The Strangest Secret - Indian Version

This acts as inspiration for anyone working on any aspect of personality, including inculcating efficiency and sustainability.

This Indian adaptation of Earl Nightingale's timeless work, The Strangest Secret, presents profound principles of success and purpose tailored to the Indian context. It replaces Western analogies, statistics, and examples with relatable Indian scenarios, emphasizing universal truths that transcend cultures and religions. This version makes the lessons accessible and relevant to a diverse audience.

This adaptation is not intended to diminish or alter the original brilliance of Earl Nightingale’s work but to resonate with those who seek a culturally relevant perspective. It aims to inspire individuals to chart their path with clarity, purpose, and determination while respecting all beliefs and sentiments.

Voice Over By Me - SRKR - S Ravi Kanth Reddy
Original One by - Earl Nightingale

Transcript

Not long ago, Dr. Abdul Kalam, the great Indian scientist and former President, was being interviewed, and a reporter asked him, “What’s the greatest challenge facing the youth of today?”

Dr. Kalam was silent for a moment, and then he said, “They don’t think enough about their dreams.”

It’s about this that I want to talk with you.

We live today in a golden age. This is an era that humanity has dreamed of for centuries. India, especially, is a land of opportunities and cultural richness. But since these opportunities are abundant, many take them for granted.

Let’s consider the potential of 100 men and women in India who begin their career journey at 25. Do you know what happens to them by the time they reach 60?

At 25, they’re full of hope and dreams. You can see the determination in their eyes, their upright posture, and their zest for life. But by the time they turn 60, one will be wealthy, four will be financially independent, five will still be working to make ends meet, and 54 will be dependent on others.


NOW WHY DO SO MANY FAIL?
What has happened to the sparkle that was there when they were 25? What’s become of the dreams, the hopes, the plans? And why is there such a large disparity between what these people intended to do, and what they actually accomplished?

When we say about 5% achieve success, we have to define success. And here’s the best definition I’ve ever been able to find: Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.

If a person is working toward a pre-determined goal and knows where he/she’s going, that person is a success. If he/she is not doing that, that person is a failure. Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.

Rollo May, the distinguished psychiatrist wrote a wonderful book called “Man’s Search for Himself.” And in this book, he says the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice. It is conformity.

This disparity in the young men of India, is not because India lacks opportunity. It is because most people conform — they don’t think and act upon their dreams. They act like everyone else without knowing why, without knowing where they’re going.

Now think of it.

In India right now, there are over 150 million people 60 years of age and above, and most of them are broke. They’re dependent on someone else for life’s necessities.

Now we learn to read by the time we’re five. We learn to make a living by the time we’re around 25. Usually, by that time, we’re not only making a living we’re supporting a family.

And yet, by the time we’re 60, we haven’t learned how to become financially independent in the  land of diverse cultures and opportunities.

Why? We conform.

And the trouble is that we’re acting like the wrong percentage group – the 95% who don’t succeed.

NOW WHY DO THESE PEOPLE CONFORM?
Well, they really don’t know. These people believe that their lives are shaped by circumstances, by things that happen to them by exterior forces, they’re outer-directed people.

When most of the people are asked “Why do you work?” “Why do you get up in the morning?” majority have no idea. They just say they have to earn money or survive so, they are doing what they are doing.

Some of them will say, “Well, everyone goes to work in the morning,” and that’s the reason they do it – because everyone else is doing it.

Now, let’s get back to our definition of success.

WHO SUCCEEDS?
The only person who succeeds is the person who is progressively realizing a worthy ideal. He is the person who says, “I am going to become this,” and then begins to work towards that goal.

I’ll tell you who the successful people are.

The successful person is the teacher in a school near you who loves educating children because it’s his/her passion. Success is the street vendor near you who works with pride to serve food that people enjoy, because that is what he/she wanted to do. Success is the startup founder around you who wants to build technology to change lives.

A successful person is anyone who deliberately works toward a pre-determined goal.

The success is the successful salesman who wants to become a top-notch salesman and grow and build with his organization.

A success is anyone who is doing deliberately a pre-determined job because that’s what he/she decided to do deliberately. But only 1 out of 20 does that. That’s why today there isn’t really any competition unless we make it for ourselves.

Instead of competing, all we have to do is create.

You know for 20 years, I looked for the key which would determine what would happen to a human being. Was there a key, I wanted to know, which would make the future a promise that we could foretell to a large extent?

