{"product_id":"2940013033382","title":"How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day","description":"PREFACE TO THIS EDITION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis preface, though placed at the beginning, as a preface must be,\u003cbr\u003eshould be read at the end of the book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have received a large amount of correspondence concerning this small\u003cbr\u003ework, and many reviews of it--some of them nearly as long as the book\u003cbr\u003eitself--have been printed.  But scarcely any of the comment has been\u003cbr\u003eadverse.  Some people have objected to a frivolity of tone; but as the\u003cbr\u003etone is not, in my opinion, at all frivolous, this objection did not\u003cbr\u003eimpress me; and had no weightier reproach been put forward I might\u003cbr\u003ealmost have been persuaded that the volume was flawless!  A more\u003cbr\u003eserious stricture has, however, been offered--not in the press, but by\u003cbr\u003esundry obviously sincere correspondents--and I must deal with it.  A\u003cbr\u003ereference to page 43 will show that I anticipated and feared this\u003cbr\u003edisapprobation.  The sentence against which protests have been made is\u003cbr\u003eas follows:--\"In the majority of instances he [the typical man] does\u003cbr\u003enot precisely feel a passion for his business; at best he does not\u003cbr\u003edislike it.  He begins his business functions with some reluctance, as\u003cbr\u003elate as he can, and he ends them with joy, as early as he can. And his\u003cbr\u003eengines, while he is engaged in his business, are seldom at their full\u003cbr\u003e'h.p.'\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am assured, in accents of unmistakable sincerity, that there are many\u003cbr\u003ebusiness men--not merely those in high positions or with fine\u003cbr\u003eprospects, but modest subordinates with no hope of ever being much\u003cbr\u003ebetter off--who do enjoy their business functions, who do not shirk\u003cbr\u003ethem, who do not arrive at the office as late as possible and depart as\u003cbr\u003eearly as possible, who, in a word, put the whole of their force into\u003cbr\u003etheir day's work and are genuinely fatigued at the end thereof.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am ready to believe it.  I do believe it.  I know it.  I always knew\u003cbr\u003eit.  Both in London and in the provinces it has been my lot to spend\u003cbr\u003elong years in subordinate situations of business; and the fact did not\u003cbr\u003eescape me that a certain proportion of my peers showed what amounted to\u003cbr\u003ean honest passion for their duties, and that while engaged in those\u003cbr\u003eduties they were really _living_ to the fullest extent of which they\u003cbr\u003ewere capable.  But I remain convinced that these fortunate and happy\u003cbr\u003eindividuals (happier perhaps than they guessed) did not and do not\u003cbr\u003econstitute a majority, or anything like a majority.  I remain convinced\u003cbr\u003ethat the majority of decent average conscientious men of business (men\u003cbr\u003ewith aspirations and ideals) do not as a rule go home of a night\u003cbr\u003egenuinely tired.  I remain convinced that they put not as much but as\u003cbr\u003elittle of themselves as they conscientiously can into the earning of a\u003cbr\u003elivelihood, and that their vocation bores rather than interests them.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47152501391600,"sku":"2940013033382","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013033382_p0.jpg?v=1763575514","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013033382","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}