In summary, success is based on following God's plans in His way. Success is not based solely on budget, talent, sales, or strategy. With God's blessing, a little will accomplish a lot. Without God's blessing, a lot will accomplish little.

God has placed at the command of His people advantages in the press, which, combined with other agencies, will be successful in extending the knowledge of the truth. Tracts, papers, and books, as the case demands, should be circulated in all the cities and villages in the land. Here is missionary work for all. PM 44.3

Human strength is weakness, human wisdom is folly. Our success does not depend on our talents or learning, but on our living connection with God. PM 294.1

I urge upon you the importance of attending our annual meetings, not merely the business meetings, but the meetings that will be for your spiritual enlightenment. You do not realize the necessity of having a close connection with heaven. Without this connection not one of you is safe; not one is qualified to do God’s work acceptably. PM 67.1

All the workers should be impressed with the fact that they are not only to be educated in business lines, but to become qualified to bear spiritual responsibilities. Let every worker be impressed with the importance of a personal connection with Christ, a personal experience of His power to save. Let the workers be educated as were the youth in the schools of the prophets. Let their minds be molded by God through His appointed agencies. All should receive a training in Bible lines, should be rooted and grounded in the principles of truth, that they may keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. Let every effort be made to arouse and encourage the missionary spirit. Let the workers be impressed with a sense of the high privilege proffered them in this last work of salvation, to be used by God as His helping hand. Let each be taught to work for others, by practical labor for souls just where he is. Let all learn to look to the word of God for instruction in every line of missionary effort. Then, as the word of the Lord is communicated to them, it will supply their minds with suggestions for working the fields in such a way as to bring to God the best returns from all parts of His vineyard. PM 52.4

A close connection with heaven will give the right tone to your fidelity and will be the ground of your success. Your feeling of dependence will drive you to prayer, and your sense of duty summon you to effort. Prayer and effort, effort and prayer, will be the business of your life. You must pray as though the efficiency and praise were all due to God, and labor as though duty were all your own. If you want power you may have it; it is waiting your draft upon it. Only believe in God, take Him at His word, act by faith, and blessings will come. PM 67.4

If our bookmen do their part faithfully, I know, from the light God has given me, that the knowledge of present truth will be doubled and trebled…. But let us remember, in all our endeavors we must seek daily power and individual Christian experience. Only as we keep in close touch with the Source of our strength shall we be enabled to advance rapidly and along even lines.PM 38.3

Let the people understand the plans and share in the work, and they will have a personal interest in its prosperity. The success attending Nehemiah’s efforts shows what prayer, faith, and wise, energetic action will accomplish. Living faith will prompt to energetic action.PM 256.1

Great decision of character will now be necessary on your part, to change this order of things. No weak efforts will accomplish the work. You cannot do it of yourselves; you must have the grace of Christ, or you can never overcome. All your plans will prove a failure unless you are actuated by higher motives, and upheld by greater strength, than you can have in and of yourselves.PM 66.2

The divine Worker will be present to send conviction to hearts. “I am with you alway,” is His promise. With the assurance of the abiding presence of such a Helper we may labor with faith and hope and courage… To every worker Christ promises the divine efficiency that will make his labors a success PM 274

As the workers realize that they are in the presence of angels, whose eyes are too pure to behold iniquity, what strong restraint they will place on thoughts, words, and actions. They will be given moral strength; for the Lord says, “Them that honor Me, I will honor.” Every worker will possess a precious experience, and a power and faith that is stronger than all circumstances. They will be able to say, “The Lord is in this place.” The angels of God will be in every room. The power of an inward life will circulate through the office. There will be a power in the lives of the workers that will be felt throughout the entire institution. PM 43.3

Special help, which is above all the supposed advantages of illustrations, will be given to such canvassers. The canvassers who are born again by the work of the Holy Spirit will be accompanied by angels, who will go before them to the dwellings of the people, preparing the way…. PM 301.2

But when we give ourselves wholly to God and in our work follow His directions, He makes Himself responsible for its accomplishment. He would not have us conjecture as to the success of our honest endeavors. Not once should we even think of failure. We are to cooperate with One who knows no failure. PM 293.5

The believers who in the early history of the cause sacrificed for the upbuilding of the work were imbued with the same spirit. They felt that God demanded of all connected with His cause an unreserved consecration of body, soul, and spirit, of all their energies and capabilities, to make the work a success.PM 26.3

The Lord requires all in the office to labor from high motives. In His own life, Christ has given them an example. All should labor with interest, devotion, and faith for the salvation of souls. If all in the office will labor with unselfish purposes, discerning the sacredness of the work, the blessing of God will rest upon them.PM 61.3

The Lord is sending His angels, preparing the hearts of the people to receive the truth. And if we are only consecrated to His service, we shall be sent forth in the spirit and power of Elijah. PM 92.4

Note: Self-interest is the opposite of self-sacrifice.

The Lord will withdraw His blessing where selfish interests are indulged in any phase of the work; but He will put His people in possession of good throughout the whole world, if they will use it for the uplifting of humanity. The experience of apostolic days will come to us when we wholeheartedly accept God’s principle of benevolence—consent in all things to obey the leadings of His Holy Spirit.PM 51.3

In Ezekiel’s vision God had His hand beneath the wings of the cherubim. This is to teach His servants that it is divine power that gives them success. He will work with them if they put away iniquity and become pure in heart and life. PM 293.7

I have been instructed that wherever by self-sacrifice and urgent efforts facilities for the establishment and advancement of the cause have been provided, and the Lord has prospered the work, those in that place should give of their means to help His servants who have been sent to new fields. PM 197.2

We went over the same ground in California, selling all our goods to start a printing press on the Pacific Coast. We knew that every foot of ground over which we traveled to establish the work would be at great sacrifice to our own financial interests. PM 28.1