WAS THERE A KEY THAT WOULD GUARANTEE A PERSON’S BECOMING SUCCESSFUL IF HE ONLY KNEW ABOUT IT AND KNEW HOW TO USE IT?
Well, there is such a key. And I found it.

Have you ever wondered why so many people work so hard and honestly without ever achieving anything in particular, and others don’t seem to work hard and yet seem to get everything? They seem to have a magic touch.

You’ve heard them say that about someone. “Everything he/she touches turns to gold.”

Have you ever noticed that a person who becomes successful tends to continue to become successful? And on the other hand, have you noticed how a person who’s a failure tends to continue to fail?

Well, it’s because of goals. Some of us have goals; some don’t. People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going. It's that simple.

Imagine you are driving a car with a clear destination in mind. You’ve mapped out the route, the car is in excellent condition, there’s plenty of fuel in the tank, and the roads are smooth and well-maintained. You know exactly where you’re going, how long it will take, and the steps to get there. With this preparation and resources, almost every time, you’ll reach your goal without any issues.

Now let’s consider a different scenario. You’re driving the same car, but this time, you have no destination in mind. You just start the engine and begin driving without a plan. You’re likely to wander aimlessly. Eventually, you may find yourself lost. Without a clear direction you cannot expect to reach anywhere meaningful.

It’s the same with a human being. Take the salesman for example. There is no other person in the world today with the future of a good salesman.

Selling is the world’s highest paid profession, if we’re good at it and if we know where we’re going. Every company needs top-notch salesmen, and they reward those men. The sky is the limit for them. But how many can you find?

Someone once said the human race is fixed. Not to prevent the strong from winning, but to prevent the weak from losing.

It takes no particular brains or talent to make a living and support a family today. So we have a plateau of so-called security, if that’s what person is looking for.

But we do have to decide how high above this plateau we want to aim.

India’s economy is like a long train, where every carriage represents an individual. The country moves at the speed of its slowest carriages to ensure no one is left behind. While this cooperative effort is essential, it also shows that anyone can rise above this average plateau if they aim higher. The more people rise above the plateau, the faster the train can move.

Now let’s get back to the Strangest Secret in the World, the story that I wanted to tell you today.

WHY DO PEOPLE WITH GOALS SUCCEED IN LIFE, AND PEOPLE WITHOUT THEM FAIL?
Well, let me tell you something which, if you really understand it, will alter your life immediately.

If you understand completely what I’m going to tell you from this moment on, your life will never be the same again. You will suddenly find that good luck just seems to be attracted to you, the things you want just seem to fall in line.

And from now on you won’t have the problems, the worries, the gnawing lump of anxiety that perhaps you’ve experienced before. Doubt, fear, well, they will be things of the past.

Here is the key to success and the key to failure. We become what we think about.

Now let me say that again. We become what we think about.

Throughout all history, the great wise men and teachers, philosophers, and prophets have disagreed with one another on many different things. It is only on this one point, that they are in complete and unanimous agreement.

Listen to what Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman Emperor, said, he said:
“A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.”

Disraeli said this:
“Everything comes if a man will only wait. I’ve brought myself by long meditation to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will that will stake even existence for its fulfillment.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson said this:
“A man is what he thinks about all day long.”

William James said: “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives, by altering their attitudes of mind.” And he also said, “We need only in cold blood act, as if the thing in question were real, and it will become infallibly real by growing into such a connection with our life, that it will become real. It will become so knit with habit and emotion, that our interests in it will be those which characterize belief.”

He also said, “If you only care enough for a result, you will almost certainly attain it. If you wish to be rich, you will be rich. If you wish to be learned, you will be learned. If you wish to be good, you will be good. Only you must, then, really wish these things, and wish them exclusively, and not wish at the same time a hundred other incompatible things just as strongly.”

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said: “This is one of the greatest laws in the universe. Fervently do I wish I had discovered it as a very young man. It dawned upon me much later in life, and I found it to be one of the greatest discovery, if not my greatest discovery outside of my relationship to God.”

The great law briefly and simply stated is that: If you think in negative terms, you will get negative results. If you think in positive terms, you will achieve positive results. That is the simple fact he went on to say, which is at the basis of an astonishing law of prosperity and success.

In three words: “Believe and Succeed.”

William Shakespeare put it this way, “Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”

George Bernard Shaw said: “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.

Well, it’s pretty apparent, isn’t it? And every person who discovered this, for a while, believed that he was the first one to work it out. “We become what we think about.”

The great Indian leader Swami Vivekananda said: “You are the creator of your own destiny.”

