Nightingale-Conant has a simple yet marvelous purpose: to help people realize their full potential … to make them successful and happy. The goal is self-improvement … the vehicles are audio and video programs.

Our message goes out to hundreds of thousands of people every year, people who tell us that Nightingale-Conant has transformed their lives for the better.

We are an active, vibrant company operating out of Chicago and Devon, England. But our roots … our fiber … our ethic … goes back to the mid-1950s.

It all started with...

It all started with two unique men … Earl Nightingale and Lloyd Conant.

Earl Nightingale’s life began simply. He grew up in Long Beach, California. His parents had little money, and his father disappeared when he was 12. But even as a boy, Earl was always asking questions, always reading in his local public library, trying to understand the way life works.

On December 7, 1941, Earl was at Pearl Harbor … in a lookout tower on the Battleship Arizona. A thousand men died on the Arizona … Earl was one of only a hundred who survived. He was literally blown off the ship, unconscious, and another sailor pulled him to safety.

Earl said that he felt that he had been spared for some reason. After the war Earl became obsessed with why everyone in his neighborhood was poor and confused. He wondered why one person was able to create wealth and happiness for his family, while another with a similar background stayed ignorant and penniless. Answering these questions became Earl’s life work.

In 1956, he was about to take a trip but wanted to leave a message for his sales force. He got up in the middle of the night inspired to write a message that he recorded the next morning. That message became one of the most important and famous motivational recordings ever made. It’s called The Strangest Secret.

One of the people The Strangest Secret inspired was Lloyd Conant, the owner of a Chicago printing and direct response company. Lloyd contacted Earl, and the two were immediately attracted by their shared values. In 1960, they formed the Nightingale-Conant Corporation.

Lloyd Conant

Lloyd Conant was one of those special people whom everyone respected. He cared deeply for people and, in turn, received tremendous loyalty and affection from everyone who worked for him.

Like Earl Nightingale, Lloyd Conant was a self-made man. He grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri, the son of a candy maker. During the Depression, Lloyd’s father lost his job. To help support the family, Lloyd moved to Kansas City, Missouri, to sell typewriters. During this time, he met many successful business and professional leaders. He also attended a businessmen’s Bible class. This period had a tremendous influence on Lloyd. He developed the business and ethical principles that later became the cornerstone of Nightingale-Conant.

From the beginning, Lloyd and Earl were almost a perfect match. Earl, the creative force … the one who conceptualized, wrote, and delivered almost all the early programs. Lloyd, the solid rock … the man behind the scenes who kept the company running through all kinds of problems and changing conditions, the super administrator and entrepreneur, the man who worked the endless hours each day to make Nightingale-Conant what it is today.