Born in 1935 as the middle child of a modest family in northern Ontario, Canada, Robert Proctor was not a remarkable young man. Born into a worldwide depression that only led to World War II, Bob (like many of his classmates) simply wasn’t interested in school. As a result, he didn’t do very well and he eventually dropped out after just a few months of high school.
Even in the 1950s, there were few lucrative career options for high school dropouts, so he soon joined the Canadian Army for a four-year stint. After a mostly uneventful period, he returned to his Ontario home and settled in Toronto to work as a firefighter. He has since described himself during this period as “broken, sick and miserable”. So when his friend Ray Stanford gave him a copy of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, he was ready for a change.
He quickly decided to put the ideas outlined in the book into practice. The first thing he did was take a number that he wanted to do, write it down, concentrate on it, and put it in his pocket. The starting sum of $25,000 may seem modest by today’s standards, but in 1961 it was several times the average wage for blue-collar workers in Toronto, even someone lucky enough to hold a stable and lucrative position as a city employee. Despite the protests of his firefighter brothers, he quit anyway.
Before long, he had started a cleaning company that specialized in office cleaning. Just twelve months after that, he was the head of a national cleaning chain and had achieved his original goal multiple times. In a few years, he became a millionaire. Clearly, the book had some kind of effect. He felt compelled to share this success with others by sharing the secret that he had learned.
Bob was ready to learn more and devoured every book he could find on the subject, many from the 19th century, including those by proponents of the New Thought Movement. He continued to study and found a mentor in Earl Nightingale, creator of the gold record-winning “The Strangest Secret” and voice of more than 7,000 motivational radio broadcasts.
A pioneer of the self-help movement that emerged in the 1970s, Earl taught salespeople and homemakers alike that “you become what you think about” as it came to him “like a bolt from the blue” while he was preparing an inspirational talk for insurance salesmen in 1958. Bob went to work for him as a content salesman in Chicago, Illinois, and soon became Earl’s right-hand man.
In the mid-1970s, Proctor decided to begin his career as a life coach and continues, 30 years later, in that capacity. In the years since, Bob has taught executives at dozens of companies including Prudential and Metropolitan Life, as well as Malaysian Airlines.
He continued to search for new material to explain why some people succeed and others don’t. Dr. C. Harry Roder of the San Antonio Institute for Conceptual Therapy, Eric Hoffer of the true believer Fame and Leland Von Syring are among those Bob met during his travels to work with corporate clients. They gave Bob indispensable advice that he has incorporated into his programs and seminars. Every time he noticed that his life was going much better than before, he would look for the nugget of wisdom and investigate it. The resulting program is, in essence, his life’s work.
Today, Bob Proctor leads seminars around the world and spreads his message through various media companies that he runs. The Coaching Consulting Program is offered along with materials designed to educate users about the human motivations that lead and do not lead to success. He continues to offer a twelve-month coaching program through his website that promises to be a rigorous and intensive series of materials and conference calls.
He has written numerous books on the topics of getting what you want out of life and meeting goals since the 1960s, including The puzzle of success, The image of the winner, The goal achiever and his highly influential and best-selling, you were born rich. Most recently, he has appeared in the hit film The Gift, as an interviewee and a philosopher. With other movie experts, Bob has been leading seminars to teach people how to use the power of thought to push themselves into the powerful people they can become.
Bob claims to be as energetic as ever, in his early 70s, and expresses sincere gratitude for his good fortune and abundance every day. He remains committed to teaching his system for personal satisfaction.