From West Virginia poverty to worldwide bestseller, Jack Canfield’s life is the ultimate rags-to-riches blueprint. This doc shows how he did it, step by step.
If you’re into this one, you might also like The 9 Best Self-Help Documentaries (Ranked), from my colleague Rob Kelly.
Trailer for “The Soul of Success: The Jack Canfield Story”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- The name “Chicken Soup for the Soul” literally came to Jack Canfield during a meditation. He saw a chalkboard, a hand wrote “chicken soup,” and a voice (which he assumed was God) told him “people’s spirits are sick.” That name is now a $100M brand.
- Jack’s first success seminar business was run out of his kitchen, with a door laid across two filing cabinets as his desk.
- “Chicken Soup for the Soul” was rejected by over 140 publishers. One said, “Anthologies don’t sell.”
- He grew up thinking rich people were “the bad guys”. By the end, he’s onstage with Oprah and U.S. Presidents teaching others how to get rich.
Watch “The Soul of Success: The Jack Canfield Story”
You can stream it on Prime Video, and Apple TV.
Ratings
- My Rating: 92/100
- IMDB Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 96/100 (Users); not yet rated (Critics)
Director’s Note: Directed by Nick Nanton (known for “Operation Toussaint”). This one clocks in at 54 minutes and moves fast. It is more inspiration than investigation.
Release Date: Premiered in 2017. Now available on major streaming platforms.
My Review of “The Soul of Success”
The Setup
Jack Canfield was born into a chaotic, alcoholic household in West Virginia. The kind of place where nobody talks about dreams or goals—just how to survive the day. But through education, self-help, and a truckload of persistence, he rewired everything.
He makes it to Harvard. Becomes a teacher in inner-city Chicago, where he starts using self-esteem exercises with kids who’ve been written off. Those exercises lead to talks, then seminars, then books. That path eventually explodes into “Chicken Soup for the Soul.”
What starts as a classroom practice becomes a global success machine.
More Highlights from the Doc
- Jack says his first real break came from speaking at a teacher’s conference. He sold enough copies of his self-help book afterward to fund his seminar series.
- The doc shows actual photos of the original “Chicken Soup” manuscript being packed up and mailed to publisher after publisher—and being rejected again and again.
- The most surreal pivot: Jack’s journey from “guy teaching self-esteem to public school kids” to “running success bootcamps for Fortune 500 executives.”
- One of the most interesting parts is when he talks about his money beliefs growing up—his mom told him that “rich people were greedy” and “we’re not like them.”
- By the end, he’s helping people visualize checks for $1 million and teaching “The Law of Attraction” on national TV. Whether or not you buy it, it clearly worked for him.
Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- Jack started with no business experience—he didn’t even have an office. He just balanced a hollow-core door across two file cabinets and called that his desk.
- He and coauthor Mark Victor Hansen committed to meditate daily for 30–60 minutes to “ask God for a book title.” That’s how the name “Chicken Soup for the Soul” came to them—on day 3, via a vision of a chalkboard and a voice saying “people’s spirits are sick.”
- That title almost didn’t make it. Their agent didn’t get it. The first 100+ publishers flat-out said it wouldn’t sell. One editor told them, “No one wants stories like this.”
Wrap Up: If you’re into origin stories, entrepreneurial grit, or underdog transformation arcs, this one hits all the marks. I wouldn’t call it investigative, but it’s a powerful blueprint for creating your own version of success.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc