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Show Author of "How to Win Friends and Influence People. " CONCENTRATION F. J. MacKie of the Santa Fe Railroad, Los Angeles, Calif., recently told me of a most valuable lesson he learned from the late Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. It happened back in 1912. The country was agog over a political cyclon'e. Theodore Roosevelt Roose-velt after serving two terms in the White House, denounced the party that had made him President, formed the new Bull Moose Party and started out on a hot, fighting, spectacular speaking tour. The most sensational figure in America then was Theodore Roosevelt. Roose-velt. Wherever he went, vast crowds thronged to hear him. Mr. MacKie traveled with Theodore Roosevent for thousands of miles during that campaign ; and the thing that astonished him most about Colonel Roosevelt was his ability to find time to read under such circumstances. And what do you suppose he read? Newspaper and magazine articles about himself? No. He read a book on the French Revolution. When the train arrived at a town, Roosevelt would drop his book, rush out to the back platform, make a speech; return to his 5 eat and go on reading about events that had happened in Fiance more than a century ago. How would the average person have read such a book under those circumstances? In the first place, the average man doesn't possess enough mental curiosity to read a book about the French Revolution. But even if he did want to read it, he would say it was impossible to read in the midst of such distraction. But Theodore Roosevelt possessed the all-important ability to concentrate on whatever he undertook. When he started to read (1 book, he read it in spite of all the din and uproar of a political campaign. Paderewski had this ability. His life also bristled with distractions. distrac-tions. The biggest distraction came on New Year's day, 1919. That day he became Prime Minister of Poland. A few days previous, ha had started a book by the American writer, Henry Thoreau, dealing deal-ing with the early days of our country. Great crowds gathered at Warsaw to greet him, and suddenly he was plunged into handling problems of state. For more that one hundred years his country had suffered tin- der alien yokes. Now treed, national snaking promems naa 10 De solved. He worked 1 5 hours a day to stabilize his country. He could speak seven languages which made him a most important man at the peace confrence. No other diplomat could do this. At the end of eleven months the crisis was over and he resigned. Then he had 1 little time for himself. So he hunted up the book by Thoreau! Thomas A. Edison said : "The world is filled with people who start things; few who finish them." Which category are you in? If I knew, I could tell a lot about your chances for achievement. |