The Greatest Secret in the World

  SOME

  OF THE WORLD’S

  MOST SUCCESSFUL MEN

  PRAISE

  ONE OF THE WORLD’S

  MOST AMAZING BESTSELLERS

  “This tremendously challenging book will inspire the reader to realize his moral, spiritual and financial goals!”

  —Wallace E. Johnson, Vice Chairman,

  Holiday Inns, Inc.

  “It’s inspiring. It’s terrific! It motivates the reader.”

  —W. Clement Stone, Chairman and

  Chief Executive Officer,

  Combined Insurance Company of America

  “Tremendous! Og Mandino has created another living classic that will touch the lives of millions.”

  —Charles “T.” Jones, President, Life

  Management Services, Inc.

  THE GREATEST SECRET IN THE WORLD

  This edition contains the complete text

  of the original hardcover edition.

  NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.

  THE GREATEST SECRET IN THE WORLD

  A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with

  Frederick Fell Publishers, Inc.

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Frederick Fell edition published May 1972

  Bantam edition / May 1978

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 1972 by Og Mandino.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  For information address: Frederick Fell Publishers, Inc.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-42068-8

  Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, New York, New York.

  v3.1_r1

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter I

  Chapter II

  Chapter III

  Chapter IV

  Chapter V

  Chapter VI

  Chapter VII

  Chapter VIII

  Chapter IX

  Chapter X

  Chapter XI

  Chapter XII

  Dedication

  Other Books by This Author

  About the Author

  The most valuable result of all education is to make you do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned. And however early a man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.

  Thomas Huxley

  The Legend of the Ten Scrolls

  From

  THE GREATEST SALESMAN IN THE WORLD

  Once upon a time, nearly two thousand years ago, a young camel boy named Hafid fell in love with a wealthy merchant’s daughter.

  To improve his lowly station in life, in order that he could ask for the fair Lisha’s hand in marriage, Hafid convinced his master, the great caravan merchant, Pathros, to give him an opportunity to prove his ability as a salesman.

  From the caravan’s supply wagon Pathros presented the youth with one new robe, which he challenged him to sell in the nearby village of Bethlehem. For three days in that poor hamlet Hafid failed in his every attempt to sell the robe … and finally, in a moment of pity, he gave the robe to warm a newborn baby in a cave near the village inn.

  The young man returned to the caravan so full of shame and self-pity with his failure at becoming a salesman that he did not notice the bright star shining above his head which accompanied him on his return journey from Bethlehem.

  But Pathros noticed … and the old man interpreted the brightness above as a sign from the gods … a sign he had been awaiting for many years … a sign which would release him from his secret possession of The Ten Great Scrolls For Success which he had received when he had also been a poor youth.

  The old merchant, before his death, presented the ten scrolls to Hafid, who employed their principles to eventually become the wealthiest, the most successful, The Greatest Salesman In The World.

  Several decades later Hafid passed the ten scrolls on to a very special person.

  Now you hold them in your hands … and in this book you will be taught how to read them and how to apply their wisdom to your own life plus how to chart your day-to-day progress with your own Success Recorder so that you can achieve lasting wealth, health, happiness, and most important … peace of mind.

  Chapter I

  Before you and I become involved in the Ten Great Scrolls For Success, let’s have a heart to heart talk.

  I’ll talk.

  You listen!

  The money spent on this book has been wasted.

  Whether someone who cares for you, who wants you to “make it” big, who perhaps even loves you, gave you The Greatest Secret in the World … or whether you purchased it yourself … the money has been wasted.

  The money has been wasted unless you are willing to accept, and try, a plan which has already worked for thousands of others.

  The money has been wasted unless you have the guts, the persistence, and the will-power to follow the plan through to its fruition.

  The money has been wasted unless you are willing to give the plan just ten minutes of your time each day of your work week … for forty-five weeks.

  If I were a Nick the Greek-type-oddsmaker I’d say the odds were about 75 to 1 against your letting this system for doubling or tripling your income within a year help you as much as it can.

  “But I’m different!” you remind me.

  Really? If you made any New Year’s resolutions last January 1st how long did you keep them? What about those excess pounds you were going to lose, or those cigarettes you were going to quit using … or that second drink you were going to stop having?

  How long are you going to keep kidding yourself?

  Perhaps you really do have a burning desire to succeed. Perhaps the added responsibility of marriage, or parenthood, or the desire for a new home, even a new car, or a mounting pile of debts have forced you to come to terms with yourself and acknowledge that the solution to all your needs and desires is really dependent on no one but you.

