Even though “The Greatest Salesman in the World” is more of a philosophical guide for the noble salesman, the principles Mandino outlines in this beautiful book can be applied by any who seek to achieve a desired set of goals. In fact, I have yet to see a set of principles so well put together as those illustrated in the scrolls of this story. I encourage you to commit the time and energy to implement these principles in your everyday life. Regardless of what your personal endeavour may be, you are bound to see gratifying results. Seminars and workshops devoted to delivering the knowledge of these principles are well known for their ability to transform individuals to high pinnacles of achievement. Now it’s your turn. Here are Og Mandino’s principles for success:

“Only principles endure and these I now possess, for the laws that will lead me to greatness are contained in the words of these scrolls” – “The Greatest Salesman in the World (1968)”, Og Mandino

Principle #1 – Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.

Principle #10 – I will act now.

The following passage is an excerpt from Malcolm Gladwell’s book – “Outliers”, in which he summarizes the intentions of his book by relating the story of a small Pennsylvania town named Roseto, settled by Italian immigrants from Roseto, Italy.

The piece illustrates the unusual circumstances of Roseto, a town where the residents have distinctively better health than its neighbours in proximate towns. Gladwell comments on research done by Bruhn and Wolf who pay specific attention to the low incidence of heart disease in the area, an anomaly considering the residents of Roseto, on the surface, seem to have the same ill behaviours as residents of neighbouring towns where the rates are more than three times as high.

I find the conclusions of these researchers astonishing and at the same time stimulating as it puts to ease a notion I have long held - that our well being lies far beyond the simple matters of base nutritional and environmental needs and depends highly upon the gratification gotten by immersing oneself in emotionally evolved groups and communities.

Few stories have illustrated this idea better than what is written here, and perhaps this story is enough to stimulate us into creating communities so beautiful and connected as Roseto:

“What Wolf began to realize was that the secret of Roseto wasn’t diet or exercise or genes or location. It had to be Roseto itself. As Bruhn and Wolf walked around the town, they figured out why. They looked at how the Rosetans visited one another, stopping to chat in Italian on the street, say, or cooking for one another in their backyards. They learned about the extended family clans that underlay the town’s social structure. They saw how many homes had three generations living under one roof, and how much respect grandparents commanded. They went to mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and saw the unifying and calming effect of the church. They counted twenty-two separate civic organizations in a town of just under two thousand people. They picked up on the particular egalitarian ethos of the community, which discouraged the wealthy from flaunting their success and helped the unsuccessful obscure their failures.

In transplanting the paesani culture of southern Italy to the hills of eastern Pennsylvania, the Rosetans had created a powerful, protective social structure capable of insulating them from the pressures of the modern world. The Rosetans were healthy because of where they were from, because of the world they had created for themselves in their tiny little town in the hills.” - “Outliers (2008)”, Malcolm Gladwell