Earl Nightingale’s life did not begin in comfort or privilege. Born in Los Angeles in 1921, he was only a boy when his father walked out, leaving his mother to raise three sons at the bottom of the Great Depression. They lived in Tent City on the waterfront of Long Beach — a place where uncertainty hung as thick as the ocean fog.

But it was there, surrounded by hardship, that Earl began asking the questions that would shape his destiny:

Why are some people poor while others prosper? Why are some unhappy while others live with purpose and joy? What makes people become who they become?

No one around him had answers. Not his mother. Not the adults in the neighborhood. But Earl knew the answers existed somewhere — and someone had written them down.

So at nine years old, he walked into a public library and began a search that would last more than twenty years.

While other children played, Earl read. He devoured books on philosophy, psychology, religion, and human behavior. He studied the world’s great thinkers — not for entertainment, but for insight.

He was looking for the secret behind human destiny.

This search became the foundation of the message he would later share with millions:

You are what you think about.
Your mind is the control tower of your life.

At seventeen, eager to escape poverty and see the world, Earl joined the Marines. He was stationed aboard the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor. On the morning of December 7, 1941, he was in his duty station when the attack came.

Earl was one of only twelve surviving Marines from the Arizona that day.

He later said that survival came with responsibility — a responsibility to live deliberately and help others do the same.

After returning to the States, Earl became an instructor at Camp Lejeune. When he noticed a new radio station being built nearby, he applied for a job — and was hired. Broadcasting fit him like a tailored suit.

After the war, he joined KTAR in Phoenix. His talent quickly propelled him to Chicago, the heart of radio. CBS hired him, and Earl became a national voice — the unforgettable sound behind the radio hero Sky King.

But behind the microphone, something deeper was forming. Earl wasn’t just entertaining audiences. He was studying life, refining ideas, and shaping the message he would one day share with the world.

When Earl later bought a small Franklin Life Insurance agency, he delivered short talks each Saturday morning to motivate his salesmen. Before leaving for a fishing trip, his manager worried the team would lose momentum without Earl’s weekly message.

So Earl decided to record one.

He went home, wrestled with what he should say, and one night sat up in bed wide awake — knowing the message had finally crystallized.

He wrote it in one sitting, recorded it the next morning, and left it with his manager.

When he returned, there was a line of people wanting copies. The message had struck a nerve.

That recording became The Strangest Secret — the distillation of everything Earl had discovered in thousands of hours of reading, reflection, and personal search.

Its core truth was simple and profound: We become what we think about.

The message spread like wildfire. Friends shared it. Salesmen shared it. Their families shared it. Demand exploded.

As requests for the record grew, Earl partnered with Lloyd Conant, who owned a small mail-order business. Together they created the Nightingale-Conant Corporation, the world’s first large-scale personal development audio company.

Their vision reshaped an entire industry. The Strangest Secret became the only spoken-word recording in history to receive a Gold Record, and millions of lives were changed by its message.

Earl continued writing, speaking, and broadcasting. His radio show, Our Changing World, became the most syndicated radio program of its time — heard across:

• The United States
  
• Canada
  
• Mexico
  
• Australia
  
• New Zealand
  
• Fiji
  
• South Africa
  
• The Bahamas
  
• 23 additional countries
  
• And the Armed Forces Network

In 1985, he was inducted into The Radio Hall of Fame.

By the end of his career, Earl Nightingale had created:

7,000 radio programs

250 audio programs

Countless lectures, television episodes, and video teachings

No one had ever done more to bring personal development to the masses.

In the 1980s, Earl wrote Earl Nightingale’s Greatest Discovery, a book that shared the principle he believed mattered most:

You become what you think about.

The book earned the Napoleon Hill Gold Medal for Literary Excellency, placing Earl among the greatest success philosophers of the modern age.

When Earl passed away in 1989, his voice continued traveling across the world. His messages were still broadcast daily. His ideas were still changing lives. His philosophy was still helping ordinary people rise above circumstances and take command of their future.

Today, Earl Nightingale is remembered as:

• The Dean of Personal Development
  
• The father of audio motivation
  
• The man who inspired millions to think differently and live intentionally
  

His teachings continue to influence entrepreneurs, leaders, coaches, creators, and everyday people searching for more meaning and direction.

Earl Nightingale did more than write or speak. He awakened people.

He showed them that the key to success was already within them — their mind, their attitude, their direction of thought.

And that message still changes lives.