Joel Weldon went from carpentry to building a multimillion-dollar business. He credits Earl Nightingale's "The Strangest Secret" recording and the principle that success means "progressive realization of a worthy ideal." Weldon emphasizes public speaking skills and a simple rule: don't compete, create.
Chapters
And as Earl sat on our houseboat telling me the story that he. The day he wrote the Stranger's Secret, he said, I woke up at four in the morning and I had this epiphany. I saw it all and I made a cup of coffee and I sat down at the kitchen table and I wrote out the strangest secret. I went to the studio the next day and recorded it, had a copy made, gave it to my manager, played this at the sales meeting. And I went fishing in Canada. And the world changed. Well, I really teach people mostly now on how to be an effective speaker. How to transfer the ideas you have in your thoughts and your brain to the eyes and ears and thinking of your audience. The fastest way to grow your business and increase your success is to be an effective speaker because that opens the door to expertise. If you have the ability to communicate what you know in such a clear and insightful way to your audience that they get it and then they start doing those things. That's the key. So when people ask me what makes a great speaker, it's one word. Results. The first entry in the logbook is, what's it say? One of the great experiences of my life. Thanks for a great trip. Earl Nightingale. February 17, 1987.
Have you ever wondered why so many men work so hard and honestly without ever achieving anything in particular? And others don't seem to work hard and yet seem to get everything. They seem to have the magic touch. You've heard them say that about someone. Everything he touches turns to gold. And have you ever noticed that a man who becomes successful tends to continue to become successful? And on the other hand, have you noticed how a man who's a failure tends to continue to fail? Well, it's because of goals. Some of us have goals, some don't. People with goals succeed because they know where they're going. It's that simple.
Well, I had heard the Stranger secret like you and millions of people had, and it changed my life. From a carpenter going nowhere and making 62 bucks a week. So I wrote him a very detailed thank you note and he responded and he said, if you're ever in Naples, Florida, you know, give me a call. So I called and told him I'm coming. He said, well, let's go to dinner. So we went to dinner. He said something that shocked me that I can still remember as we were getting into his car after dinner. I said, I was just so impressed that you took the time to respond to my thank you note. You must get millions of them. And he Put his arm on my shoulder and he said, joel, I don't get very many at all. That recording has changed the lives of thousands of people and hundreds that I know of. And he said, well, I. That's why I responded. I never get letters like that. And that really told me the importance of thank you notes and gratitude. It was just an amazing experience to get to know the person behind the recording that to this day is still the largest selling spoken word message ever recorded. The Stranger's Secret by Earl Nightingale. And you can go to YouTube and listen to it. It would make a tremendous difference in your life.
Now let's get back to our definition of success. Who succeeds? The only person who succeeds is the person who is progressively realizing a worthy ideal.
The progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal. That's the progressive realization, which means, just like you said, it's a journey. And so I think that's why you say always happy. Because I'm on the journey. That's the thing. It's not the end. It's where you are now. And you say this all the time. All we have is today. So why would everything be in the future? When I get this, I'll be really happy. No, you could be really happy today with what you have. And if you see that, then you're happy. Maybe that's why you don't see me grumpy and miserable. Is, you know this place where we're now sitting 1850 of these nights and days like this on this boat over the last 30 years.
And you've probably never had like a big booze party or anything on this boat, huh?
No.
Not doing Jagermeister shots or anything like that.
No, no, no, no.
That's why today there isn't really any competition unless we make it for ourselves. Instead of competing, all we have to do is create.
So Earl taught me this statement. Don't compete, create. But he said, find out what everybody else is doing and don't do it. So I knew I couldn't have a normal business card. And then I heard that statement and I went and had it printed on a label. And so over half a million people have this can. Most of them keep it on their desk as a reminder of what they can do. Yeah. So if you just think about that, your success comes in cans, not in cannots. And you can do it.
Ingredients, which is commitment, courage, faith, goals, imagination, creativity. If do not open can contains inedible, what is. Is there drugs in here? Is there some sort of powder? Here's what you can do. Here's what we can do for you. And this is great. Success comes in cans dot com.
Yes. Doesn't matter what the day is. Rain, thunder. You lost a big client. You can still make it a great day. Have a great day means you're subject to conditions. When you make it a great day, it's on you.
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