Mandino - The Greatest Secret in the World

SOME
OF THE WORLDS
MOST SUCCESSFUL MEN
PRAISE
ONE OF THE WORLDS
MOST AMAZING BESTSELLERS

This tremendously challenging book will inspire the reader to realize his moral, spiritual and financial goals!

Wallace E. Johnson, Vice Chairman,
Holiday Inns, Inc.

Its inspiring. Its terrific! It motivates the reader.

W. Clement Stone, Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer,
Combined Insurance Company of America

Tremendous! Og Mandino has created another living classic that will touch the lives of millions.

Charles T. Jones, President, Life
Management Services, Inc.

THE GREATEST SECRET IN THE WORLD

This edition contains the complete text
of the original hardcover edition.
NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.

THE GREATEST SECRET IN THE WORLD
A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with
Frederick Fell Publishers, Inc.

PUBLISHING HISTORY
Frederick Fell edition published May 1972
Bantam edition / May 1978

All rights reserved.
Copyright 1972 by Og Mandino.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address: Frederick Fell Publishers, Inc.

eISBN: 978-0-307-42068-8

Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words Bantam Books and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, New York, New York.

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The most valuable result of all education is to make you do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned. And however early a mans training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.

Thomas Huxley

Once upon a time, nearly two thousand years ago, a young camel boy named Hafid fell in love with a wealthy merchants daughter.

To improve his lowly station in life, in order that he could ask for the fair Lishas hand in marriage, Hafid convinced his master, the great caravan merchant, Pathros, to give him an opportunity to prove his ability as a salesman.

From the caravans supply wagon Pathros presented the youth with one new robe, which he challenged him to sell in the nearby village of Bethlehem. For three days in that poor hamlet Hafid failed in his every attempt to sell the robe and finally, in a moment of pity, he gave the robe to warm a newborn baby in a cave near the village inn.

The young man returned to the caravan so full of shame and self-pity with his failure at becoming a salesman that he did not notice the bright star shining above his head which accompanied him on his return journey from Bethlehem.

But Pathros noticed and the old man interpreted the brightness above as a sign from the gods a sign he had been awaiting for many years a sign which would release him from his secret possession of The Ten Great Scrolls For Success which he had received when he had also been a poor youth.

The old merchant, before his death, presented the ten scrolls to Hafid, who employed their principles to eventually become the wealthiest, the most successful, The Greatest Salesman In The World.

Several decades later Hafid passed the ten scrolls on to a very special person.

Now you hold them in your hands and in this book you will be taught how to read them and how to apply their wisdom to your own life plus how to chart your day-to-day progress with your own Success Recorder so that you can achieve lasting wealth, health, happiness, and most important peace of mind.

Before you and I become involved in the Ten Great Scrolls For Success, lets have a heart to heart talk.

Ill talk.

You listen!

The money spent on this book has been wasted.

Whether someone who cares for you, who wants you to make it big, who perhaps even loves you, gave you The Greatest Secret in the World or whether you purchased it yourself the money has been wasted.

The money has been wasted unless you are willing to accept, and try, a plan which has already worked for thousands of others.

The money has been wasted unless you have the guts, the persistence, and the will-power to follow the plan through to its fruition.

The money has been wasted unless you are willing to give the plan just ten minutes of your time each day of your work week for forty-five weeks.

If I were a Nick the Greek-type-oddsmaker Id say the odds were about 75 to 1 against your letting this system for doubling or tripling your income within a year help you as much as it can.

But Im different! you remind me.

Really? If you made any New Years resolutions last January 1st how long did you keep them? What about those excess pounds you were going to lose, or those cigarettes you were going to quit using or that second drink you were going to stop having?

How long are you going to keep kidding yourself?

Perhaps you really do have a burning desire to succeed. Perhaps the added responsibility of marriage, or parenthood, or the desire for a new home, even a new car, or a mounting pile of debts have forced you to come to terms with yourself and acknowledge that the solution to all your needs and desires is really dependent on no one but you.

But a burning desire to succeed is not enough. As the Executive Editor of Success Unlimited, a magazine devoted to helping individuals improve their business and personal life, I long ago recognized the fact that there are two types of burning desire and one type is phony and hypocritical. This phony type of burning desire is found in the person who is constantly telling his wife, his boss, and (worst of all) himself, that he really wants to succeed. He reads all the self-help books published and he gets his kicks from reading about others succeeding just as there are individuals who get their kicks from reading pornographic books. Unfortunately for our friends who read either types of these books they never get into action. They live their lives vicariously through their imagined participation in the lives and activities of others.

Tomorrow, to this type of dreamer, will be a great day.

Tomorrow never comes.

If I have struck a little nerve within you dont be concerned. Let me wipe that frown from your brow by assuring you that all of us possess some of that phony kind of burning desire. We make promises to others, promises that we know we cant keep, in order to get our boss or our wife off our backs little realizing the harm we are doing to our own personality, because we know were lying.

Today is the day you wipe that slate clean. No more phony promises, no more great plans in the evening which vanish when the sun rises, no more kidding yourself.

As you move, day by day, through this simple success program, you will slowly come to realize one important truth. You are natures greatest miracle. Just to duplicate the computer you possess, called a brain, would require sufficient electronic equipment to fill the entire interior of the Empire State Building. You are rare and unique and the ultimate product of several million years of evolution. Both in mind, and body, you are far better equipped than Solomon or Caesar or Plato to make something beautiful and meaningful of your life.