The Og Mandino Story - 3

On the back of his management success Og Mandino wrote a sales manual reflecting the techniques and beliefs of W. Clement Stone which earned him a position in the sales promotion department in the Chicago head office. Around this time W. Clement Stone published a small in-house monthly magazine called “Success Unlimited” and appointed Og Mandino as its editor with the goal of taking the magazine to a national audience. 

Like many editors Og Mandino found himself short of an article with the time-critical publication date almost upon him. Working through the night Og produced a piece on how Ben Hogan was able to overcome a horrifying auto accident and continue his successful career in world golf.

A far-sighted, astute New York publisher, impressed by the article suggested that if Og was interested in writing a book he would be interested in publishing it. Eighteen months later Og Mandino produced The Greatest Salesman in the World and so commenced the most prolific and fruitful period in the Og Mandino Story.

Even then, the Og Mandino Story might have stalled but for the hand of fate as the first printing of The Greatest Salesman in the World was just 5,000. All publications need a jump start and this came in the form of Rich DeVos, a co-founder of the Amway Corporation, who told an Amway convention about a new book written by a guy with a quirky name.

This recommendation activated a huge run on the book and the sales of The Greatest Salesman in the World, within two years, were over 350,000. The book has been a constant success and at the start of the 21st Century was still selling 100,000 a month in paperback.

Many books are quoted by the rich and famous as being instrumental in their success. Books such as James Allen’s “As a Man Thinketh”, Russell Conwell’s “Acres of Diamonds”, Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” are all mentioned along with “The Greatest Salesman in the World”. But the Og Mandino Story does not end there for Og went on to write a further 21 volumes including a number in his “The Greatest” series including “The Greatest Secret in the World”, “The Greatest Success in the World”, “The Greatest Miracle in the World” and “The Greatest Mystery in the World”.

 Anyone looking for inspiration can be sure that Og Mandino used the methods outlined in his books to achieve his exalted station in the “Self-help, Success and Motivation” field. The truths expounded by Og Mandino are universal and his books continue to sell in huge numbers long after his untimely death in 1996. The final chapters have yet to be written in the Og Mandino Story.