April 10, 2007
The Powerful Intentions of Rhonda Byrne
Ten years later, her father died, leaving her mother not wanting to go on without him. Her hectic schedule as a busy television executive made her unable to maintain healthy relationships with friends and collogues. Financial woes threatened to bankrupt her company. Additionally, after so many years of successfully working in commercial TV, she found herself working on a very hectic and trouble-plagued show, "Sensing Murder." Her ensuing depression took a challenging personal and emotional break down, crying all the time and lacking any sense of direction with her life.
Her daughter, concerned for her well being, brought her a book she'd come across that she'd hoped her mother could use to visualize herself out of her depression – it was Wallace Wattles' 1910 book, The Science of Getting Rich. She became entranced with the idea of visualizing the world into a form more favorable to your well-being.
Rhonda immediately began conducting research into other similar ideas throughout the last 4,000 years of recorded history to document what each had in common. For two whole months she read piles of books, searching for connections between successful individuals throughout history who seemed to be in control of their own destiny. Thus, Ronda worked out her original concepts for “The Secret.”
So, at 35, she not only was able to find a new purpose and strength that compelled her to action, but also to become financially secure. She dedicated herself to the production of a new film – The Secret – that would share this timeless and timely knowledge with a wide audience. In an unusual move for her, she even appears in her own film as a subject and interviewee.
Through a series of improbable events, Prime Time found itself getting the breaks it needed to scare up resources for production – 10% of the $3million dollars eventually spent on the production came from Nine Network itself.
When they found themselves going to the United States to begin interviewing people, the Rhonda and the Prime Time crew had no idea who to even start talking to. She simply followed what she believed to be the opportunities, which were popping up all around her – good luck just seemed to follow her around. Eventually more than two dozen scientists, spiritual figures, entrepreneurs and authors gave their endorsements of this idea that the Universal Law of Attraction is yours to command by training the mind to keep very specific visualized goals in focus at all times.
In November of 2006, Rhonda also became the author of a companion book to the movie, also called, The Secret. Published by Atria Books / Beyond Words Publishing (a division of Simon and Schuster), the hardbound book has topped the New York Times Advice Bestseller List. Five months after a long-awaited release that immediately propelled it to the top of Amazon's sales ranking, and even five months later, it's still the #2 book, right after Harry Potter, having sold nearly 5 and ½ million copies. Her appearances on Larry King Live and a two-hour special feature on Oprah have further enhanced the success of The Secret. Without even having a major distribution partner, Prime Time has managed to sell 250,000 copies of the DVD and many more thousands of online views.
