Augustine "Og" Mandino II was an American author. He wrote the bestselling bookThe Greatest Salesman in the World. His books have sold over 50 million copies and have been translated into over 25 languages. He was the president of Success Unlimited magazine until 1976 and was inducted into the National Speakers Association's Hall of Fame.
Life and career
According to the 1930 U.S. Census, Mandino was born in Natick, Massachusetts, on December 12, 1923, to parents Silvio and Margaret Mandino. He was named Augustine after his Italian paternal grandfather. Mandino was once the editor of his high school paper and planned to attend the University of Missouri's journalism school. In 1940, before he entered college, his mother died from a massive heart attack. He decided to work in a paper factory until 1942. Afterward, he joined the United States Army Air Corps where he became a military officer and a bombardier. He flew for 30 bombing missions over Germanyon board a B-24 Liberator during World War II. During this time, he flew with fellow pilot and movie star James Stewart. After his military duties, Mandino became an insurance salesman. One wintry November morning in Cleveland, he contemplated committing suicide. But as he sorted through several books in a library, volumes of self-help, success and motivation books captured his attention. He selected some titles, went to a table and began reading. He followed his visit to the library with more visits to many other libraries around the United States. He read hundreds of books that dealt with success, a pastime that helped him alleviate his alcoholism. It was in a library in Concord, New Hampshire, where he found W. Clement Stone's classic, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, a book that changed Mandino's life. Mandino eventually became a successful writer and speaker. His works were inspired by the Bible and influenced by Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone, and Emmet Fox. He was inducted into the National Speakers Association Speaker Hall of Fame.
Philosophy
Mandino wrote The Greatest Salesman in the World which contains the "time-tested wisdom of the ancients distilled into ten simple scrolls" which, if followed for the prescribed 10 months, will Og said, "seep into my other mind, that mysterious source which never sleeps, which creates my dreams, and often makes me act in ways I do not comprehend. As the words of these scrolls are consumed by my mysterious mind I will begin to awake, each morning, with a vitality I have never known before. My vigor will increase, my enthusiasm will rise, my desire to meet the world will overcome every fear I once knew at sunrise, and I will be happier than I ever believed it possible to be in this world of strife and sorrow." The scrolls each have a principle designed to replace bad habits built up over a lifetime which "threatens to imprison my future" with good habits developed through a ten-month process of studying the scrolls. They are:
Scroll I – I will form good habits and become their slave.
Scroll II – I will greet this day with love in my heart.
Scroll III – I will persist until I succeed.
Scroll IV – I am nature's greatest miracle.
Scroll V – I will live this day as if it is my last.
Scroll VI – Today I will be master of my emotions.
Scroll VII – I will laugh at the world
Scroll VIII – Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.
Mandino's main philosophical message is that every person on earth is a miracle and should choose to direct their life with confidence and congruent to the laws that govern abundance. He wrote in Scroll I, "I will not fail as the others, for in my hands I now hold the charts which will guide me through perilous waters to shores which only yesterday seemed but a dream." Og was also a proponent of taking action now. In Scroll IX, the phrase I will act now is written 18 times. He claimed that all successful people take on their own lives by "charting" or consciously choosing both the desired destination and the path to reach it.
