The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale was a groundbreaking work when it was originally released in 1956. The spoken word record helped launch the fields of business motivation and audio publishing, and it received the first Gold Record for the spoken word. Its significance and profundity might be even greater today though than they were back in 1956, and I highly recommend that everyone who is reading this blog post listens to the 35-minute recording of The Strangest Secret today. Its message is perhaps even more important today, as so many people find themselves lost and directionless in their own lives. Merely listening to or reading The Strangest Secret is of course not a panacea for everything that is wrong in someone’s life. However, internalizing its core messages and taking action accordingly is in many ways the “secret” to living a happy, fulfilling, and successful life.
I first came across The Strangest Secret over eight years ago, and as a 21-year-old who had recently graduated from college and who had no idea where his life was headed, I was blown away by it. Its insights and inspirations are rich and numerous, and the spoken word record provides tremendous value for everyone, especially those who comprise the estimated 95% of the population who are not achieving success according to Nightingale’s definition. Despite the 95% figure that Nightingale cites, perhaps his greatest insight is one of hope. Nightingale proffers the notion that each person is way more in control of their success and happiness than he or she may think. He cites the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw’s dismissal of the notion of circumstances, which of course so many people often use an excuse to justify their unhappiness and their lack of fulfillment, and he argues, as Shaw did, that “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.” That one insight alone should give everyone hope: each one of us can look for the circumstances we want, and we can otherwise create those circumstances if they do not already exist. Each one of us is far more in control of what happens in our lives than we may think. Each one of us controls whether we end up being successful and happy.
At the start of the record, Nightingale suggests that out of a group of 100 men who are at an equal point in life at the age of 25 that only 5 of them will be successful by the time they are 65 years old. He explains that only 1 of the 100 men will be rich, with only 4 others being financially independent, while 5 will still be working and 54 will be broke. Nightingale defines success as “the progressive realization of a worthy ideal” and states that anyone who is working towards a predetermined goal is a success and those who are not are failures. He infers that a mere 5% of the population is achieving success based on that definition, and he blames conformity, or “people acting like everyone else without knowing why [and] without knowing where they’re going,” for being the reason why 95% of people fail to meet his definition of success.
One of the most astonishing facts Nightingale cites in The Strangest Secret is a survey in which 19 out of 20 people have no idea why they work or why they get up in the morning. The only reason they can give for why they do it is “because everyone else is doing it” too. Per Nightingale’s definition, such people cannot be successful because they are not working towards the “realization of a worthy ideal.” These people are unsuccessful because they lack goals, since as Nightingale says, “people with goals succeed because they know where they’re going” and “men without [goals] fail.” Nightingale comes to sum up “the key to success and the key to failure,” otherwise referred to as “the strangest secret in the world,” as the insight that “we become what we think about.” He quotes the American philosopher and psychologist William James, who once said, “If you only care enough for a result, you will almost certainly attain it.” He then quotes the American clergyman Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, who said, “If you think in negative terms, you’ll get negative results. If you think in positive terms, you will achieve positive results.” Peale sums up this insight in three words, “believe and succeed.” Nightingale suggests that “a person who is thinking about a concrete and worthwhile goal is going to reach it because that’s what he is thinking about and we become what we think about,” while “the man who has no goal, who doesn’t know where he is going and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion and anxiety and fear and worry, becomes what he thinks about” as well, and “his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety, and worry” and that “if he thinks about nothing, he becomes nothing.” As such, the way to be successful, according to Nightingale, is to think positively, have worthwhile goals, and think about achieving those worthwhile goals.
As tremendous and numerous as Nightingale’s insights are, I do have to push back in part on the overly simplistic nature of his solution. While positive thinking, worthwhile goals, and hope are all extremely important and essential throughout life, taking action is just as important. While Nightingale alludes to the significance of taking action when he talks about working towards the “progressive realization of a worthy ideal,” he does not elaborate on that piece of the puzzle nearly as much, as he instead focuses on the importance of positive thinking. We can certainly “become what we think about,” but only if we put in the effort and the work to achieve our goals and make our thoughts and our hopes a reality. In life, we need a little more than just “a purpose and faith,” even though Nightingale says those are the only things an adult needs. Thinking positively and having a purpose and faith are important parts of the puzzle, and removing the mental limitations we have placed on ourselves and on what we can achieve is critical, but action is also required to improve our position in life. Nightingale outlines a 30-day “test” in which he recommends that listeners “write on a card what it is [they want] more than anything else” and to look at the card “every chance [they] get.” While Nightingale’s 30-day test is certainly worthwhile and his suggestion to “stop thinking about what it is you fear” is something we should all strive to do, his approach continues to be overly simplistic when he says, “Don’t concern yourself too much with how you’re going to achieve your goal. Leave that completely to a power greater than yourself.” Instead of solely following Nightingale’s suggestions, readers of this blog should instead combine the goal-setting and positive thinking approach of Nightingale with the goal of determining and taking the next step that American author and entrepreneur James Altucher discusses and the action-oriented approach and desire to take action for which American entrepreneur and internet personality Gary Vaynerchuk argues (profanity is used frequently in the Gary Vaynerchuk link).
Despite my partial pushback against what Nightingale prescribes, I can’t recommend listening to The Strangest Secret enough. I second Nightingale’s recommendation when he says to “play [his record] often.” The Strangest Secret has so many tremendous insights, and it is invaluable for anyone who is striving to find purpose, success, happiness, and fulfillment in life. As Nightingale says, “Life should be an exciting adventure. It should never be a bore. [Everyone] should be glad to get out of bed in the morning. [Everyone] should be doing a job that [they like] to do because [they do] it well.” Nightingale’s record provides a sense of hope and optimism and an opportunity for change and self-improvement. It encourages people to pursue success, worthwhile goals, financial independence, and happiness. The Strangest Secret offers an inspiring and uplifting message, and listening to it can truly change lives. It continues to help me determine my own goals and to reestablish my own sense of hope and optimism every time I listen to it. Over eight years after first listening to The Strangest Secret, it continues to provide me with opportunities for growth, self-reflection, positive change, and personal development, and it continues to be a source of tremendous inspiration and insights for me, just as I hope it will be for all of you.
