Lessons from the Life Russell H. Conwell (Founder of Temple University)
Russell H. Conwell 1843–1925 - Russell H. Conwell was the founder of the Temple University, one of the renowned universities. He is famous for his “Acres of Diamonds” speech/book which is the story of Al Hafed, a man who traveled the world and lost his life in the pursuit of diamonds when, at the same time, a large mine of diamonds were in his own backyard and he never bothered to look.
ATTITUDE-“No matter what you do, do it to your utmost. I always attribute my success to always requiring myself to do my best.” He tells of how he went out on the roads selling books from house to house, and of how eagerly he devoured the contents of the sample books that he carried. ``They were a foundation of learning for me,'' he says, soberly. ``And they gave me a broad idea of the world.''
BEGIN - Conwell served as pastor of the Grace Church congregation for 43 years on North Broad Street in Philadelphia. One day, a young man approached him and requested Conwell on helping him with preparing for the ministry. Conwell offered to teach him one night a week (1). But on the agreed-upon evening seven young men came to Conwell. Here were Conwell’s “diamonds”. This is how the school called “Temple” founded. Conwell’s class grew in numbers, within a short time, other teachers were hired, rented a room, a building and then two. In 1888, the charter for “Temple College” was issued. Conwell was the elected president and he served in that position for 38 years. Today, this is the famous Temple University. “Our aim was to give education to those who were unable to get it through the usual channels. And so that was really all there was to it.''
CONSIDER - “Let every man or woman here, if you never hear me again, remember this, that if you wish to be great at all, you must begin where you are and with what you are. He who would be great anywhere must first be great in his own Philadelphia.” Many a man and many a woman, while continuing to work for some firm or factory, has taken Temple courses and thus fitted himself or herself for an advanced position with the same employer. Temple knows of many such, who have thus won prominent advancement. And it knows of teachers who, while continuing to teach, have fitted themselves through the Temple courses for Professorships. And it knows of many a case of the rise of a Temple student that reads like an Arabian Nights' fancy!—of advance from bookkeeper to editor, from office boy to bank president, from kitchen maid to school principal, from street-cleaner to mayor! Temple University helps them that help themselves.
DREAM - And Conwell himself is a dreamer: first of all he is a dreamer; it is the most important fact in regard to him! It is because he is a dreamer and visualizes his dreams that he can plan the great things that to other people would seem impossibilities; and then his intensely practical side his intense efficiency, his power, his skill, his patience, his fine earnestness, his mastery over others, develop his dreams into realities. He dreams dreams and sees visions--but his visions are never visionary and his dreams become facts. Like all great people, he not only does big things, but keeps in touch with myriad details. When his assistant, announcing the funeral of an old member, hesitates about the street and number and says that they can be found in the telephone directory, Dr. Conwell's deep voice breaks quietly in with, ``Such a number [giving it], Dauphin Street''--quietly, and in a low tone, yet everyone in the church hears distinctly every syllable of that low voice.”
ATTITUDE-“No matter what you do, do it to your utmost. I always attribute my success to always requiring myself to do my best.” He tells of how he went out on the roads selling books from house to house, and of how eagerly he devoured the contents of the sample books that he carried. ``They were a foundation of learning for me,'' he says, soberly. ``And they gave me a broad idea of the world.''
BEGIN - Conwell served as pastor of the Grace Church congregation for 43 years on North Broad Street in Philadelphia. One day, a young man approached him and requested Conwell on helping him with preparing for the ministry. Conwell offered to teach him one night a week (1). But on the agreed-upon evening seven young men came to Conwell. Here were Conwell’s “diamonds”. This is how the school called “Temple” founded. Conwell’s class grew in numbers, within a short time, other teachers were hired, rented a room, a building and then two. In 1888, the charter for “Temple College” was issued. Conwell was the elected president and he served in that position for 38 years. Today, this is the famous Temple University. “Our aim was to give education to those who were unable to get it through the usual channels. And so that was really all there was to it.''
CONSIDER - “Let every man or woman here, if you never hear me again, remember this, that if you wish to be great at all, you must begin where you are and with what you are. He who would be great anywhere must first be great in his own Philadelphia.” Many a man and many a woman, while continuing to work for some firm or factory, has taken Temple courses and thus fitted himself or herself for an advanced position with the same employer. Temple knows of many such, who have thus won prominent advancement. And it knows of teachers who, while continuing to teach, have fitted themselves through the Temple courses for Professorships. And it knows of many a case of the rise of a Temple student that reads like an Arabian Nights' fancy!—of advance from bookkeeper to editor, from office boy to bank president, from kitchen maid to school principal, from street-cleaner to mayor! Temple University helps them that help themselves.
DREAM - And Conwell himself is a dreamer: first of all he is a dreamer; it is the most important fact in regard to him! It is because he is a dreamer and visualizes his dreams that he can plan the great things that to other people would seem impossibilities; and then his intensely practical side his intense efficiency, his power, his skill, his patience, his fine earnestness, his mastery over others, develop his dreams into realities. He dreams dreams and sees visions--but his visions are never visionary and his dreams become facts. Like all great people, he not only does big things, but keeps in touch with myriad details. When his assistant, announcing the funeral of an old member, hesitates about the street and number and says that they can be found in the telephone directory, Dr. Conwell's deep voice breaks quietly in with, ``Such a number [giving it], Dauphin Street''--quietly, and in a low tone, yet everyone in the church hears distinctly every syllable of that low voice.”
Comments