The Power of Purpose - Orison Swett Marden
Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success & Happiness
The Living Hour
3.8 • 799 Ratings
🗓️ 5 August 2025
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Listen to episode 1031 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: The Power of Purpose. Edited and adapted from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden.
Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: The woman and man who knows one thing, and can do it better than anybody else (even if it only be the art of raising turnips), receives the crown they merit. If they raise the best turnips by reason of concentrating all their energy to that end, they are a benefactor to the race and are recognized as such.
If a salamander be cut in two, the front part will run forward and the other backward. Such is the progress of those who divide their purpose. Success is jealous of scattered energies. No one can pursue a worthy object steadily and persistently with all the powers of their mind and yet make their life a failure.
---------------------
Get our popular 3 books of Life Lessons in paperback and e-book on Amazon. Go to: https://livinghour.org/books
Get our podcast with full transcripts and without ads by visiting: https://livinghour.org/patron
Our Sponsors:
* Check out Shopify: https://shopify.com/inspirational
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/inspirational-living/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is David. You know, over the years I've started a number of businesses, like this podcast. Some have succeeded in, others have failed. But the common experience has been feeling rather alone at the start, and getting overwhelmed by all the things you have to do, all the different hats you have to wear. Finding the right tool that not only helps you |
| 0:21.9 | out but simplifies everything can be a real game changer. And for millions of businesses, |
| 0:27.9 | that tool is Shopify. With Shopify's help, you can launch a beautiful online store fast. It's like |
| 0:36.0 | having your own design studio, with hundreds of templates |
| 0:39.0 | that are easily modified to match your brand's unique vibe. Shopify is also packed with |
| 0:45.0 | helpful AI tools to accelerate content creation. You'll be able to quickly write product |
| 0:51.0 | descriptions, page headlines, while also enhancing product photography. |
| 0:56.2 | Turn your big business idea into |
| 0:58.5 | with Shopify on your side. |
| 1:03.1 | Sign up for your $1 per month trial |
| 1:04.9 | and start selling today at shopify.com |
| 1:08.1 | slash inspirational. |
| 1:15.4 | Go to shopify.com slash inspirational. Go to Shopify.com slash inspirational. Shopify.com slash inspirational. Welcome to the Inspirational Living Podcast. |
| 1:37.9 | Today's reading was edited and adapted from Pushing to the Front by Orison |
| 1:44.0 | Sweat Martin, published in 1911. |
| 1:51.0 | The great difference between those who succeed and those who fail |
| 1:58.0 | does not consist in the amount of work done by each, but in the amount |
| 2:03.6 | of intelligent work. Many people who fail most ignominiously actually do enough to achieve |
| 2:10.8 | grand success, but they labor half-hazardly, building up with one hand only to tear down with another. |
| 2:19.9 | They do not grasp circumstances and change them to opportunities. |
| 2:25.5 | They have no faculty of turning honest defeats into telling victories. |
| 2:31.5 | With ability enough and time in abundance, they are forever throwing back and forth |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Living Hour, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Living Hour and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.