  But a burning desire to succeed is not enough. As the Executive Editor of Success Unlimited, a magazine devoted to helping individuals improve their business and personal life, I long ago recognized the fact that there are two types of burning desire … and one type is phony and hypocritical. This phony type of burning desire is found in the person who is constantly telling his wife, his boss, and (worst of all) himself, that he really wants to succeed. He reads all the self-help books published and he gets his “kicks” from reading about others succeeding just as there are individuals who get their “kicks” from reading pornographic books. Unfortunately for our friends who read either types of these books they never get into action. They live their lives vicariously through their imagined participation in the lives and activities of others.

  Tomorrow, to this type of dreamer, will be a great day.

  Tomorrow never comes.

  If I have struck a little nerve within you don’t be concerned. Let me wipe that frown from your brow by assuring you that all of us possess some of that phony kind of burning desire. We make promises to others, promises that we know we can’t keep, in order to get our boss or our wife off our backs … little realizing the harm we are doing to our own personality, because we know we’re lying.

  T
oday is the day you wipe that slate clean. No more phony promises, no more great plans in the evening which vanish when the sun rises, no more kidding yourself.

  As you move, day by day, through this simple success program, you will slowly come to realize one important truth. You are nature’s greatest miracle. Just to duplicate the computer you possess, called a brain, would require sufficient electronic equipment to fill the entire interior of the Empire State Building. You are rare and unique and the ultimate product of several million years of evolution. Both in mind, and body, you are far better equipped than Solomon or Caesar or Plato to make something beautiful and meaningful of your life.

  You have a greater potential than anyone who has ever lived before you!

  But you’ll never “make it” by sitting on your duff and telling the world how great you’re going to be, starting tomorrow. Sooner or later that friendly bill collector or landlord will shake his head at your promises. Sooner or later “credit” runs out. Sooner or later you “put up … or shut up.”

  This book will show you how to “put up” … if you will give it a chance to work for you.

  The Greatest Salesman in the World, the book from which this guide was developed, has been a publishing phenomenon since its first edition in 1968. Few books, especially books on salesmanship, ever attain hard cover sales of a quarter of a million copies, and neither the author nor its publisher dared to imagine that a small volume about a salesman living in the time of Christ would be met with the enthusiastic reception that it has enjoyed. Even more amazing … sales have increased each year since its publication.

  Executives responsible for the supervision of sales groups throughout the country quickly recognized the potential impact of The Greatest Salesman in the World as a motivational tool. Soon after its publication one firm purchased 30,000 copies! Copies have been purchased in volume by several hundred firms and sales organizations including such corporate giants as Coca-Cola, Amway Corporation, Combined Insurance Company of America, Kraft Foods, Success Motivation Institute, Parke, Davis & Company, Sperry Hutchinson, Volkswagen, Valley Steel Company, Genesco, Stanley Home Products, Norton International, The Southwestern Company, Stratford Squire International, American General Insurance Company of Delaware, Steamatic, Life Insurance of Kentucky, and Steak & Ale Restaurants of America, Inc.

  Soon after publication, both the author and publisher received another pleasant surprise. The Greatest Salesman in the World, written primarily for sales people, had somehow filtered far beyond its intended market. Letters, seeking more information about the scrolls, began to arrive from individuals and organizations representing such widely diversified groups as: an artist colony, prison heads concerned with rehabilitation, management consultants, politicians, college professors, armed forces personnel, the medical profession, students, professional athletes … even a national center for brain-damaged children.

  One salesman, after purchasing a gun to end his life because he had taken company funds, wrote that the book saved his life. He went to his firm, confessed his mistake, made restitution … and was given another chance.

  Many wrote that the book’s title was misleading. The Greatest Salesman in the World sounded like a “salesman’s book” whereas it was a book for anyone searching for his or her niche in life. The book became, and still is, a popular gift item. Sales managers to their salesmen, parents to their children, wives to husbands who are still struggling.

  Hopefully, with my “name-dropping” of all those corporations and the other examples cited in the past few paragraphs I have sold you on the fact that you are not holding just another “how-to” sales book loaded with complicated theories, charts, and selling techniques that look and sound terrific but won’t do much for you, tomorrow … or next week.

  Each Success Scroll will be beneficial to you, no matter what your profession may be … providing you make one sincere promise to yourself … that you will give it just ten minutes of your time, each work day, for the next forty-five weeks. Ten minutes … about the time it takes you to shower each day. Is that too much to ask to double or triple your income in the next ten months? When have you ever had a deal like this before?

