Frank Bettger

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Franklin (Frank) Bettger (1888-1981) was a salesman, and self-help author. He was the father of longtime actor Lyle Bettger. He played Major League baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1910 under the name Frank Betcher.

After his brief baseball career, Bettger returned to his native Philadelphia he started collecting accounts for a furniture store on a bike. He then started selling insurance but didn't do well and considered quitting after 10 months. He was the author of the best-selling books How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling[1] and How I Multiplied My Income and Happiness in Selling. How I Raised Myself... was translated into over a dozen languages including French, Danish, German, Swedish, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, British English, Norwegian, Italian, and Finnish.

Bettger also performed a series of lectures to Jaycees nationwide with Dale Carnegie.

Frank had plenty of insurance that would benefit his wife after he died, but while Frank was in his 90s, they had pretty much outlived their assets. According to the NSA National Speakers Association, web site, members dug deep and provided generously.

When Mrs. Bettger repaid the money from the insurance proceeds after Frank’s death the money was put into a fund that would be available to others in need – thus the original funding for the Professional Speakers Benefit Fund (PSBF). The mission of the PSBF is to help other members who may be indigent, face catastrophic health emergencies or losses, or outlive their assets.

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Frank Bettger wrote a not so well known book "How I learned the secrets of success in selling". In this book he talks more about his time as a Professional baseball player where he learned a lot of the secrets of his success later in selling. Chapter 2 in the book is "How I happened to get started in Professional baseball". The original American Edition was published in 1960 by Prentice-Hall, Inc, New Jersey. First published in Great Britain in 1961. This is a great book about the life of Frank Bettger. Statistics at Baseball Reference

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