Early Life
After dropping out of school before graduation, Tracy spent several years as a laborer. He then got a job on a tramp steamer and traveled around the world for eight years, eventually visiting more than eighty countries on five continents.
Since he could no longer find a job as a laborer, he went into sales, struggling at first. He decided to ask other successful salesmen and then emulate them. By the end of his first year, he attained the status of top salesman. After his second year, he was made a Vice President in charge of 95 people. At the time he was only 25 years old.
At 30, Tracy decided to return to school and attended the University of Alberta, eventually earning a Master's Degree in Business.
Professional Life
Beginning in 1981, Tracy assembled his "success system", which was initially called "The Phoenix Seminar." Three years later, in 1985, he released an updated version of this seminar as a self-help audio tape entitled "The Psychology of Achievement".
Tracy's book Maximum Achievement was included as one of 50 success, motivation and leadership classics in the book 50 Success Classics (2004) by Tom Butler-Bowdon.
Among Tracy's many professional achievements, he is also a member of the board of trustees for the Heritage Foundation, an influential Washington, D.C.-based public policy research institute. His body of work is loosely based on a number of other success "gurus" such as Earl Nightingale, Jim Rohn and Denis Waitley. He has recently launched Brian Tracy University, an online course of study which is designed to assist entrepreneurs, business owners and sales professionals.
The Brian Tracy College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Andrew Jackson University (a distance learning school based in Hoover, Alabama), is named after him and based on his teachings.
In March 2008, Brian Tracy and some of his business partners created iLearningGlobal, which is another online learning community staffed by a faculty of world known speakers and educators.
