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Here is a short history of
Nightingale-Conant
Nightingale-Conant
has a simple yet marvelous purpose: to help people realize
their full potential … to make them successful and happy. The
goal is self-improvement … the vehicles are audio and video
programs.
Our
message goes out to hundreds of thousands of people every
year, people who tell us that Nightingale-Conant has
transformed their lives for the better.
We are an
active, vibrant company operating out of Chicago and Devon,
England. But our roots … our fiber … our ethic … goes back to
the mid-1950s.
It all started with...
It all
started with two unique men … Earl Nightingale and Lloyd
Conant.
Earl
Nightingale’s
life began simply. He grew up in Long Beach, California. His
parents had little money, and his father disappeared when he
was 12. But even as a boy, Earl was always asking questions,
always reading in his local public library, trying to
understand the way life works.
On
December 7, 1941, Earl was at Pearl Harbor … in a lookout
tower on the Battleship Arizona. A thousand men died
on the Arizona … Earl was one of only a hundred who
survived. He was literally blown off the ship, unconscious,
and another sailor pulled him to safety.
Earl said
that he felt that he had been spared for some reason. After
the war Earl became obsessed with why everyone in his
neighborhood was poor and confused. He wondered why one person
was able to create wealth and happiness for his family, while
another with a similar background stayed ignorant and
penniless. Answering these questions became Earl’s life work.
In 1956,
he was about to take a trip but wanted to leave a message for
his sales force. He got up in the middle of the night inspired
to write a message that he recorded the next morning. That
message became one of the most important and famous
motivational recordings ever made. It’s called
The Strangest Secret.
One of the
people The Strangest Secret inspired was Lloyd Conant,
the owner of a Chicago printing and direct response company.
Lloyd contacted Earl, and the two were immediately attracted
by their shared values. In 1960, they formed the Nightingale-Conant
Corporation.
Lloyd Conant
Lloyd
Conant was one of those special people whom everyone
respected. He cared deeply for people and, in turn, received
tremendous loyalty and affection from everyone who worked for
him.
Like Earl Nightingale, Lloyd Conant was a self-made man. He
grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri, the son of a candy maker.
During the Depression, Lloyd’s father lost his job. To help
support the family, Lloyd moved to Kansas City, Missouri, to
sell typewriters. During this time, he met many successful
business and professional leaders. He also attended a
businessmen’s Bible class. This period had a tremendous
influence on Lloyd. He developed the business and ethical
principles that later became the cornerstone of Nightingale-Conant.
From the
beginning, Lloyd and Earl were almost a perfect match. Earl,
the creative force … the one who conceptualized, wrote, and
delivered almost all the early programs. Lloyd, the solid rock
… the man behind the scenes who kept the company running
through all kinds of problems and changing conditions, the
super administrator and entrepreneur, the man who worked the
endless hours each day to make Nightingale-Conant what it is
today. |
