All he had was words

This is a little study of great things.
One man started out in life without sponsors, without a university education, without money.  Someone said to him, "What have you beside your two hands to make a success of life?" He said softly, "I have nothing but words." The friend smiled, not understanding him.
 
So he started on his lonely quest for success with nothing but words.  He learned the secret of putting things into words, of making words living things.  He freighted his words with thought, clear thought, and, after a bit, he learned the secret of putting his fine, clean, splendid manhood into his words.  Men began to set a value upon his words.  People would stop him on the street to engage him in conversation just to hear his words.  You understand that almost every man who has climbed to the top of the ladder of success has climbed with words.
 
Here and there a man has climbed because of an unusual voice or an unusual gift of artistry, but the majority of men have gotten their feet on the first rung of the ladder of success by words.  They climbed rung by rung to the top.
 
A man must put a valuation on his own words before others will sense their value. The ambitious man's words became his bank account. He studied, he dug deep, he thought through on problems.  Other people learned to trust his judgment and his words, rather than to study for themselves.  There is a vast army of people who have certain business ability, but they have to hire others to do most of their thinking.  He supplied that want.  He did the thinking.
 
By and by they were willing to pay him almost any price to have him think for them.  His words became valuable.  They were his servants. How they labored for him! He filled words with inspiration, with comfort, with hope for others.  He sent them out on wings, until they passed from house to house, from lip to lip.  He found himself being quoted here and there. His words were doing things.  They were his servants working for him. He had learned the secret of words.
 
By and by, publishers paid him almost unthinkable prices for his words.  Why? Because he had learned the art of filling words with inspiration, new life.

Now consider: