Og Mandino biography
Inspirational author, 1923 - 1996

Og Mandino biography details the life of the inspirational author who transformed himself from an alcoholic to write The Greatest Salesman in the World.

Og Mandino was born on December 12, 1923 and was named after his paternal grandfather. He gained the nickname 'Og' from his full name of Augustine.

From an early age Mandino's red headed Irish mother, had a special dream for her son. "Someday you will be a writer. . . not just a writer but a great writer!", she would tell him over and over again.

The Og Mandino biography show that Mandino took on board his mother's dream and began devouring grown up books from his local library and writing short stories.

In his senior year of high school he was the editor of the school paper and planned to attend journalist school at the University of Missouri that autumn.

But shortly after graduating from high school in 1940, his mother suffered a massive heart attack and dropped dead in the kitchen while preparing lunch for Mandino.

The death of his mother was a terrible shock for Mandino and instead of going on to college as intended, he went to work at a local paper factory then, in 1942 he joined the Army Air Corps.

In 1943 he received his officer's commission and silver wings as a bombardier.

The Og Mandino biography states that Og flew thirty bombing missions over Germany during World War Two aboard a B-24 Liberator of the 445th heavy bombardment group.

It was at this time that he met and flew with the movie actor Jimmy Stewart, who he described as being a 'nice man', and kept a personalised photo of him on his office wall where he wrote his books.

With the war ended Mandino returned to the United States only to find there was little employment prospects for high school educated ex bombardiers.

After many months of searching fhe finally managed to secure a job selling life insurance, and went on to marry the girl he had been dating since before the war started.

There then followed what Mandino himself describes as 'ten years of living hell.'

The Og Mandino biography describes how even though he devoted all his available time selling insurance policies to support his wife and daughter, the debts just got bigger and bigger.

The frustration began to eat away at him.

It was not long before he tried easing his frustration with drink. One drink eventually turned into two, and then three as he gradually slipped in to life as an alcoholic.

Not surprisingly his wife and daughter could not put with him any longer and eventually left him.

Og Mandino spent the next couple of years in a drunken haze, travelling the country taking on any odd jobs he could find just to pay for his next drink and sleep it off in the gutter.

Og Mandino biography shows how things became so bad he even considered suicide at one point but realised he couldn't go through with it.

One snowy November day he took refuge from the cold in a public library and found himself standing in front of the self-help section. He stood gazing at the rows of books on subjects such as success and motivation, grabbing a handful of them he found a vacant table to sit down and search for answers.

Mandino made a point of visiting the library of whatever town he was in to try and find the answers and help he needed.

Whilst in Concord, New Hampshire, he came across the book Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude by W. Clement Stone and in his own words said 'my life has never been the same since.'

From reading the book's cover, Mandino learnt that Stone was president of Combined Insurance Company of America. He sought out a subsidiary in Boston where he applied for a job as salesman.

The Og Mandino biography show that Og got the job, and at the age of thirty two began to apply the philosophies of Stone's success.

Within a year he was promoted to sales manager of Northern Maine and in a short time Mandino's office was breaking company records.

The dream his mother had had for him all those years ago was never forgotten by Mandino and so he set about writing a sales manual on selling insurance in the rural areas and sent it to the head office in Chicago.

This lead to him being promoted to writing company bulletins for the sales promotions department in Chicago. By now Og Mandino had remarried and had a son, so the three of them packed up all their possessions and drove to Chicago.

He was then promoted to editor of Stone's in-house magazine Success Unlimited after the current editor retired. With the new job came a mission to convert the in-house magazine into a national publication and a blank cheque to help accomplish it.

The Og Mandino biography shows that over the next ten years the magazine grew from two members of staff to sixty two and had a paid circulation of almost a quarter of a million copies.

Whilst putting together one edition of Success Unlimited Mandino realised he did not have enough articles and with nothing suitable on file he set about writing an article himself about his golf hero Ben Hogan.

The article prompted a New York publisher to contact Mandino with the offer of publishing a book should he ever wish to write one.

Within eighteen months The Greatest Salesman in the Worldwas published. The first print run was small, only about 5,000 copies, because as of then Mandino was a comparatively unknown author, but a stroke of good luck was to come his way.

The Og Mandino biography describes how the co-founder of Amway Corp., Rich DeVos, advised his people at an Amway Convention about a new book he believed would help them.

Through DeVos's advice sales of The Greatest Salesman in the World rocketed to such and extent it lead to Bantem Books purchasing the paperback rights.

In total Og Mandino wrote nineteen books which to date have sold over fifty million copies and have been translated into over twenty five different languages.

Og Mandino died on September 3, 1996 at the age of 73.

Some source material researched from Wikipedia with thanks.

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Og Mandino biography of Self Help Books

U.S.A. in a Nutshell

Cycles

The Greatest Salesman in the World

The Greatest Secret In The World

The Greatest Miracle In The World

The Gift Of Acabar (with Buddy Kaye)

The Choice

The Christ Commission

Mission: Success!

The God Memorandum

The Greatest Salesman In The World Part II: The End Of The Story

The Ten Ancient Scrolls For Success: From The Greatest Salesman In The World

He Is Tough

University of Success (Compilation from other works)

A Better Way To Live

The Return Of The Ragpicker

The Twelfth Angel

Spellbinder's Gift

The Greatest Mystery In The World

Secrets For Success And Happiness

The Greatest Success In The World

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