  Now, I’m not going to ask you what you want from life. I’m not sure you could answer me. And I’m not going to ask you to list your assets as they are now and then make a second list showing what you’d like them to be a year from now, five years from now … and so on. We don’t need to go through all that “pipe dream success bookkeeping” you find in most self-help books.

  All we both need to know are four facts. What is your job title and what is your weekly income, today … plus what would you like your job title to be and what do you want to be earning forty-five weeks from now when you complete your Success Recorder.

  So … on a piece of paper, which I want you to keep in the privacy of your home, I’d like you to write a memo to yourself:

  To: John Smith Date:

  My present job title is.………….

  My present weekly income is.………….

  My job title, 45 weeks from now.………….

  My weekly income, 45 weeks from now.………….

  That’s all! Sign it … and tuck it away. Don’t even discuss it with anyone, except perhaps your wife. Do it now … right now! Procrastination is one of your habits we can’t start working on any too soon.

  Why didn’t I ask you for a long list of the things you wanted to achieve and acquire in the next 10 months? Things like a new home, perhaps, or the beginning of a college fund for your children, or maybe that movie camera with a 10 to 1 zoom lens you’ve wanted for so long? Because it wasn’t necessary. If you have improved your job title and your weekly income as much as I think you’ve indicated on that private memo to yourself then all the material things you want will begin to come your way. Any long lists of your dreams is unnecessary! You know what you want … and your Success Recorder Diary will help keep you on the right course.

  Chapter II

  You can begin your Success Recorder on any Monday during the year … but once you commence you must not let anything except a serious illness prevent you from following through, each day.

  One exception. If a vacation is on your schedule while you’re working on this program go off and enjoy yourself. Then, on your first day back to work, just pick up where you left off.

  You are about to read The First Great Scroll For Success. This scroll contains the instructions on how and when you are to read the scrolls that follow. Read this scroll several times during the week-end prior to the Monday you begin this program.

  Warning! Don’t let the simplicity of the scrolls’ instructions turn you off. Simplicity is the keynote of success in any endeavor. Remember Vince Lombardi and his uncomplicated game plans relying on basic fundamentals and the minimum of plays. Remember the letters K.I.S.S.… “Keep it simple, stupid!”

  You are about to learn how to tangle with the worst enemy you have … your bad habits. The Scroll Marked I contains the secret for getting rid of them. Read slowly. Read with a pen or pencil in your hand, if you like, and underline ideas which you feel are most meaningful and relevant to you.

  As you proceed you will discover that you have company. ME! I’ll be with you all the way:

  The Scroll Marked I

  Today I begin a new life.

  Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long, suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediocrity.

  Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard where there is fruit for all.

  Today I will pluck grapes of wisdom from the tallest and fullest vines in the vineyard, for these were planted by the wisest of my profession who have come before me, generation upon generation.

  Today I will savor the taste of grapes from these vines and verily I will swallow the seed of success buried in each and new life will sprout within me.

  The career I have chosen is laden with opportunity yet it is fraught with heartbreak and des
pair and the bodies of those who have failed, were they piled one atop another, would cast its shadow down upon all the pyramids of the earth.

  Yet I will not fail, as the others, for in my hands I now hold the charts which will guide me through perilous waters to shores which only yesterday seemed but a dream.

  Failure no longer will be my payment for struggle. Just as nature made no provision for my body to tolerate pain neither has it made any provision for my life to suffer failure. Failure, like pain, is alien to my life. In the past I accepted it as I accepted pain. Now I reject it and I am prepared for wisdom and principles which will guide me out of the shadows into the sunlight of wealth, position, and happiness far beyond my most extravagant dreams until even the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides will seem no more than my just reward.

  Time teaches all things to he who lives forever but I have not the luxury of eternity. Yet, within my allotted time I must practice the art of patience for nature acts never in haste. To create the olive, king of all trees, a hundred years is required. An onion plant is old in nine weeks. I have lived as an onion plant. It has not pleased me. Now I wouldst become the greatest of olive trees and, in truth, the greatest of salesmen.

  And how will this be accomplished? For I have neither the knowledge nor the experience to achieve greatness and already I have stumbled in ignorance and fallen into pools of self-pity. The answer is simple. I will commence my journey unencumbered with either the weight of unnecessary knowledge or the handicap of meaningless experience. Nature already has supplied me with knowledge and instinct far greater than any beast in the forest and the value of experience is overrated, usually by old men who nod wisely and speak stupidly.

  In truth experience teaches thoroughly yet her course of instruction devours men’s years so the value of her lessons diminishes with the time necessary to acquire her special wisdom. The end finds it wasted on dead men. Furthermore, experience is comparable to fashion; an action that proved successful today will be unworkable and impractical tomorrow.