Your thoughts shape your reality. Plant a clear goal in your mind and work toward it with conviction. It is a law, like gravity—it always works.

Now it stands to reason that a person who is thinking about a concrete and worthwhile goal is going to reach it, because that’s what he’s thinking about. And we become what we think about.

Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn’t know where he is going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety, and fear, and worry becomes what he thinks about. His life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety, and worry. And if he thinks about nothing, he becomes nothing.

Now how does it work?

WHY DO WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK ABOUT?
Well I’ll tell you how it works as far as we know. Now to do this I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.

Imagine a farmer in Punjab who has a plot of fertile land. The land gives him a choice: he can plant wheat or wild weeds. The land doesn’t care what he plants—it will return whatever is sown.

Our minds are far more fertile than land. Whether we plant success or failure, dreams or doubts, it will return what we sow. As it is said, "As you sow, so shall you reap."

You see the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.

Now you might say, well if that’s true, why don’t people use their minds more?

Well I think they’ve figured out an answer to that one too.

Our mind comes as standard equipment at birth. It’s free. And things that are given to us for nothing, we place little value on. Things that we pay money for, we value. The paradox is that exactly the reverse is true. Everything that’s really worthwhile in life came to us free: our mind, our soul, our body, our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions, our intelligence, our love of family and children and friends, and country. All these priceless possessions are free.

But the things that cost us money are actually very cheap and can be replaced at any time.

A good person can be completely wiped out and make another fortune. He can do that several times. Even if our home burns down, we can rebuild it. But the things we got for nothing, we can never replace.

The human mind isn’t used because we take it for granted. “Familiarity breeds contempt”. It can do any kind of job we assign to it, but generally speaking, we use it for little jobs instead of big important ones.

Universities have proved that most of us are operating on about 10% or less of our abilities.

So decide now. What is it you want? Plant your goal in your mind. It’s the most important decision you’ll ever make in your entire life.

What is it you want? You want to be an outstanding salesman? or better worker at your particular job? Do you want to go places in your company, in your community? Do you wanna get rich? All you have got to do is plant that seed in your mind, care for it, work steadily towards your goal, and it will become a reality. It not only will, there’s no way that it cannot.

You see, that is a law – like the laws of Sir Isaac Newton, the laws of gravity. If you get on top of a building and jump off, you’ll always go down – you’ll never go up. And it’s the same with all the other laws of nature. They always work, they are inflexible.

Think about your goal in a relaxed, positive way. Picture yourself in your mind’s eye as having already achieved this goal.

See yourself doing the things you will be doing when you have reached your goal. 

Far too many of us worry ourselves into an early grave trying to cope with things in our own little personal ways, without learning a few great laws that will take care of everything for us.

These things we bring on ourselves, through our habitual way of thinking. Every one of us is the sum total of our own thoughts. We are where we are because that is exactly where we really wants to be, whether we will admit that or not.

Each of us must live off the fruit of our thoughts in the future, because what we think today and tomorrow – next month and next year – will mold our life and determine our future. We are guided by our mind.

You see, the very law that gives us success is a two-edged sword. We must control our thinking. The same rule that can lead a person to a life of success, wealth, happiness, and all the things he has ever dreamed of for himself and his family, that very same law can lead him into the gutter. It’s all in how he uses it: for good or for bad.

This is The Strangest Secret in the world.

NOW WHY DO I SAY IT’S STRANGE, AND WHY DO I CALL IT A SECRET?
Actually, it isn’t a secret at all. It was first promulgated by some of the earliest wise men, and it appears again and again throughout the Bible. But very few people have learned it, understand it. That’s why it’s strange, and why for some equally strange reason it virtually remains a secret.

I believe that you could go out and walk down the main street of your town and ask one person after another what the secret of success is and you probably wouldn’t run into one person in a month who could tell you.

Now this information is enormously valuable to us if we really understand it and apply it. It’s valuable to us not only for our own lives, but the lives of those around us, our family, employees, associates, and friends.

Life should be an exciting adventure. It should never be a bore. A person should live fully, be alive. He should be glad to get out of bed in the morning. He should be doing a job he likes to do because he does it well.

I’ve explained the Strangest Secret in the World, and how it works.

Now, I want to explain how you can prove to yourself the enormous returns possible in your own life by putting the secret to a practical test.

I want you to make a test that will last 30 days. Now it isn’t going to be easy, but if you will give it a good try, it will completely change your life for the better.

