Earl Nightingale & Napoleon Hill

earl-nightingale-worth-knowing-that-blog

Article Overview 🔎

Earl Nightingale and Napoleon Hill are famous for studying the most successful businessmen in America of their eras. From this, they wrote many publications on how these people had achieved such great success. Pioneers of the success and achievement space, they are the godfathers to all those that followed a similar path.

Who was Earl Nightingale? 🧠

Here is an excerpt from Earl Nightingale’s website explaining his story:

‘As a Depression-era child, Earl Nightingale was hungry for knowledge. From the time he was a young boy, he would frequently visit the Long Beach Public Library in California, searching for the answer to the question, ‘How can a person, starting from scratch, who has no particular advantage in the world, reach the goals that he feels are important to him, and by so doing, make a major contribution to others?’ His desire to find an answer, coupled with his natural curiosity about the world and its workings spurred him to become one of the world’s foremost experts on success and what makes people successful.

Earl Nightingale’s early career began when, as a member of the Marine Corps, he volunteered to work at a local radio station as an announcer. Earl managed to be one of the few survivors aboard the battleship Arizona. After five more years in the service, Earl and his wife moved first to Phoenix then Chicago to build what was to be a very fruitful career in network radio. As the host of his own daily commentary program on WGN, Earl Nightingale arranged a deal that also gave him a commission on his own advertising sales. By 1957, he was so successful, he decided to retire at the age of 35.

In the meantime, Earl had bought his own insurance company and had spent many hours motivating its sales force to greater accomplishments. When he decided to go on vacation for an extended period of time, his sales manager begged him to put his inspirational words on record. The result later became the recording entitled ‘The Strangest Secret’ (the first video below), the first spoken word message to win a Gold Record by selling over a million copies. In The ‘Strangest Secret’, Earl had found an answer to the question that had inspired him as a youth and, in turn, found a way to leave a lasting legacy for others

About this time, Earl met a successful businessman by the name of Lloyd Conant and together they began an ‘electronic publishing’ company which eventually grew to become a multi-million dollar giant in the self-improvement field. When Earl Nightingale died on March 28, 1989, Paul Harvey broke the news to the country on his radio program with the words, ‘The sonorous voice of the nightingale was stilled.’ In the words of his good friend and commercial announcer, Steve King, ‘Earl Nightingale never let a day go by that he didn’t learn something new and, in turn, pass it on to others. It was his consuming passion.‘

Earl Nightingale Quotes 📈

Earl Nightingale has a multitude of famous quotes from his array of best-selling books and interviews including:

“Your world is a living expression of how you are using and have used your mind.”

“Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude towards us.”

“You are now, and you do become, what you think about.”

“People who have goals succeed because they know where they’re going. It’s that simple.”

“All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.”

“We tend to live up to our expectations.”

“No man can get rich himself unless he enriches others.”

“We are all self-made, but only the successful will admit it.”

“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.”

“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become reality.”

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”

“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.”

Who was Napoleon Hill? 👨‍💼

Napoleon Hill was an American author in the area of the new thought movement who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success. His most famous work, ‘Think and Grow Rich’ wrote in 1937 (see the full audio in third video below), is one of the best-selling books of all time (at the time of Hill’s death in 1970, ‘Think and Grow Rich’ had sold 20 million copies). Hill’s works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. He became an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1936. How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach of the average person, were the focal points of Hill’s books.

Napoleon Hill’s Self-Confidence Formula 📜

1. I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my definite purpose in life; therefore, I demand of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.

2. I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves in outward, physical action, and gradually transform themselves into physical reality; therefore, I will concentrate my thought, for thirty minutes daily, upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture.

3. I know through the principle of autosuggestion, any desire that I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means of attaining the object back of it; therefore, I will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of self-confidence.

4. I have clearly written down a description of my definite chief aim in life, and I will never stop trying, until I shall have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment.

5. I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice; therefore, I will engage in no transaction that does not benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism, by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and in myself.

I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and repeat it aloud once a day, with full faith that it will gradually influence my thoughts and actions so that I will become a self-reliant, and successful, person.

Napoleon Hill Sayings and Quotes💰

He has many famous sayings and quotes from his portfolio of best-selling books and interviews. You can see some of his most famous quotes below, starting with his favorite expression of gratitude:

“I ask not for divine providence or more riches, but for wisdom with which to accept or use wisely the riches I received at birth in the form of the power and control to direct my mind to whatever ends I desire.”

“You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.”

“What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

“All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination…. Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.”

“Set your mind on a definite goal and observe how quickly the world stands aside to let you pass.”

“The more you give, the more comes back to you.”

“The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.”

“Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.”

“When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.”

“The path of least resistance makes rivers and most men crooked!”

“Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds.”