How To Realize Your Ambitions in the Amazing Automotive Service Industry (Earl Nightingale, 1960)

You know, when I find records like this, I am attracted to them for a variety of reasons--the covers, the inordinate amount of superlatives,  the promises of how they will change your life (see below), and, let us not forget, the potential for lots of great samples.

While all these things are true, and while the long title is pretty comical and random, this turned out to be a pretty solid piece of a vinyl pep talk.  

Earl Nightingale was a prolific motivational speaker, and there's a good Wikipedia article that chronicles his career, which included voice work (you will see why he worked as an announcer when you hear him).  As a teen, he was on a ship at Pearl Harbor, and was one of 12 marines on board that survived the attack.

His message here can be summed up pretty basically, and you have heard it before, no doubt:  we are what we think, so therefore we become what we think about, and the amount of reward or success we receive depends on that thinking, as well as, inversely, the amount of service we are willing to give to others.

Some of those promises I mentioned.

At first, it seemed like little more than "positive thinking," but I thought he made some good points.  What struck me the most was how unpopular this message would be in today's climate, where hard work isn't regarded in the same way it was in the past.  

More of the text I was talking about...$5 was a lot for a record in 1960, wasn't it?

Also, sadly, the concept of service is even farther away from our modern thinking.  It's something that everyone wants--even EXPECTS--but how many times a week do you really experience good "customer service" anymore? More so, how often do you hear somebody complaining about the lack thereof?

Either way: if you need some positive reinforcement, or if you are just looking for some sampling potential (and I always am), OR if you are just attracted by an amusingly random title (and I always am) then it's here. Enjoy!