SCHLIEMANN'S EARLY YEARS

Schliemann's achievements have never been properly understood.

Not by the general reader or by the established scholars in the field of archeology.

What is more remarkable is that he did all those things more than 150 years ago.

From the time he arrived in Amsterdam and started to work as an office boy, his life changed. He realized that if he wanted to get anywhere in life, he had to plan his future very carefully and work on those plans. It was not difficult for him to understand that if he wanted to advance to a higher income he had to improve his education. As an office boy, he new he had to learn to write properly. This is the first study that Schliemann writes about in his biography, that he learned to 'write nicely'. (Lernte schön schreiben.).

Apparently he took 20 lessons from a celebrated calligrapher from Brussels by the name of Magnée. It is presumed that from this activity to practice hand writing that his idea of keeping a dairy developed. Again he soon realized that to work in an office in a more advanced position, he would have to improve his knowledge of the German and the Dutch languages. He writes; "Aber nichts spornt mehr zum Studium an als das Elend und die gewisse Aussicht, durch angestrengtes Arbeiten sich aus demselben befreien zu können."

(Nothing is more motivating for self improvement,(to study) than to escape the miserable poverty and to achieve a higher standard of living.) To achieve this one has to study with a burning obsession.

We have to note here that Schliemann developed this burning obsession to achieve his goals at this early stage of his life. He developed this obsession into a habit and it remained with him for the rest of his life. He learned to practice positive habit forming activities, and he knew than that his financial rewards from this activity would follow without fail.

But as he continued to learn more and more, he also became a problem solver. And that is his trade mark, the secret of his phenomenal achievements. If he was faced with a problem he worked out a quick way to solve it. The key word here is 'quick'. He learned very early in his career that time is something that can not be wasted. He tried to do the most productive thing at any one moment. When he started to learn English he writes: "Necessity forced me to develop a special method to learn languages the easy way."

We are going to write about his methods at a later stage.

But one question that most of us want to know is?: Did Schliemann have a natural talent for learning languages? He writes in his dairy; "My memory was not very good, as is has not been exercised since my early childhood."

This indicates that he had nospecial talents for learning languages, but he loved to study and to learn new things all the time. All his achievements in learning anything he put his mind to, have been acquired by constant and relentless study.