Earl Nightingale - The Strangest Secret

Earl Nightingale - The Strangest Secret

Yes, that's right. Earl has a strange secret. It's this secret that reveals how to achieve greater success, that reveals how to enjoy greater happiness and peace of mind. How do I know this? Well, the cover says so, therefore that's what the strangest secret does.

Okay, there are actually a lot of secrets out there that are much stranger than Earl's and I bet none of those other secrets have anything to do with greater happiness and greater success. I'll leave it up to you to dwell on those other secrets.

Earl Nightingale is known basically as a pioneer in the field of self-help/human motivation. At around the age of 12, Earl started to get interested in human motivation or why some people are successful while most other people are failures in life. This was during the Great Depression where Earl, like many other Americans, lived in squalor. The years have passed by, Earl serves as a Marine during World War II, then he goes in the radio business. He also starts an insurance agency at the same time where the agency went from last place to sixth place in sales witihn two years. He was also involved in advertising and public speaking.

Then at the age of 35, Earl "retires." This was evidently a big deal as newspapers all over the country wrote articles about Earl's early retirement. Earl doesn't actually retire but starts to study human motivation (his obsession from childhood) and wrote "The Strangest Secret" as well as recording other motivation records.

The other side of this LP consist of The Southwestern Company Sales Tips. These tips are aimed at salesmen particularly college students doing this as a summer job. The Southwestern Company publishes reference books and to this day still exists to supposedly "build people" i.e. hiring college students for cheap as "independent contractors" to peddle their books. Earl schools Southwestern's salesmen in how to deal with the customers and convince people (prospects) to buy the books. Back when this LP came out, salesmen went up to peoples' doors unwantedly and interrupted their lives to talk them into buying some crap. Nowadays, salesmen (known by their new common name "telemarketers") use the telephone to call and interrupt people during dinner time. At the end of the side, Earl in his calming smooth voice offers consolation for those folks unable to sell anything and encourages them to try again the next day while thinking how to differently approach the prospects. I mentioned in an earlier post that it would be a pleasure to even hear Earl describe paint peeling because of his voice. Listening to Earl dispense sales tips has kept me glued to my seat considering that I don't give a shit about selling books door-to-door.

Tracklisting:

1. The Strangest Secret {10:46}

2. The Southwestern Company Sales Tips: Your Job as a Salesman {2:37}

3. The Southwestern Company Sales Tips: Start the Day Right Use Time Wisely {3:23}

4. The Southwestern Company Sales Tips: The Approach (Sales Talk at the Door) {4:13}

5. The Southwestern Company Sales Tips: The Close (Sales Talk on the Decision) {5:11}

6. The Southwestern Company Sales Tips: So Your Sales Were Low Today? {2:22}