The object of this work is to help people who are out of employment to secure a situation; to enable persons of small means to engage in business and become their own employers; to give men and women in various lines of enterprise ideas whereby they may succeed; and to suggest new roads to fortune by the employment of capital. The author has been moved to the undertaking by the reflection that there exists nowhere a book of similar character.

There have indeed been published a multitude of books which profess to tell men how to succeed, but they all consist of merely professional counsel expressed in general terms. We are told that the secrets of success are "industry and accuracy," "the grasping of every opportunity," "being wide awake," "getting up early and sitting up late," and other cheap sayings quite as well known to the taker as to the giver.

Even men who have made their mark, when they come to treat of their career in writing, seem unable to give any concrete suggestions which will prove helpful to other struggling thousands, but simply tell us they won by "hard work," or by "close attention to business. ".