Once, there was a boy who held a magnifying glass, hoping to use it to produce a fire. He ran here and there around for almost an hour, expecting the paper to burn, but nothing happened. Frustrated, he threw the magnifying glass aside.

A sage, who had been observing him, approached and said, “Give me the glass, and I’ll show you how to do it.”

Taking the glass, the sage placed a piece of paper underneath it. Holding the glass steady in a perpendicular position, he focused the sunlight on one spot. Within five minutes, a spark appeared, and the paper caught fire in seconds.

The boy, amazed, asked, “How did you do it so quickly? Why couldn’t I, even after trying so hard?”

The sage replied, “You kept moving around, never letting the sun’s rays concentrate on one spot. To produce fire, you must focus all the energy on one point.”

wholehearted concentration on the one thing is the key to success in any field.

Swami Vivekananda also revealed the same secret in his teachings by saying: “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life—think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, and every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”