How Chicken Soup for the Soul Originated

Jack Canfield is the coauthor of more than two hundred books, including, The Success Principles™: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be and the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, which includes forty New York Times bestsellers and which has sold more than 600 million copies in 50-plus languages around the world.

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Timestamps:

• [00:00:00] Who is Jack?
• [00:01:57] How a single “yes” from Jack shaped my career.
• [00:04:55] A contract lesson: How Chicken Soup for the Soul sold millions in China with zero royalties.
• [00:06:45] Jack’s background: From poverty to Harvard.
• [00:09:43] Discovering Chinese history and the “easy A” that changed everything.
• [00:11:07] Winning “Teacher of the Year” teaching Black history.
• [00:14:35] High praise from Sammy Davis Jr.
• [00:17:37] W. Clement Stone: The $600 million mentor who turned motivation into a science (and insurance).
• [00:21:35] Stone’s challenge: Take 100% responsibility and stop watching TV (a 14-month year hack).
• [00:22:40] From visualizing $100,000 to a million.
• [00:25:42] Chicken Soup origins.
• [00:27:35] Mark Victor Hansen joins.
• [00:29:15] 144 rejections later.
• [00:31:28] The ABA miracle.
• [00:34:05] The Rule of Five.
• [00:36:05] Selling The Soul and splurging on sweaters.
• [00:37:27] The Soup sourced from the universe.
• [00:39:33] The big break.
• [00:41:22] Word-of-mouth magic.
• [00:45:37] Lessons from live feedback.
• [00:47:27] The burnout years.
• [00:49:25] Life after Chicken Soup.
• [00:51:05] Late-night typing marathons and pun-laden chapter transitions that led to The Success Principles.
• [00:54:02] How Jack’s love of transformation beats any royalty check.
• [00:55:07] Retirement reflections.
• [00:59:32] Jack’s longevity formula: Laughter, organic food, love, and letting go.
• [01:02:10] An ayahuasca awakening.
• [01:03:39] The story of Rythmia Life Advancement Center and how it’s affected Jack.
• [01:06:43] Breaking belief loops and understanding community as medicine.
• [01:10:06] E + R = O and strategies for taking 100% responsibility of one’s life.
• [01:22:27] Why “clean up your messes” is first in Jack’s list of productivity tips.
• [01:29:27] Where to begin if you’re unfamiliar with Jack’s work.
• [01:31:08] Ken Blanchard: “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”
• [01:32:13] Parting thoughts.

Show notes for this episode: https://tim.blog/2025/10/29/jack-canfield/

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