This is the story of a man who
was born in the little town of St.
Joseph, Missouri, and grew up
believing that anyone lucky enough to
be born in the United States could
become anything he set his heart and
mind upon. Of course, World War II
came along, and although he had just
married his sweetheart and there was
a baby on the way, he went
off to war and became a
pilot and served in the
European Theater.
After the war, he began
selling business equipment
and became especially
interested in automatic
typewriters. And so this
young man journeyed to
Chicago with his machines
and the desire to make his
fortune in the big city. It was
very difficult for him and his family in
the early days, but he stuck with it,
maintained a healthy attitude and a
good sense of humor, and gradually
his business grew.
And it came to pass that I met this
man in the early 1950s in Chicago, and
we worked together on several projects.
We found that we had similar
interests, although entirely different
talents and that we seemed to make a
good team. So finally we merged our
two small companies. He would handle
the business end, at which he was
very good and to which he was completely
dedicated, and I would write
and record the products we would sell.
The idea was that millions of people
are too busy and don't have the specialized
knowledge or time to go digging
up the kind of information they
need if they're to succeed and continue
to grow as persons. So we tried to
do that for them and put the ideas in a
recorded form so that they could
obtain the information while they
were doing other things like commuting
to and from work in their cars,
exercising, or dressing in the morning.
It was a great idea but being completely
new, it grew slowly for the first 10
or 15 years.
Then, the company started to grow
and eventually became very successful
under this man's direction. He
made his fortune all right. But he was
so wrapped up in the business
which he loved and the
people who worked for him
and with him, that he never
left it.
This man, from St. Joseph,
Missouri, was Lloyd Victor
Conant, and he died on April
2, 1986. He was my partner
for 30 years, and I miss him
very much. The world is a
better place because he lived
and worked in it.
— Earl Nightingale, Co-Founder of
Nightingale-Conant
The following article was adapted from the only known interview with Lloyd
Conant a short time before his death on April 2, 1986.
Lloyd, you were a pioneer in the
field of putting these types of messages
on recorded albums. Did you
have doubts that this would really go
as a business because no one else was
doing it?
Yes, of course. However, we found
that the people who bought our products
really didn't care whether anyone
else ever got them. They were pioneers
as well and they liked that they had
found something new. And the feedback
from those people was so great,
we were encouraged to go ahead. We
were dealing with major forward-looking
companies at the time, and they
would buy our programs for all their
sales force or all their management
team. However, when I say "all of
their," we were lucky to be selling
seven or eight hundred thousand dollars'
worth of business in our very best
year. We knew we were just scratching
the surface, and we were determined
to go ahead with it.
We knew that we were on the right
track as long as we were selling a product
that brought far more value to the
end-user than it cost. And we were getting
feedback that for every dollar
invested in our product, they might be
getting back a thousand dollars in
return from the ideas that they were
gaining. We knew that we, basically,
were on the right track and that some
day we would be able to figure out a
way to reach the greater number of
people who could make use of this
information. So, we stayed with it.
At first, we had so much in the way
of feedback that we thought everyone
was excited about this. We actually
thought that 100% of the population
was interested in this material. Some
people would buy two or three hundred
of them and just give them out to
people in their community. However,
we found out the hard way that relatively
very few people were interested
in what we were doing — most simply
couldn't see how to apply the ideas in
their life.
I remember, we went over to South
Bend trying to "save" Studebaker when
they were about to close their doors.
We found out that was a mistake. They
had no budget and they didn't think
this way. So, we went over and talked
to Oldsmobile, and Oldsmobile bought
our products in big numbers because
they did believe in it. I should point
out the obvious, that one of those companies
is still in business.
Lloyd, it wasn't so much
Nightingale-Conant helping them run
their business by telling them how to
do that, but it was helping them think
about their lives and how they were
applying themselves to their business.
Is that right?
That's true. In fact we give very little
in the way of information. We stimulated
them to think positively about
reaching greater fulfillment in their
lives. Our programs are more or less,
as much as the word is not too well
understood, motivational, in that they
caused the person to motivate himself.
We are primarily idea stimulators,
or our messages are idea stimulators.
We must keep presenting these
ideas until we trigger some ideas that
you can use.
Even though our customers often want to give us credit for their success,
and we can take some credit — but not a whole lot, we simply stimulated
them at the right time. But I think most were set to do something big, and we
simply came along and helped them over the top. However, because so many of
our customers feel a real fellowship with us, it's the most rewarding
business that I can imagine.
We feel that if our customers get
only one good idea from each of our
programs, then we can have a profound
influence on their lives. I used
to sell business machines, and they
were terrific if they could bring the
customer a 100% return on the investment
in a three-year period. If our programs
don't bring 100% return in a
month's time, it's a poor investment,
which is why we have an unconditional
return policy. The last thing we
want is for someone to pay for one of
our products and not feel that he or
she got the best of the deal.
The most beautiful part of it is that
if we do inspire great ideas, the customers
get to live with those ideas
the rest of their lives, and the ideas
are going to multiply and grow. So
they are bound to have a very profound
effect.
Our audio versions can have the
most impact because we can learn at
times when our hands are busy but our
minds are free, such as while driving
to work or exercising. Audio learning
can save us a half hour or more of dead
time every day and keep our minds
charged up. We are all blessed with
this fabulously poor memory that can
forget the bad in our lives, but it can
also forget the good. So, we need to be
recharged and reminded on a constant
basis of the good ideas that we've
heard and have forgotten.
A business, such as Nightingale-
Conant, that has endured for nearly
half a century as a pioneer must have
been built on certain bedrock principles.
