Earl Nightingale from earthquake to motivational speaker

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Early years

Earl was born in a poor community part of Long Beach California on the 12th of March 1921. 

Even though there aren't any official documents or birth certificates to actually prove this statement, it has been told by Earl’s daughter in his autobiography. 

Earl was born one of three brothers in a hard-working family with strong values and a loving mother and father.

Everything was going well until the Great Depression struck the US in the early 1930's.

Struck by disaster

After recovering from the already devastating great depression that lasted for several years, disaster was to strike even more...

AroundMarch 10, 1933, days before Earl's 12th birthday, he suddenly felt the earth shaking when walking home.

Earl stood still as he watched how houses collapsed and the sky turned black. 

A huge earthquake struck the city, leaving a devastating trail of utter destruction. 

Luckily, the Nightingale family was unharmed themselves, but their scarce belongings didn't survive the total destruction.

Their family house was completely destroyed, and the family restaurant was also forced to shut down.

As the family moved to what was called ''emergency tent city'' Earl's father suddenly left the family out of devastation.

Earl, his brothers, and mother were left on their own to survive...

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Never give up

Earl didn't hesitate to start providing for his family and took on the job of delivering newspapers. After his work he used the time to go to the local library to look for answers why some people were way more fortunate than his family.

Earl became a frequent visitor at the library and developed a love for literature as he managed to read every book inside.

One day cycling back from the library, he stopped at the beach, which always calmed his mind when he needed time to reflect on everything that had already happened to him. 

Little did young Earl know this was the day that would inspire his future life. 

Earl saw a big military ship approaching the shore; on the ship was written, USS Navy. 

It was at this moment Earl suddenly felt an urge for discovery and dreamt about how those men on that boat visited so many places and experienced so much that life had to offer. 

At the age of 17 Earl pursued this urge by applying for a job in the US Navy and rather quickly got accepted. 

After a while, at the age of 18, Earl was sent out to guard Navy ships in the Pacific.

But disaster struck once more...

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Opportunity out of disaster

In 1941, while working on the ship, Earl saw military planes with Japanese flags approaching their fleet.

Many people aboard stood looking confused at the sky as they saw the planes closing in by the second.

What followed was utter devastation as it unfolded in the event known today as Pearl Harbor.

After the attack, Earl Nightingale was one of the 12 survivors on the ship...

Upon his return from the disaster, Earl was offered a less life threatening job for the military as a local radio host.

Speaking about interesting subjects about the setbacks of life had always intrigued him, Earl accepted the opportunity once more, and this time it changed his life for the better!

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The book that changed everything

After achieving nation wide recognition from his talks on the radio program,

Earl got  a book recommendation for a book that was called, "Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill". 

He read it often and it became his favourite book that held all the answers he was looking for. 

Earl recorded his own audio version of the book and it was an immediate success. This success quickly gave him the inspiration to also write his own book with an audio format to tell his personal life story. 

And so he did with the creation of his book called, 

"The Strangest Secret".

After writing the book, Earl started his very own company called "Nightingale Conant". 

The business was founded in 1960 which successfully promoted the book to get over a million copies sold worldwide. 

The Nightingale brand began to become an official staple in stories of success and motivation.

This combined perfectly with Earl's late-night radio programs,

which led up to 7,000 different programs and over 250 full length audio recordings. 

After all those years of hard work and dedication to never give up, Earl gained massive recognition all over the world.  

Earl was awarded a spot in the National Speakers Hall of Fame in 1976. 

This successful journey made Earl even more motivated, as he started writing his second book which was published in 1985,

Not only was this book also a major success, but it also got recognition from the Napoleon Hill Foundation with a golden medal of literacy.

Earl lived his life to continue his mission of inspiring and motivating people over the radio and became known as world's most famous motivational speaker. 

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Earl Nightingale  passed away in 1989 at the age of 68 years old.

But his story will live on forever in the hearts and minds of people who are chasing their dreams and want to fulfil their purpose in life.