A new year invariably brings thoughts of change, of self-improvement, of new beginnings. So it is with Cosimo: as we celebrate our new blog, I’ll take a look throughout January at our library’s worth of books, current and classic, on topics of self-help, personal development, and refreshening the mind, body, and spirit. If you’re ready for a fresh start yourself, stay tuned throughout the month for some ideas to get you motivated.

Succeeding With What You Have, by Charles M. Schwab, is a candid essay — first published in American Magazine in November 1916 — by one of the United States’ most astounding rags-to-riches stories. Here, Schwab, one-time president of Carnegie Steel, U.S. Steel, and Bethlehem Steel, offered his secrets for success. Surprisingly, he didn’t believe that genius was required — he believed in hard work. “For thirty-six years I have been moving among workingmen in what is now the biggest branch of American industry, the steel business,” Schwab wrote. “In that time it has been my good fortune to watch most of the present leaders rise from the ranks, ascend step by step to places of power. These men, I am convinced, are not natural prodigies. They won out by using normal brains to think beyond their manifest daily duty.” This is fascinating look at the path to success, one filled with surprising insights, written by one who traveled it.

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