Your programs talk about excellence,
success, achievement, and winning,
so you've obviously followed
some very successful formulas. People
not only respect your business, but
they respect you as a person. Are there
some general rules that you have followed
to be a success in business?
Well, there's one rule, the golden
rule that almost suffices: If you're
treating your customers and associates
the way you want to be treated, you've
got that situation pretty well taken
care of. In The Science of Getting Rich, W. D. Waddles wrote that we must
always give more in service to our customers
and to those around us than we
are getting in return. By doing that we
are bound to succeed. That little message
has had a lasting and profound
effect on my life.
It would be no fun to win in a business
without our associates winning
also. We have always thought about
our employees as associates and
friends, and by treating everyone as
adults and as friends, everything just
seems to work.
Consequently, we have had very little
turnover. In fact, in the past five
years we have had only two people
leave us and one left to get married
and move to another part of the world.
We try to develop permanent relationships,
and it takes something of that
nature for someone to leave us.
Our people are often so responsive to the "cause" that they don't
want to leave
at the end of the day. We do like them to
be happy at home as well, but we also
like for them to want to come back the
next morning. I would hate to think that
anyone hated to come to work.
It impressed me the very first time I
paid a visit to Nightingale-Conant that
you were actually walking around the
entire facility saying "hello" to
employees, talking to them, and
observing some of the things they
were doing. Is that part of your management
style?
Yes, I feel it's not only necessary, but
I enjoy it. I love the interaction with
our associates, and I try not to do anything
in the office that I can take home.
I try to keep all my time during the day
available to the customers and associates.
I hope that I never "outgrow"
that, but I don't know how it could be
"growth" to leave it. I think it's a vital
part of being a CEO of any company.
Lloyd, The Wall Street Journal several years ago ran a survey
of chief officers of companies
and what they looked
for in young employees or
young managers. What do
you look for? What are the
characteristics of the model
of a person working for
Nightingale-Conant that you
would like to see?
Well, we would like to see,
and we do have, veracious
people who want to fit into our
game plan. We look at the person
more than the education.
We can tell in a few days how
they will make out with us,
and we are fortunate in that
somehow we seem to attract great people
who are eager to grow and to grow
with our company.
I think my function is to help each
of our associates develop to his or her
fullest potential. In some cases, I have
a tendency to shelter them too much,
but I'm learning to throw bigger and
bigger loads on them, and in turn they
are then able to develop their own
departments and staff.
You often hear the saying, "What's
an idea worth?" It's pretty hard to put
a price tag on any kind of an idea. A
business like ours is based on a big
idea. And it takes hundreds, maybe
even thousands, of little ideas to keep
it afloat. We must each generate several
new good ideas every day just to
keep the big idea going. I think that's
true with most businesses.
Management is an art, not a science,
because we're dealing with people —
both our customers and our own team
here at the office. We are not perfect,
but it's something that we must work
toward at all times. Each of us on the
team is different, yet we all have the
same basic drives and desires. So, it's a
continuous and very interesting activity
to blend all these talents into a
team — much like conducting an
orchestra.
Running a company like ours is like
being the conductor of a great orchestra
or symphony in which each person
is playing his or her part as definite
individuals, with no one person more
important than any other, to create the
best products and service for our customers.
I have always thought of
myself as more of a coordinator than a
manager, or in staying with the orchestra
metaphor, a conductor.
It's always interesting to meet someone
who is successful and find out a
little bit of the influences that they had
in their lives and in their thinking.
How would you define success in business?
You have obviously been successful
in terms of selling programs
and meeting certain numerical goals.
But I suspect from the answers to the
other questions, you define success in
a slightly different way.
Success differs with each person.
And of course there are so many different
areas of our life that you can look
at for success: your career, your family
and friends, or your contribution to
society. There are so many ways to
judge success, and each of us has to be
his or her own judge as to what success
really is.
I used to think that there was a way
to "have it made," but now I find out
that just doesn't happen — and
shouldn't happen. Of course, people
do retire; some of them really enjoy it
and some do not. You might say that
they "have it made," but for me it
wouldn't be so. I think we're put here
to keep growing and to help other people
grow. We must have a dream that's
strong enough to carry us through all
the petty things that can come up during
the long journey toward our vision.
Success is in having something worthwhile
to be striving toward.
I usually say, "You're not entitled to
a big problem until you've solved all
those little ones." And so you must be
agile to keep looking forward to what's
next. Some people succeed at something
and then plateau. Then there are
others who take that success and parlay
it into bigger and bigger successes.
As we grow in our profession, at some
point we grow into a new plateau. At
that point we need to enjoy it for a
short time, regroup, and then climb on
to the next plateau. And, I think that's
the way life should be.
I am as charged up today at
70, as I've been at any time in
my life. And it's exciting to be
in a business where you have
that opportunity. We're trying
to make that opportunity available
for everyone — our associates
and our customers.
Abraham Lincoln once said
that people are just as happy as
they want to be, and it is just as
true today as it was then. We
want to help keep people excited
about their work and what
they're doing in life.
Of course we need to create a
profit along the way, but we
know that if our customers are well
taken care of, we will get our rewards.
It seems like it took a long time for that
to start happening, but it's happening
now and we're very grateful for it. We
feel successful.
Lloyd Conant died shortly after
recording this interview, but his
dream is ever-present in everything
that his company, Nightingale-
Conant, touches. Lloyd's son, Vic
Conant, continues to lead his company
with the same love and devotion
to the customers and associates
that his father had. And, the
goal is still the same: Make possible
anyone's ability to live the life
he or she most desires.
— Edited by Carson V. Conant
