Earl Nightingale

Motivation Personal Development Success Creativity Goal Setting Personal Development Success

Earl Nightingale (1921–1989) was an American radio speaker, author, and the co-founder of Nightingale-Conant Corporation. Known as the "Dean of Personal Development," he broadcast his motivational radio programs for more than three decades on over 1,000 stations in 12 countries, making him one of the most listened-to broadcasters in history.

His landmark 1956 recording The Strangest Secret became the first spoken-word message to earn a Gold Record by selling over a million copies. In it, Nightingale distilled the essence of success into a single idea: "We become what we think about." That recording launched an entirely new industry of audio-based personal development.

In 1960, Nightingale partnered with Lloyd Conant to form Nightingale-Conant, which became the world's largest producer of personal development audio programs. His program Lead the Field has been called the "Program of Presidents" and remains one of the best-selling audio programs in the self-improvement genre. Over his lifetime, Nightingale wrote and recorded more than 7,000 radio programs and 250 audio programs.