Russell Conwell

Russell Conwell (born February 15, 1843, South Worthington, Massachusetts, U.S.—died December 6, 1925, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American lawyer, author, clergyman, and educator whose lecture “Acres of Diamonds,” which expressed his formula for success, brought him fame and wealth on the Chautauqua circuit.

In 1862 Conwell began law study at Yale but left a few weeks later to raise a company for service in the American Civil War, in which he was awarded the rank of captain. Admitted to the bar in 1865 (after graduating from Albany Law School, Albany, New York), he practiced law in Minneapolis and Boston. In 1867 he was editor in chief of the Minneapolis Daily Chronicle, and he was co-owner of the Somerville (Massachusetts) Journal.

Conwell was ordained a minister in 1881 and in 1882 was called to Grace Baptist Church in Philadelphia, a small congregation struggling with debt. The church prospered under his leadership, moving eventually to the much larger Baptist Temple. Conwell founded Temple University in 1884 as a series of night study courses for ministerial students; the school received a college charter in 1888 and became a university in 1907, with Conwell as its first president (from 1887).

Conwell delivered his lecture “Acres of Diamonds” no fewer than 6,000 times. The theme of the lecture was that opportunity lurks in everyone’s backyard. Everyone, Conwell believed, can and ought to get rich and then use that money for the good of others. “Keep clean, fight hard, pick your openings judiciously, and have your eyes forever fixed on the heights toward which you are headed” was his simple formula for success and the central emphasis of his preaching.