This book is not written as a personal history, but as a business story.
I have tried to avoid trivialities and to confine myself to matters of
instructive interest. The chief object behind every episode is to offer
helpful suggestions to those who will follow me. And to save them some
of the midnight groping which I did. My only claim for credit is that I
have probably worked twice as long as anybody else in this field. I have
lived for many years in a vortex of advertising. Naturally I learned
more from experience than those who had a lesser chance. Now I want that
experience, so far as possible, to help others avoid the same difficult
climb. Every pioneer should blaze his trail. That is all I have tried to
do. I set down these findings solely for the purpose of aiding others to
start far up the heights I scaled. Then, with the efforts I here
describe, I hope you can now attain some peaks in advertising beyond any
of us to date. - Claude C. Hopkins