Jerry Gillies

Here’s a carefully researched and SEO-optimized biography of Jerry Gillies, American author and motivational teacher. (Note: reliable public data is limited, so some details are drawn from interviews, blog posts, and publisher sources.)

Jerry Gillies – Life, Career, and Famous Insights

An in-depth look at Jerry Gillies—his journey from radio to authorship, major works like MoneyLove, life’s challenges, and memorable quotes. Discover the story behind this American author and prosperity teacher.

Introduction

Jerry Gillies is an American author, speaker, and prosperity consciousness teacher known most prominently for his book MoneyLove. He has influenced many in the personal development space by focusing on mindset, money, and internal transformation. His own life narrative includes dramatic turns—radio broadcasting, creative work, and even periods of incarceration—which he frames as foundational to his perspectives on success, adversity, and growth.

Though not always widely known in traditional literary circles, Gillies holds a respected niche in motivational and prosperity teaching communities. His work seeks to demystify financial growth by tying it to inner attitudes, core beliefs, and daily practices.

Early Life and Background

• Full name and birth: According to biographical sources, Jerry Gillies was born Gerald Francis Gillies, around April 19, 1940 in New York City, U.S.

• Youth: He describes himself in interviews as having been a shy young man, with limited confidence. Early in life, he gravitated toward communication, radio, and exploring how ideas influence human behavior.

• Early career in radio and broadcasting: He started working in radio during his youth, eventually reaching a news position in New York City. In various blog posts, he indicates that he “worked his way up to a news position in the number one market, New York City,” before transitioning into writing and teachings.

These early experiences in communications and media laid the groundwork for his later role as a speaker and author, equipping him with skills in persuasion, narrative, and audience engagement.

Turning Point: Transformation, Struggles & Renewal

Gillies’ life includes a dramatic arc not often publicized in typical author biographies:

• Health / supplement challenge & legal troubles
  In his writings and interviews, he reports that he used a nutritional supplement with high amounts of ephedra, believing it harmless at the time. He claims that this use “scrambled his brain” and contributed to poor judgment.
  Eventually, he was convicted and served 12 years in prison following a scheme involving carjacking a motorhome.
  During those prison years, he says he spent considerable time meditating, reflecting, creating, and writing—turning adversity into a period of inner growth.

• Post-prison reemergence
  After release, Gillies resumed his creative work, publishing further editions of MoneyLove, conducting workshops, starting audio clubs, blogging, and exploring stand-up comedy as a medium to share his lessons.
  He also authored an updated version MoneyLove 3.0, engaging collaborators and mentors across the prosperity movement.

Gillies frames these personal trials not as detours but as essential to his credibility: he speaks from lived transformation, not mere theory.

Career & Key Works

MoneyLove and Prosperity Teaching

• Gillies’ signature work is MoneyLove (sometimes styled Moneylove). The original version is said to have been published in the 1970s and has sold over 2 million copies (per interviews).

• His approach emphasizes that wealth and prosperity are less about external tactics and more about consciousness and internal alignment. In his view, money reflects beliefs, feelings, and consistency in one’s vision and integrity.

• He later released MoneyLove 3.0 (a digital-age sequel), involving contributions from other prosperity thinkers, with expanded content.

• Gillies also created an audio club, workshops, and a blog to engage with readers beyond the page.

Other Writings & Creative Ventures

• Beyond MoneyLove, Gillies is credited (in quote sites) with works such as The Millionaire Maker and The Nine Master Keys of Management.

• He has authored various blog posts, newsletters, seminars, and recorded audio teachings aimed at helping individuals shift money consciousness.

• In his blog, he also mentions working on a prison memoir and a one-person show based on his incarceration experience.

• He ventured into stand-up comedy later in life, experimenting with humor as a way to communicate lessons and heal.

While his literary output is more specialized than mass-market, his creative and teaching endeavors form an integrated body of work around personal development and financial awakening.

Themes, Philosophy & Approach

Jerry Gillies’ message is characterized by several recurring themes:

1. Prosperity consciousness over formulas
   He argues that money is not an end but a mirror of inner alignment. The way one thinks about money, the beliefs held about worthiness and abundance, form the foundation of financial reality.

2. Vision + Action + Integrity
   Gillies often teaches that a clear vision, consistent action, and integrity (alignment between words and deeds) must coexist. Without action, vision remains fantasy; without integrity, actions lose power.

3. Learning from setbacks
   He frames mistakes and failures as integral lessons. The setbacks in his own life, including his time in prison, are not hidden but embraced as transformative experiences.

4. Internal transformation before external success
   He posits that outward change (income, status) must follow inner regeneration—beliefs, habits, emotional maturity.

5. Use of arts, humor, stories
   Gillies blends a lecturer’s precision with storytelling, humor, and candid self-disclosure. His journey into stand-up comedy reflects a belief in the power of laughter and vulnerability.

Memorable Quotes by Jerry Gillies

Here are some of his more cited statements that express his thinking:

“What you do is more important than how much you make, and how you feel about it is more important than what you do.”
“Make sure you visualize what you really want, not what someone else wants for you.”
“The strongest factor... is self-esteem: believing you can do it, believing you deserve it, believing you will get it.”
“Confront your fears, list them, get to know them, and only then will you be able to put them aside and move ahead.”
“It takes a lot more energy to fail than to succeed, since it takes a lot of concentrated energy to hold on to beliefs that don't work.”

These lines reveal his emphasis on belief, clarity, emotional work, and inner empowerment.

Lessons from Jerry Gillies’ Life

• Adversity can be crucible: Gillies’ darkest period (prison) became a central pivot in his philosophy and authority.

• Authenticity resonates: He does not hide flaws; his transparency strengthens trust with his audience.

• Inner work is essential: He shows that external success without internal growth is unstable.

• Reinvention is possible at any stage: Later in life, he embraced comedy, new editions, fresh modes of teaching.

• Belief plus action matters: Holding a vision is not enough; disciplined steps and consistency give it shape.

Challenges & Critique

While many admire Gillies for honesty and depth, some critiques or caveats include:

• Limited mainstream exposure: His reach is more prominent in niche personal development communities than academic or literary circles.

• Reliance on self-reported narrative: Much of his biographical story comes from his own interviews and blogs, with fewer independent third-party verifications, which may invite skepticism.

• Blurring of genre: His work sits between memoir, motivational teaching, and spiritual/psychology, which may leave some readers unclear on the “type” of author he is.

Conclusion

Jerry Gillies is not merely an author of prosperity books—he is a living case study of transformation, teaching from the trenches of his own life. His MoneyLove legacy, expanded teachings, and evolving creative experiments reflect a path where inner work and outer expression converge.

For readers interested in exploring his teachings, start with MoneyLove (and its later iterations), his blog on and his audio teachings. His life offers a reminder: the story behind the message is often as instructive as the message itself.