Struggles and Triumphs · Theme
Self-Made Success and Entrepreneurship
How Struggles and Triumphs develops Self-Made Success and Entrepreneurship.
Barnum's narrative emphasizes that success comes through hard work, shrewdness, and calculated risk-taking rather than luck or inheritance, as he rises from a farmer-boy to a wealthy showman through relentless enterprise.
Where it surfaces
- Struggles and Triumphs
The chapter emphasizes Barnum's belief in hard work and ingenuity as keys to achievement.
- In Business for Myself
Barnum details his first independent business venture with a small capital, emphasizing his ambition and speculative nature.
- IX: The Road to Riches
Barnum details how the American Museum was the ladder by which he rose to fortune, emphasizing his industrious efforts to please patrons and make money.
- An Enterprising Englishman
Mr. Wilson rises from journeyman to mill owner by applying Barnum's principles, illustrating the self-made success narrative.