The amazing Secret discovery!!

It's been more than 36 years since my husband, Earl Nightingale passed away and during that time I have continued to share Earl's messages in various forms from audio, written, public appearances, podcasting, newsletters and I believed that everything he left behind had been shared.  Imagine my surprise when I made the biggest discovery of all.

A few months ago I decided to take some items that were cluttering up my office space at home to the local warehouse.  I've kept a small space at the warehouse for years; a space to keep mostly old documents or things I don't know what to do with.  I started moving boxes around and came upon a water stained, old box.  From what was written on the box I guessed it probably got wet back in the day when the hot-water heater leaked and this was then stored in my garage.   It was labeled "Garage - old files, 2nd drawer, cont 3 1/2".  

I wondered if anything inside had been damaged and if there was anything inside worth keeping or files that I could just throw out.  I put the box in my car, brought it home and put it in the corner of my office to go through at a later time.

A month or so went by and a day before trash pick-up I decided to go through the box and purge if needed to be.  Most of what I found were old, random files that no longer had reason to be, but about half-way through I found a single yellow file.  I opened it.

My hands shook, tears streamed down my face - what I was holding was the original, 26 page, 1956 typed essay of the Original Strangest Secret.  It was dated with Earl's name on it, and on the back of the last page - confirmation.

Earl often told the story of how he wanted to take a few weeks off to go fishing, and how the Manager of the Franklin Life Insurance Agency  that Earl owned, cautioned  that the salesmen were so dependent on his messages of inspiration, that  if Earl wasn't there to uplift and inspire he might come back to an empty office. 

Earl, would go on to say that he had no idea what he was going to do - but he knew one thing for sure - he was going to go fishing.  He said he went to bed, went to sleep and during the night he woke up and knew exactly what he was going to do - he got up, put on a pot of coffee, sat down at his desk and began typing and as he typed, the essay just poured through him.  By nine o'clock he had finished typing the essay, he showered, dressed and called his good friend, Dick Hutter who worked for Columbia Records there in Chicago, and arranged to go in to record the essay -  which he did - he recorded, one - just one record.  He took the single record to his office manager and told him to play the recording while he was away - he was going fishing.  Of course, the rest is history (read all about him on this site on the Home page).

It's important that I tell this part of the story because, in addtion to the date and his name,  on the back of the last page of the Essay, is a coffee ring from his cup.

Needless to say, what I found in that dirty, stained box is a valuable piece of history.  It's the very document from which an entirely new industry has grown.  From the Essay and subsequent recording of, The Strangest Secret, millions upon millions of lives around the world would be changed for the better and a new divergent way of thinking about life and what part our thinking plays in the directions that we take in this journey we call, Life, came to be.

The paths taken by the mentors, life coaches, influencers, authors, speakers of today walk the path that was laid and illuminated by Earl Nightingale, his recording of, The Strangest Secret, his more than 40-years as a Legend, and one of the world's leading success authorities. 

In this world of piracy, AI and imitation, it would be respectful if those who follow this path would do just one thing . . .

"When you drink the water, remember the one who dug the well."