|
|
| |
As a
Depression-era child, Earl Nightingale was hungry for knowledge.
From the time he was a young boy, he would frequent 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.
The Marines also gave him a chance to travel, although he only got
as
far as Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in
1941. 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 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.
They also developed a syndicated, 5-minute daily radio program,
"Our Changing World," which became the longest-running,
most widely syndicated show in radio.
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." |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
About our
people pages:
Because many visitors have asked for more information
about particular people whose words appear on the site,
we'll try to give you as much information as we can about
individuals. The Amazon links should give you access
to works by the author, though at times they'll display
other books if the author has written an essay or
introduction for those books. |
|
| |
|
Learn to enjoy
every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of
yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time
you have to spend, whether it's at work or with your family. Every minute
should be enjoyed and savored.
Earl
Nightingale
|
| |
|