Many among believers have scarcely food enough to eat, yet in their deep poverty they bring their tithes and offerings to the Lord’s treasury. Many who know what it is to sustain the cause of God in hard and trying circumstances have invested means in the publishing houses. They have willingly endured hardship and privation, and have watched and prayed for the success of the work. Their gifts and sacrifices express the fervent gratitude of their hearts to Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. Their prayers and their alms come up as a memorial before God. No incense more fragrant can ascend to heaven. PM 32.2

These instrumentalities are missionary institutions. The Lord designed that they should be a power for good; and if all who are connected with them are consecrated, if they are meek and lowly in heart, Christ will give them most precious lessons in His school. In our health institutions, our publishing houses, our schools, all should work harmoniously to carry out the purpose of God, and everything connected with the institutions should tend toward reform. The managers and helpers should have the true missionary spirit as a daily, abiding principle; for they are in a field that requires the highest kind of missionary work. Our institutions, properly conducted, will exert a far-reaching influence, and if the managers and the workers are Christians, they will be as shining lights. PM 53.2

No one who is an unbeliever should be permanently employed. All must have their trial and test. No one whose mind is not under the control of the Holy Spirit should be allowed to handle the sacred work of God; for the enemy lays plans to lead such men to do things which will hurt the work, and which may result in great loss and hindrance.PM 77.1

There is a disposition in men to think they are the only ones who can do the work right and make it a success, when they are most sadly deficient in essential qualities which must be supplied to make the work a success. Thus it is with our beloved Elder C. We must all give room for others to come by our side and work harmoniously with us that one may supply the deficiency of another and all blend together in perfect harmony.PM 104.1

The elements of character that make a man successful and honored among men—the irrepressible desire for some greater good, the indomitable will, the strenuous exertion, the untiring perseverance—are not to be crushed out. PM 293.4

Sometimes He trains His workers by bringing to them disappointment and apparent failure. It is His purpose that they shall learn to master difficulties. Often men are tempted to falter before the perplexities and obstacles that confront them. But if they will hold the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end, God will make the way clear. Success will come to them as they struggle against difficulties. PM 293.6

When you make up your mind to do something on which your heart is set, you do not give up for difficulties, but try again and again. Put the same energy and determination to succeed in the service of Christ, and you will not fail of a reward. PM 293.8

I wish all the workers carefully to consider that success in this life and success in gaining the future life depend largely upon faithfulness in little things. PM 109.5

Strength and power will be in our institutions if they keep close to the word of God in all their connection and dealing with their fellow men. PM 153.4

It is God alone who can give success either in preparing or in circulating our publications. If in faith we maintain His principles, He will co-operate with us in placing the books in the hands of those whom they will benefit. The Holy Spirit is to be prayed for, trusted in, believed in. Humble, fervent prayer will do more to promote the circulation of our books than will all the expensive ornamentation in the world.PM 95.2

Let the publications, the papers, the pamphlets, be working among the people, and preparing the minds of the reading class for the preaching of the truth. Let no stinted efforts be made in this line, and the work, if begun wisely and prosecuted wisely, will result in success. But do be humble and teachable, if you would teach others and lead them in the way of truth and righteousness. PM 37.1

It should be understood that perfect unity among the laborers is necessary to the successful accomplishment of the work of God. In order to preserve peace, all must seek wisdom from the Great Teacher. Let all be careful how they introduce ambitious propositions that will create dissension. PM 201.5

The workers in the Echo [The Echo publishing house in Melbourne, Australia.] office have very little insight into the right methods of obtaining success. They are working at cross purposes with each other. The Echo office is sick, from the crown to the foundation. There will be no vitality, no decided progress, until the workers follow Christian principle. These workers need to be soundly converted to the truth. Devotion to God, conscientious, prayerful work for the Master, will bring unity. Each worker must be on his guard, firmly determined to bind about the edges of every department in the office. He must realize that it is his duty to give brain, bone, and muscle to the work, that it may be made a success. PM 85.1

I saw that unless the workers in our institutions were subject to the authority of God, there would be a lack of harmony and unity of action among them. PM 84.1

For more details, see The Character of What we Print.

You are not as a people doing one twentieth part of what might be done in spreading the knowledge of the truth. Very much more can be accomplished by the living preacher with the circulation of papers and tracts than by the preaching of the word alone without the publications. The press is a powerful instrumentality which God has ordained to be combined with the energies of the living preacher to bring the truth before all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples. Many minds can be reached in no other way. PM 44.5

“You have called the attention of the people to important subjects, which, to a large number, are strange and new. To some they are intensely interesting. The laborers in word and doctrine have done what they could in presenting the truth. But unless there is a more thorough effort made to fasten these impressions upon minds, your efforts will prove nearly fruitless. Satan has many attractions ready to divert the mind; and the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches all combine to choke the seed of truth sown in the heart.
“In every effort such as you are now making, much more good would result from your labors if you had appropriate reading matter ready for circulation. Tracts upon the important points of truth for the present time should be handed out freely to all who will accept them. You are to sow beside all waters…. PM 45

For a more in-depth look at this topic, read the article on Preacher-Paper Duo.

The cause of God in the earth today is in need of living representatives of Bible truth. The ordained ministers alone are not equal to the task of warning the great cities. God is calling not only upon ministers, but also upon physicians, nurses, colporteurs, Bible workers, and other consecrated laymen of varied talent who have a knowledge of the word of God and who know the power of His grace, to consider the needs of the unwarned cities. PM 310.3

A principle should exist all through the office to economize. In order to save the dollars, dimes and pennies must be carefully treasured. Men who have been successful in business have always been economical, persevering, and energetic. Let all connected with the work of God begin now to educate themselves thoroughly as caretakers. PM 108.3