Augustine "Og" Mandino II (December 12, 1923 – September 3, 1996) was an American author whose words have inspired tens of millions of people around the world to pursue lives of greater purpose, persistence, and joy. Born in Natick, Massachusetts, Mandino served as a bombardier in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, completing thirty combat missions over Germany. After the war he struggled through years of hardship — failed dreams, poverty, and alcoholism — before a chance encounter with W. Clement Stone's Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude set him on a radically different course.
That encounter transformed Mandino's life. He joined Stone's Combined Insurance Company as a salesman, proved himself in the field, and eventually earned a writing role at Success Unlimited, the motivational magazine Stone had founded. Rising to Executive Editor by 1966 and later serving as president through 1976, Mandino became a central voice in the golden age of American self-improvement publishing — working alongside the very movement's founders. It was during this period that he channeled decades of personal struggle and hard-won wisdom into his masterwork, The Greatest Salesman in the World (1968). Told as a parable set in the time of Christ, the book's ten ancient scrolls — each carrying a timeless principle for living with love, persistence, and enthusiasm — sold over fifty million copies and was translated into more than twenty-five languages, making it one of the bestselling inspirational books ever written.
Nightingale-Conant has long recognized Og Mandino as one of the defining voices in personal development, bringing his spoken word programs to audiences who carry his scrolls not just in hand but in heart. Inducted into the National Speakers Association's Hall of Fame, Mandino authored more than twenty books before his death in 1996 — each one a reminder, as he famously wrote, that "I will persist until I succeed."
