1927-2008

Charlie "Tremendous" Jones

About Being Tremendous

People called Charlie "Tremendous" because he called everyone else tremendous. If asked how he got the monicker, he'd blame it on a limited vocabulary: When someone told him they were having a child, he'd say "Tremendous!"... When someone got a promotion "Tremendous!"... When someone got married, succeeded at something, met a great mentor... all "Tremendous". And pretty soon, everyone realized Charlie was "Tremendous."

For over 50 years, Charlie "T" Jones had a simple, yet powerful mission: To help people improve their lives through reading. Charlie entered the world of business, in the insurance industry at just 22 years of age. By age 23, he was awarded his agency's Most Valuable Associate Award. In typical fashion, he dismissed this saying it was only "because everyone else gave up and quit" - then turned it into a lesson on commitment. Ten years later, he received his company's highest management award for recruiting, manpower and development, and business management. In 1985, Charlie was awarded the President's Award by the Harrisburg Association of Life Underwriters and in 2004, he was recognized with the Registered Financial Consultant (RFC) designation. 

Charlie Tremendous Jones - book signing - Life Is Tremendous - Tremendous LeadershipIn 1965, he founded Life Management Services to share his experience through seminars and consulting services. Thousands of audiences around the world have experienced nonstop laughter as Mr. Charlie "T" Jones shared his ideas about life's most challenging situations in business and at home. 

He is the author and editor of several books, including Life Is Tremendous of which more than 2,000,000 copies have been printed in 12 languages. The book was awarded the Platinum Book Award on April 25, 1993 for 1,101,283 copies by the Evangelical Christian Publishers. To date, the book has never gone out of print. Charlie was also featured in numerous other speakers' books and training programs including: "Leadership by the Book" series with Ken Blanchard, "Excelling in the New Millennium" with Jim Rohn, and many more.

Charlie Jones was one of the leaders in the personal and professional development industry. He was also deeply devoted to education and lifelong learning. He was honored by Central Penn College in 2003 with an honorary Doctor of Human Letters. And in 2005, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Chiropractic Humanities by the Texas Chiropractic College and Doctorate of Public Service by the Parker College of Chiropractic. His dedication to creating learning opportunities for others is evident in the libraries named in his honor at Lancaster Bible College and Central Penn College.

His legacy lives on through the countless people he has positively impacted, and through the written words shared and the countless presentations he gave.



Quotes by Charlie "Tremendous" Jones ...

"You will be the same person in five  years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read." 

"Leaders are readers."

"No one is a failure until they blame somebody else." 

 

Watch the Throwback Thursday series in the Tremendous Leadership podcast to enjoy Charlie's classic speeches.