The morning after the Great Chicago fire, of 1871, a group of merchants stood on State Street, looking at the smoking remains of what had been their stores. They went into a conference to decide if they would try to rebuild or leave Chicago and start over in a more promising section of the country. They reached a decision - all except one - to leave Chicago.

    The merchant who decided to stay and rebuild pointed at the remains of his store and said, "Gentlemen, on that very spot I will build the world's greatest store no matter how many times it may burn down."

    That was over a century ago. The store was built. It stands there today, a towering monument to that state of mind known as a burning desire. The easy thing for Marshall Field to have done would have been exactly what his fellow merchants did. When the going was hard, and the future looked dismal, they pulled up and went where the going seemed easier.

    Mark well this difference between Marshall Field and the other merchants, because it is the same difference which distinguishes practically all who succeed from those who fail.