The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale
The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale
Earl Nightingale delivers a foundational motivational address centered on the principle that human destiny is shaped by internal thought patt
Key takeaways
- Nightingale cites that only about 5% of men achieve financial independence by age 65, attributing the gap to conformity rather than lack of opportunity.
- He defines success as 'the progressive realization of a worthy ideal,' emphasizing deliberate goal-setting over passive drifting.
Main topics
- Definition and measurement of success
- Conformity versus purposeful goal-setting
Notable quotes
"Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal."
Conclusion
The episode provides a timeless, actionable framework for personal development by
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) I'd like to tell you about the strangest secret in the world. Some years ago, the late Nobel Prize winning Dr. Albert Schweitzer was being interviewed in London, and a reporter asked him, Doctor, what's wrong with men today? And the great doctor was silent a moment, and then he said, Men simply don't think. It's about this that I want to talk with you. We live today in a golden age. This is an era that man has looked forward to, dreamed of, and worked toward for thousands of years. But since it's here, we pretty well take it for granted. We in America are particularly fortunate to live in the richest land that ever existed on the face of the earth, a land of abundant opportunity for everyone. But do you know what happens? Well, let's take a hundred men who start even at the age of 25. Do you have any idea what will happen to those men by the time they're 65? These 100 men who all start even at the age of 25 believe they're going to be successful. If you ask any one of these men if he wanted to be a success, he'd tell you he did. And you'd notice that he was eager toward life, that there was a certain sparkle to his eye, an erectness to his carriage, and life seemed like a pretty interesting adventure to him. But by the time they're 65, one will be rich. Four will be financially independent. Five will still be working. Fifty-four will be broke. Now think a moment. Out of the 100, only 5 make the grade. Now why do so many fail? What has happened to the sparkle that was there when they were 25? What's become of the dreams, the hopes, the plans? And why is there such a large disparity between what these men intended to do and what they actually accomplished? When we say about 5 % achieve success, we have to define success. And here's the best definition I've ever been able to find. Success is the progressive realization... of a worthy ideal. If a man is working toward a predetermined goal and knows where he's going, that man is a success. If he's not doing that, he's a failure. Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Rollo May, the distinguished psychiatrist, wrote a wonderful book called Man's Search for Himself. And in this book he says, the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice. It is conformity. And there you have the trouble today. It's conformity, people acting like everyone else without knowing why, without knowing where they're going. Now think of it. In America right now, there are over 18 million people 65 years of age and older. And most of them are broke. They're dependent on someone else for life's necessities. Now we learn to read by the time we're 7. We learn to make a living by the time we're 25. Usually by that time, we're not only making a living, we're supporting a family. And yet by the time we're 65, we haven't learned how to become financially independent in the richest land that has ever been known. Why? We conform. And the trouble is that we're acting like the wrong percentage group, the 95 who don't succeed. Now, why do these people conform? Well, they really don't know. These people believe that their lives are shaped by circumstances, by things that happen to them, by exterior forces. They're outer-directed people. A survey was made one time that covered a lot of men, working men, and these men were asked, Why do you work? Why do you get up in the morning? 19 out of 20 had no idea. If you ask them, they'll say, well, everyone goes to work in the morning and that's the reason they do it because everyone else is doing it. Now let's get back to our definition of success. Who succeeds? The only person who succeeds is the person who is progressively realizing a worthy ideal. He's the person who says, I'm going to become this and then begins to work toward that goal. I'll tell you who the successful people are. A success is the school teacher who's teaching school because that's what he or she wants to do. The success is the woman who's a wife and mother because she wanted to become a wife and mother and is doing a good job of it. The success is the man who runs the corner gas station because that was his dream. That's what he wanted to do. The success is the successful salesman who wants to become a top-notch salesman and grow and build with his organization. A success is anyone who is doing deliberately a predetermined job because that's what he decided to do deliberately. But only one out of twenty does that. That's why today there isn't really any competition unless we make it for ourselves. Instead of competing, all we have to do is create. You know, for 20 years I looked for the key which would determine what would happen to a human being. Was there a key I wanted to know which would make the future a promise that we could foretell to a large extent? Was there a key that would guarantee a person's becoming successful if he only knew about it and knew how to use it? Well, there is such a key, and I've found it. Have you ever wondered why so many men work so hard and honestly without ever achieving anything in particular, and others don't seem to work hard and yet seem to get everything? They seem to have the magic touch. You've heard them say that about someone. Everything he touches turns to gold. And have you ever noticed that a man who becomes successful tends to continue to become successful? And on the other hand, have you noticed how a man who's a failure tends to continue to fail? Well, it's because of goals. Some of us have goals. Some don't. People with goals succeed because they know where they're going. It's that simple. Think of a ship leaving a harbor. And think of it with the complete voyage mapped out and planned. The captain and crew know exactly where it's going and how long it'll take. It has a definite goal. Now 9,999 times out of 10,000, it will get to where it started out to get. Now let's take another ship, just like the first, only let's not put a crew on it or a captain at the helm. Let's give it no aiming point, no goal, no destination. We just start the engines and let it go. I think you'll agree with me that if it gets out of the harbor at all, It will either sink or wind up on some deserted beach or derelict. It can't go anyplace because it has no destination and no guidance, and it's the same with a human being. Take the salesman, for example. There's no other person in the world today with the future of a good salesman. Selling is the world's highest paid profession, if we're good at it and if we know where we're going. Every company needs top-notch salesmen, and they reward those men. The sky's the limit for them. But how many can you find? Someone once said the human race is fixed, not to prevent the strong from winning, but to prevent the weak from losing. The American economy today can be likened to a convoy in time of war. The entire economy is slowed down to protect its weakest link, just as the convoy had to go at the speed that would permit its slowest vessel to remain in formation. That's why it's so easy to make a living today. It takes no particular brains or talent to make a living and support a family today. So we have a plateau of so-called security, if that's what a person is looking for. But we do have to decide how high above this plateau we want to aim. Now let's get back to the strangest secret in the world, the story that I wanted to tell you today. Why do men with goals succeed in life and men without them fail? Well, let me tell you something which, if you really understand it, will alter your life immediately. If you understand completely what I'm going to tell you from this moment on, your life will never be the same again. You will suddenly find that good luck just seems to be attracted to you. The things you want just seem to fall in line, and from now on you won't have the problems, the worries, the... gnawing lump of anxiety that perhaps you've experienced before. Doubt, fear. Well, there'll be things of the past. Here's the key to success and the key to failure. We become what we think about. Speaker 1 (7:40) Now let me say that again. We become what we think about. Throughout all history, the great wise men and teachers, philosophers and prophets have disagreed with one another on many different