The Strange Secret to Success - Earl Nightingale

foreign [Music] 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 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 it he was eager toward life that there was a certain Sparkle to his eye and 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 54 will be broke now take a moment out of the 100 only five make the grade now why do so many fail what has happened to these 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 five percent achieve success we have to define success and here's the best definition I've ever been able to find assess 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 the success if he's not doing that he's a failure success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal Rallo 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 learned to read by the time we're seven 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 is 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 as 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 20 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 you only knew about it and knew how to use it well there is such a key and I 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 gold succeed because they know where they're going it's that simple think of a ship leaving a harbor and think of it with a 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 9999 times out of ten thousand 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'll either sink or wind up on some deserted Beach at derelict it can't go anyplace because it has no destination and no guidance and it's the same with a human being 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'll suddenly find it 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 annoying 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 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 things it's only on this one point that they are in complete and unanimous agreement listen to what Marcus Aurelius the great Roman Emperor said a man's life is what his thoughts make of it the Israeli said this everything comes if a man

will only wait I've brought Myself by long meditation to the conviction that a human being with a subtle purpose must accomplish it and that nothing can resist a will that will stake even existence for its fulfillment Ralph Waldo Emerson said this a man is what he thinks about all day long William James said the greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind and he also said we need Only In Cold Blood act as if the thing in question were real and it will become infallibly

Real by growing into such a connection with our life that it will become real it will become so knit with habit and emotion that our interests in it will be those which characterize belief he also said if you only care enough for a result you will almost certainly attain it if you wish to be rich you will be rich if you wish to be learned you will be learned if you wish to be good you will be good only you must then really wish these things and wish them exclusively and not wish at the same

time a hundred other incompatible things just as strongly in the Bible you read in Mark 9 23 if thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth my old friend Dr Norman Vincent peel put it this way this is one of the greatest laws in the universe fervently do I wish I had discovered it as a very young man it dawned upon me much later in life and I found it to be one of the greatest if not my greatest discovery outside of my relationship to God the Great Law briefly and simply stated

is that if you think in negative terms you will get negative results if you think in positive terms you will achieve positive results simple fact he went on to say which is at the basis of an astonishing law of prosperity and success in three words believe and succeed William Shakespeare put it this way our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we often might win by fearing to attempt George Bernard Shaw said people are always blaming their circumstances for what they are I don't believe in circumstances the people who get on in this

world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can't find them make them well that was pretty apparent isn't it and every person who discovered this for a while believed that he was the first one to work it out we become what we think about now it stands to reason of a person who's thinking about a concrete and worthwhile goal is going to reach it because that's what he's thinking about and we become what we think about conversely the man who has no goal who doesn't know where

he's going and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion and anxiety and fear and worry becomes what he thinks about his life becomes one of frustration and fear and anxiety and worry and if he thinks about nothing there's nothing now how does it work why do we become what we think about well I'll tell you how it works as far as we know now to do this I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind suppose a farmer has some land and it's good for it to land now the land

gives the farmer a choice he may plant in that land whatever he chooses the land doesn't care it's up to the farmer to make the decision now remember we're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind like the land doesn't care what you plant in it it will return what you plant but it doesn't care what you plant now let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand one is a seed of corn the other is Nightshade a deadly poison he digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both

seeds one corn the other night shed he covers up the holes Waters and takes care of the land and what will happen invariably the land will return what's planted as it's written in the Bible as ye sow so shall ye reap now remember the land doesn't care it'll return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will coin so up come the two plants one corn one poison now the human mind is far more fertile far more incredible and mysterious than the land but it works the same way it doesn't care what we plant success

failure a concrete worthwhile goal or confusion misunderstanding fear anxiety and so on but what we plant it must return to us the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on Earth it contains riches beyond our wildest dreams it will return anything we want to plant now you might say well if that's true why don't people use their minds more well I think they figured out an answer to that one too our mind comes as standard equipment at Birth it's free and things that are given to us for nothing we place little value on things

that we pay money for we value the Paradox is that exactly the reverse is true everything was really worthwhile in life came goes free our minds our souls our bodies our hopes our dreams our Ambitions our intelligence our love of family and children and friends and Country all these Priceless possessions are free but the things that cost us money are actually very cheap and can be replaced at any time a good man can be completely wiped out and make another Fortune he can do that several times even if a home burns down we can rebuild

it but the things we got for nothing we can never replace the human mind isn't used because we take it for granted familiarity breeds contempt it can do any kind of job we assign to it but generally speaking we use it for little jobs instead of big important ones universities have prove that most of us are operating on about 10 percent or less of our abilities so decide now what is it you want plant your goal in your mind it's the most important decision you ever make in your entire life what is it you want

you want to be an outstanding salesman a better worker at your particular job do you want to go places in your company in your community do you want to get rich all you've got to do is plant that seed in your mind care for it work steadily toward your goal and it will become a reality it not only will there's no way that it cannot you see that's a law like the laws of Sir Isaac Newton the laws of gravity if you get on top of a building and jump off you'll always go down you'll

never go up and it's the same with all the other laws of nature they always work they're inflexible think about your goal in a relaxed positive way picture yourself and your mind's eyes having already achieved this goal see yourself doing the things you will be doing when you've reached your goal ours has been called the phenobarbital age the age of ulcers and nervous breakdowns and tranquilizers at a time when medical research has raised us to a new plateau of Good Health and Longevity far too many of us worry ourselves into an early grave trying to

cope with things in our own little personal ways without learning a few great laws that will take care of everything for us these things we bring on ourselves through our habitual way of thinking every one of us is the sum total of his own thoughts he is where he is because that's exactly where he really wants to be whether he'll admit that or not each of us must live off the fruit of his thoughts in the future because what you think today and tomorrow next month the next year will mold your life and determine your

future you're Guided by your mind I remember one time I was driving through Eastern Arizona and I saw one of those giant earth-moving machines roaring along the road at about 35 miles an hour with what looked like 30 tons of dirt in it a tremendous incredible machine and there was a little man perched way up on top with the wheel in his hands guiding it and as I drove along I was struck by the similarity of that machine to the human mind just suppose you're sitting at the controls of such a vast source of energy

are you going to sit back and fold your arms and let it run itself into a ditch or are you going to keep both hands firmly on the wheel and control and direct this power to a specific worthwhile purpose it's up to you you're in the driver's seat you see the very law that gives us success as a two-edged sword we must control our thinking the same rule that can lead a man to a life of success wealth happiness and all the things he ever dreamed of for himself and his family at very same walk

and lead him into the gutter salt and how he uses it for good or for bad this is The Strangest Secret in the world foreign [Music]