Keys to Successful Living

Here is a unique book that will find its way to many a bedside table to be read and cherished in quiet, reflective moments for its practical bits of philosophy presented in a manner that lifts and inspires the human spirit.

It, too, will find its way to many an office desk, industrial book rack, professional library, salesman's kit, workman's bench, and supervisory set of books. It will find its way to high school and college guidance programs and reference shelves; to church training programs; to doctors' waiting rooms and to the circulating libraries of hospitals.

It will find its way wherever man, pressed for time, needs through a few minutes of reading, to reorient his life; to re-evaluate the values by which he lives; and wherever man needs "a lift" in moments of doubt, uncertainty, or depression.

It will find its way wherever a human being seeks the means, skills, and the inspiration of doing a better job of his daily life; wherever man seeks to make each day a more effective, satisfying, and fulfilling experience.

Originally published in 1960, Keys to Successful Living is a collection of the individual philosophical essays which were used as weekly and semi-monthly letters, and as pamphlets during the period from 1953 to 1960 in the Public Relations program of the World Insurance Company.

These essays have stood the test of proof. They have found their way into the personal, intimate daily reading kits of hundreds of thousands of men and women of all walks of life, in every part of the United States and in some other countries. The many thousands of letters received testify to how deeply significant and helpful these short, to-the-point essays are in the everyday lives of these many people of many different faiths, education, religion, personality, position, social or financial status.

About the author:

Alvin H. Goeser was an American teacher, scholar, writer, speaker, and authority on human relations. He says of his speeches and writings: "I have always avoided any effort to be literary or profound. My only interest in my teaching, speaking, and writing is to present simple observations about life in a way that they can be used practically; in simple words, but in a manner that they will inspire the reader to use them to make his daily life richer, more meaningful, and more satisfying." This is what he has done in Keys to Successful Living.

Contents Covered:

• Preface
• Being a Successful Person
• The Three "Musts"
• The Mill That Returns in Kind
• A Mark of Maturity
• The Shaping of Our Destiny
• "... By the Sweat of Your Brow"
• "The Fault, Dear Brutus ..."
• The Grain of Mustard Seed
• Let's Begin Where We Are
• Today, Not Tomorrow
• First, Let Us Look Within
• A More Pleasant Journey
• We Make It Be
• Mentally Bedridden
• Tending to the Business at Hand
• The Light of Our Shadow
• Perhaps, a Little Louse
• The Need to Be Ourselves
• Pay for It -- Take It
• The Walls We Build Around Us
• Just Being Nice to People
• The Pathetic Fallacy
• The Priceless Fifty-One Hours
• Let's Count Our Blessings
• The Irreducible Minimum
• Accepting, or Rejecting Wisdom
• Taking Life Too Seriously
• The Black Spots on the White Surface
• Without Help of Man or Jinni
• Getting Off the Limb
• Is It Vital and Important?
• Individual Competence Takes Time
• What Is the Price?
• The Will to Succeed
• The Acid Test of Success
• Give, and It Shall Be Given You!
• The Priceless and Irreplaceable Today
• The Fallacy of Enviously Competing
• Resolving Our Problems
• Need for the Old-Fashioned Rocking Chair
• Grow We Must
• No Free Buggy Rides
• Doing It Now
• Each Day One of Thanksgiving
• It's the First Downs That Count
• The Old and the New
• The Pattern Is the Thing
• Good Intentions Are Not Enough
• The Direct Route to Failure
• The Three Dimensions of Life
• The Right to Earn Your Share
• Taking Things for Granted
• Our Basic Needs
• The Three Systems of Habits
• As You Would a Friend
• What Is Success?
• Appreciation, the Basis for Happiness
• Getting Others to Go Along With Us
• Man's Most Urgent Drive
• The Principle of Give and Take
• Let's Face It
• The Product and the Byproduct
• Keeping Enthusiasm Alive
• Look for the Reason
• Bread and the Circus
• A Way to Personal Security
• Industry Is Indispensable
• Why Men Fail
• The Other Fellow
• Separating the Men from the Boys
• The Big Four
• A Means or an End?
• The Specter of Failure
• The Reflection in the Mirror
• Facing the Problem
• Lack of Self-confidence and Failure
• The Emotions That Destroy
• The Why of Our Insecurity
• Making Sales
• Selling Oneself
• Sharing Our Ego
• Acting Superior Belittles Others
• Within Today's Twenty-four Hours
• Looking at Things in Perspective
• A Mission Beyond Himself
• The Challenge to Serve
• The Right of Choice
• Seeing the Good in Others
• Smile! It Pays Off
• Say the Nice Things You Think
• A Profitable Investment
• A Personal Right
• Getting Along with Oneself
• Pay Check Plus
• Human Dignity and Human Rights
• From Whose Point of View
• That Which We Think Impossible
• Awareness and Appreciation
• First, an Objective
• Good for One: Good for the Other
• Strange Teachings, Indeed!
• Repayment in Service
• The Peace of Bethlehem
• Bearing Gently with Our Fellow Men
• Functional or Vestigial?
• The Nursery or Reality
• Extension or Atrophy?
• The Secret: To Want It Badly Enough
• Bettering Our Human Relationships
• As a Man Thinketh
• Handling One's Own Problems
• Today Is Life
• We Hurt Ourselves
• Give Others the Indispensable
• What Size the Package?
• Faith in Ourselves
• Changing the Balance
• Ancient Wisdom
• To Our Own Greater Interest
• The Tree in the Forest
• Against Our Own Best Interests
• Small or Big -- Our Choice
• Hang-over of Infancy
• The Priceless Asset
• The Shaper of His Destiny
• It's a Puzzlement
• Upward Through Growing
• The Mark of Our Imprint
• Not One, But Both
• Putting It into Practice
• Absolute Assurance Through Faith
• Getting Along With People
• Holding Fast to Basic Values