Think Rich Rights Windfall

A story about how Guthy-Renker got their start by buying the rights to "Think and Grow Rich" and turning it into a successful infomercial business.

"They realized they could buy the rights to the book Think and Grow Rich because it was such an old book that the copyright had lapsed. They scraped together savings and bought it for $100,000. In the next 3 years, they made $10 million in sales off that.

In the infomercial they created, they got Frank Tarkenton, the NFL quarterback. They saw anyone who had mentioned they loved the book Think and Grow Rich and asked them to be part of the infomercial.

The genius of their marketing was they didn't tell you about the product at the beginning. You just hear Frank Tarkenton saying 'I always used to feel this way, but now I'm this way.' Then somebody else comes in saying the same thing. They don't tell you what's the product that gave them that transformation.

They tell the story around the book that the richest people in the world - Carnegie, the Rothschilds - wanted this guy Napoleon Hill to write this and study the most successful people in the world to find out their secret.

In the infomercial, they had one guy come on who was a 24-year-old wonder kid, and Tony Robbins came on unpaid to talk about how much he loved the book. They were so blown away by his charisma on camera that they decided to go into business with Tony Robbins next."