Og Mandino

Before his name became attached to one of the most widely read success books of the twentieth century, Augustine “Og” Mandino II was a young man from Natick, Massachusetts, with a newspaperman’s instincts and a life already marked by loss. Born on December 12, 1923, to Silvio and Margaret Mandino, he was named Augustine after his Italian paternal grandfather. In high school, he edited the school paper and planned to study journalism at the University of Missouri. Then, in 1940, before he entered college, his mother died of a massive heart attack. Mandino went to work in a paper factory until 1942.

World War II changed the course of his life again. Mandino joined the United States Army Air Corps, became a military officer and bombardier, and flew 30 bombing missions over Germany aboard a B-24 Liberator. During that time, he flew with fellow pilot and movie star James Stewart. After the war, he became an insurance salesman, but his life did not settle into easy success. One wintry November morning in Cleveland, struggling with alcoholism, he contemplated suicide. Instead, in a library, he began sorting through books and found himself drawn to volumes about self-help, success, and motivation.

That library visit became a turning point in the plainest possible sense: he read, and then he kept reading. Mandino visited libraries around the United States and absorbed hundreds of books on success. In Concord, New Hampshire, he found W. Clement Stone’s Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, a book that changed his life. Learning from the biographical note that Stone owned the Combined Insurance Company, Mandino sought a sales position there when he was 32. Within a year, he had been promoted to sales manager and was breaking sales records.

A pamphlet Mandino wrote about sales in rural markets led him into promotional writing and then to W. Clement Stone’s magazine Success Unlimited. By 1966, he was executive editor and helped edit A Treasury of Success Unlimited. He later served as president of Success Unlimited magazine until 1976. His own writing career grew from this world of sales, self-improvement, and practical encouragement. He became best known for The Greatest Salesman in the World, published in 1968, and went on to write many more books, including The Greatest Secret in the World, The Greatest Miracle in the World, The Greatest Success in the World, Og Mandino’s University of Success, A Better Way to Live, and The Twelfth Angel. His books have sold more than 50 million copies and have been translated into more than 25 languages.

Mandino’s message was shaped by hardship, military service, recovery, reading, and the discipline of sales. Influenced by the Bible, Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone, and Emmet Fox, he taught that every person is a miracle and should choose a life with confidence, direction, and harmony with the laws of abundance. He believed successful people consciously choose both their destination and the path to reach it. That is why his words still fit so naturally on a quotes page: they are direct, active, and meant to be used. “I will act now. Success will not wait.” For readers looking for courage in motion, Mandino offered exactly that.