Back in the 17th Century, Sir Isaac Newton, the English mathematician and natural philosopher gave us the natural laws of physics, which apply as much to human beings as they do to the movement of bodies in the universe. And one of these laws is that: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”.

Simply stated as it applies to you and me, it means we can achieve nothing without paying the price. The results of your 30 day experiment will be in direct proportion to the effort you put forth.

To be a doctor, you must pay the price of long years of difficult study. To be successful in selling, and remember that each of us succeeds to the extent of his ability to sell, selling our families on our ideas, selling education in schools, selling our children on the advantages of living a good and honest life, selling our associates and employees on the importance of being exceptional people. Two, of course, the profession of selling itself.

But to be successful in selling our way to the good life, we must be willing to pay the price.

NOW WHAT IS THAT PRICE?
Well it’s many things. First, it’s understanding emotionally as well as intellectually that we literally become what we think about, that we must control our thoughts if we are to control our lives. It’s understanding fully that: “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

Second, it’s cutting away all fetters from the mind and permitting it to soar as it was divinely designed to do. It’s the realization that your limitations are self-imposed, and that the opportunities for you today are enormous beyond belief. It’s rising above narrow-minded pettiness and prejudice.

And third, to use all your courage to force yourself to think positively on your own problem. To set a definite and clearly defined goal for yourself. To let your marvelous mind think about your goal from all possible angles.

To let your imagination speculate freely upon many different possible solutions. To refuse to believe, that there are any circumstances sufficiently strong to defeat you in the accomplishment of your purpose.

To act promptly and decisively when your course is clear and to keep constantly aware of the fact that you are at this moment standing in the middle of your own “Acres of Diamonds” as Russell Conwell used to point out.

And fourth, save at least 10% of everything you earn. It’s also remembering that no matter what your present job, it has enormous possibilities, if you are willing to pay the price.

Now let’s just go over the important points in the price each of us must pay to achieve the wonderful life that can be ours. It is of course worth any price.

One: You will become what you think about.
Two: Remember the word imagination, and let your mind begin to soar.
Three: Courage – Concentrate on your goal every day.
Four: Save 10% of what you earn.
And Five Action – Ideas are worthless unless we act on them.

Now, I’ll try to outline the 30 day test I want you to make.

Now keep in mind that you have nothing to lose by making this test, and everything you could possibly want to gain.

There are two things that may be said of everyone:
Each of us wants something, and each of us is afraid of something.
I want you to write on a card what it is you want more than anything else. Write down a goal—whether it’s earning ₹5,00,000 a month, buying a home in your city, or some other specific achievement. Be sure it's clear and specific. Carry this goal on a card and read it several times daily.

Think about it in a cheerful, relaxed, positive way each morning when you get up, and immediately you have something to work for – something to get out of bed for, something to live for. Look at every chance you get during the day and just before going to bed at night.

As you look at it, remember that you must become what you think about, and since you’re thinking about your goal, you realize that soon it will be yours.

In fact, it’s really yours the moment you write it down and begin to think about it. Look at the abundance all around you as you go about your daily business. You have as much right to this abundance as any other living creature. It is yours for the asking.

Now we come to the difficult part. Difficult because it means the formation of what is probably a brand new habit. New habits are not easily formed. Once formed, however, it will follow you for the rest of your life.

Stop thinking about what it is you fear. Each time a fearful or negative thought comes into your consciousness, replace it with a mental picture of your positive and worthwhile goal.

And there will come times when you’ll feel like giving up. It’s easier for a human being to think negatively than positively. That’s why only 5% are successful! You must begin now to place yourself in that group.

For 30 days you must take control of your mind. It will think about only what you permit it to think about. Each day for this 30 day test, do more than you have to do.

In addition to maintaining a cheerful positive outlook, give of yourself more than you have ever done before. Do this knowing that your returns in life must be in direct proportion to what you give.

The moment you decide on a goal to work toward, you immediately are a successful person. You are then in that rare and successful category of people who know where they are going. Out of every 100 people, you belong to the top five.

Don’t concern yourself too much with how you are going to achieve your goal. Leave that completely to a power greater than yourself. All you have to do is know where you are going. The answers will come to you of their own accord, and at the right time.

For 30 days, do your very best.

If you are a salesman, go at it as you have never done before, not in a hectic fashion, but with the calm cheerful assurance that time well spent will give you the abundance in return you deserve and want.

If you are a homemaker, devote your 30 day test to completely giving of yourself without thinking about receiving anything in return, and you will be amazed at the difference it makes in your life.

