The Secret of Success

unable to avail of any opportunity which presents itself in the daytime. Great success is always attained after a great struggle. There is no other way to achieve great success. Overcoming Arduous Situations An incident I heard a long time ago is an excellent example of successful person. A twelve-year old boy came running home one evening hoping for something to eat. He was ravenously hungry. His mother looked at him sadly. "I’ve nothing to give you," she said. "There’s not a thing in the house to eat, and I’ve no money to buy food." She began to shed tears of despair. Her husband was a poor man—a daily labourer—and when days passed and he could not find work, it meant that everyone went hungry. The young boy thought for a moment, then asked his mother if she didn't even have twentyfive paise. "I do," she said, "but what can you buy for a whole family with just twenty-five paise?" Her son told her not to worry and begged her to give him her last coin. Too weary and hopeless even to argue with him, she handed it over and he rushed outside with a look of determination on his face. He collected a bucket of drinking water and a glass on the way out, then bought a piece of ice from a nearby stall and cooled the water with it. Then he made straight for a cinema queue where people were standing in a line, sweating, waiting to buy their tickets. He started walking up and down the line shouting, 'Water! Cold Water!' and soon attracted the crowd's attention. People gratefully began buying his glasses of cold water. Some kind souls even paid him more than he asked for. With part of his earnings he bought more ice, and went back and sold more glasses of cold water. He kept this up indefatigably until the queue had disappeared. By this time he