“I will persist until I succeed.
I was not delivered into this world into defeat, nor does failure course in my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep.
The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny.
I will persist until I succeed.”
~ Og Mandino from The Greatest Salesman in the World
The Greatest Salesman in the World.
This is a little fable written in 1968 by Og Mandino. This was Og’s first book. It sold millions of copies and established him as his era’s most popular inspirational writer. Og went on to write another 14+ books and sold 15 million books or so over the span of his career.
Og reminds me of our era’s most popular inspirational writer: Paulo Coelho. They both write in a simple, easy-to-read, fire-you-up style.
Whereas Coelho’s Alchemist features a young shepherd pursuing his destiny, this classic features a young camel boy named Hafid pursuing his dream to follow in the footsteps of his master and become the greatest salesman in the world.
Og worked for W. Clement Stone’s leading insurance company (and ran Success Unlimited—the magazine started by Stone and Napoleon Hill), so the book was written to help salesman maximize their potential, but it’s really a book about the core principles of success in general.
The wisdom in the book is delivered in ten “ancient scrolls”—each featuring a different piece to the puzzle. Let’s take a quick look at a handful of my favorite Ideas!
We’ll kick it off by taking a quick peek at the 10 scrolls:
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