No matter what your job, do it as you have never done it before for 30 days, and if you have kept your goal before you every day, you will wonder and marvel at this new life you have found.

Dorothea Brande, outstanding editor and writer, discovered it for herself and tells about it in her fine book “Wake up and Live”. Her entire philosophy is reduced to the words: “Act as though it were impossible to fail”. She made her own test, with sincerity and faith, and her entire life was changed to one of overwhelming success.

Now, you make your test for 30 full days. Don’t start your test until you have made up your mind to stick with it. You see by being persistent, you are demonstrating faith. Persistence is simply another word for faith. If you didn’t have faith, you would never persist.

If you should fail during the first 30 days, by that I mean you suddenly find yourself overwhelmed by negative thoughts, you’ve got to start over again from that point and go 30 more days.

Gradually, your new habit will form, until you find yourself one of that wonderful minority to whom virtually nothing is impossible. And don’t forget the card. It’s vitally important as you begin this new way of living.

Nothing great was ever accomplished without inspiration. See that during these crucial first 30 days your own inspiration is kept to a peak.

Above all … don’t worry!

Worry brings fear, and fear is crippling. The only thing that can cause you to worry during your test is trying to do it all yourself. Know that all you have to do is hold your goal before you; everything else will take care of itself.

Remember also to keep calm and cheerful, don’t let petty things annoy you and get you off course.

Now since making this test is difficult, some may say, “Well, why should I bother?” Well look at the alternative. No one wants to be a failure. No one really wants to be a mediocre individual.

No one wants a life constantly filled with worry, and fear and frustration. Therefore remember that you must reap that what you sow. If you sow negative thoughts, your life will be filled with negative things. If you sow positive thoughts, your life will be cheerful, successful, and positive.

Now gradually you will have a tendency to forget what you have heard on this recording. Play it often. Keep reminding yourself of what you must do to form this new habit.

Gather your whole family around at regular intervals and listen to what has been said here. You know most men will tell you that they want to make money, without understanding the law. The only people who make money work in a mint. The rest of us must earn money. This is what causes those who keep looking for something for nothing, or a free ride, to fail in life.

The only way to earn money is by providing people with services or products which are needed and useful. We exchange our time and our product or service for the other person’s money. Therefore the law is that our financial return will be in direct proportion to our service.

Now success is not the result of making money. Making money is the result of success, and success is in direct proportion to our service. Most people have this law backwards. They believe that you are successful if you earn a lot of money. The truth is that you can only earn money, after you are successful.

It’s like the story of a man who sat in front of the stove and said to it: “Give me heat and then I’ll add the wood.”

How persony men and women do you know, or do you suppose there are today, who take the same attitude toward life? There are millions.

We’ve got to put the fuel in before we can expect heat. Likewise, we’ve got to be of service first, before we can expect money. Don’t concern yourself with the money. Be of service: build, work, dream, create! Do this and you’ll find there is no limit to the prosperity, and abundance will come to you.

Prosperity is founded upon a law of mutual exchange. Any person who contributes to prosperity must prosper in turn himself. Sometimes the return will, not come from those you serve, but it must come to you from someplace, for that is the law. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

As you go daily through your 30 day test period, remember that your success will always be measured by the quality and quantity of service you render, and money is a yardstick for measuring this service. No person can get rich himself, unless he enriches others. There are no exceptions to a law.

An outstanding medical doctor recently pointed out six steps that will help you realize success.
One - Set yourself a definite goal.
Two - Quit running yourself down.
Three - Stop thinking of all the reasons why you cannot be successful and instead think of all the reasons why you can.
Four - Trace your attitudes back through your childhood and try to discover where you first got the idea you couldn’t be successful, if that is the way you’ve been thinking.
Five - Change the image you have of yourself by writing out a description of the person you would like to be.
Six - Act the part of the successful person you have decided to become.
The doctor who wrote those words is a noted West Coast psychiatrist, Dr David Harold Fink. Do what all the experts since the dawn of recorded history have told you you must do: pay the price by becoming the person you want to become. It’s not nearly as difficult as living unsuccessfully.

Life should be an exciting adventure, not a routine. As Swami Vivekananda said, "Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached."

For 30 days, focus on your goal. Think positively, act decisively, and give your best effort. Soon, you will see the floodgates of abundance open. You’ll be in that wonderful minority who lead calm, cheerful, successful lives. Remember, success is not just about money — it is about peace, happiness, and fulfillment. 

Start today. You have nothing to lose, but a whole life to win.