as reset by YOGeBooks (2010)
