The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 448 - Napoleon Hill

Episode Date: September 23, 2020

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine Napoleon Hill. Sources - Gizmodo Tour DatesRedbubble Merch

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each week I palm tree watcher man who swims not a fan of sharks Dave Anthony Feeder went off. Feeder went off. Yours did? Yep. Your computer what went off? No my feeder the cat's feeder keep going you're doing great. Read the story from American history to his friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. He said heater. My heater went off. First I thought you said heater and then I thought you said computer. My computer. I was very confused because I I didn't understand how a computer could go off and I could still be hearing you so you can understand my computer. Yeah yeah yeah no for sure now

that would be weird. So let's get into why you let's get into why you were lying right there from the beginning. I don't think I lied. I think if you were to play the tape I think if you were to play the tape back you would hear that I said the feeder went off. So this is just like a big like a big game to you to try to get inside of my head like right away like you're trying to know what yeah I mean you're just trying to you're trying to rent space up in this bad boy but here's the thing about me is nothing stop talking nothing get in here literally nothing get in here nothing can get into my head nothing ever ever so you are

American oh yeah oh yeah yeah that's yeah you heard about this nothing ain't nothing get it in my head you heard about this man I'm not an idiot hear about this scandemic thing oh yeah you mean Corona virus yeah what's that you know here's the thing and I've been talking to a lot of people about this it's amazing that the entire world like every country in the world you know Thailand and Rwanda and Amsterdam and Bolivia every country is trying to make it so Trump doesn't get reelected by wearing masks every one they're all they're all in on it I agree I agree I agree you know it just shows you how right he is it's

validating I find it validating personally that's everyone's freaking out and that's the point and so well yeah he's doing great he's doing great yep both sides crushing side job absolutely we are a rush fest in the government right now God bless land that I love boy and called it quote is jam patch you know I'm the fucking hippo guy okay my name is Gary let's get away is it for fun and this is not gonna come to tiggly quad guys yeah now hit him with the puppy you both present sick arguments actually

you remember I guess that's wrong sorry how's my hair look it looks better than that Instagram picture you post that was a good one it what happened that day I had to I had a hat I had a hat on I took it off that's what I said to my friend I was like you had a hat on yeah yeah not fair Oliver Napoleon Hill was born in pound Virginia what father who middle-name Napoleon is like yeah we wanted to be a little prick I mean it's really a weird name in 1883 so yeah his father James was a dentist you know in that day dentist you know that's definitely yeah yeah yeah you mean tooth surgeon yeah gum murderer on the

sign he dad his dad dabbled in moonshine sure you have a side job when you're well I think back then they called it a side dabbled that's right so his mom Sarah died when Oliver was just nine years old and his dad took a whole year to find a new lady and remarry what would you guess the percentage of these start with a parent dying in the first three sentences 35 or a kid I mean if you want to get an apparent or kid I mean then I go if a kid or a parent dies is about 50 60 I feel like it's more but that's amazing I think it's like 80 it gets very okay all right so he married Martha and Martha kept Oliver on the

quote straight and narrow okay all quotes are from this entire episode is based on Matt Novak's American Huster the American Huxter on paleo future Matt Novak is a great writer I follow him on Twitter also so Martha pushed him to get an education and she wanted to focus on writing he was having a hard time after his mom died he he called it a life of solitude and frustration so is she is she pushing for this at like age 10 she's like come on yeah yeah yeah well she doesn't want to write a book she just wants him to write she wants him to use his imagination and okay so he starts getting into trouble by 12 he's

carrying a revolver sure most writers are armed at 12 yeah it's a 90 90% it's a Hemingway thing yeah it's either you have that and a pen that's right Martha then bought him a typewriter hoping he would go in the other direction and she told him quote if you become as good with a typewriter as you are with that gun you may become rich and famous and known throughout the world okay so what's becoming clear to me is that Martha has no idea how to parent because like I just think of my own position like that is something I could totally see my mother doing like finding pot in my bedroom and being like have you tried Pepsi you know

and you're just like get out of here like you have a gun I mean I mean I'm not saying you should have a gun but if you have a gun who's who's getting walked back by a typewriter I mean look guns are far more fun than typewriters you know what he should have done is just shot the typewriter yeah let her know who's boss let her know what's up let her know let her know who's boss typewriter is heavy no I got it I was just sad I was having a sad moment I thought maybe a froze but you didn't know no face it was sadness oh I was re-evaluating my life and the choices I've made oh but come on let's let's talk off air I feel the same

way so Oliver starts writing he wrote for a small newsletter and then once in a while that the stories that were in there were would get picked up and printed in Virginia newspapers and he starts writing and more and more and he's writing story so this worked so she gave me type okay I guess he's not a Gareth he had a really big imagination when there wasn't a lot going on and he didn't have like true life stories to pick from he would just start making stuff up interesting at 15 he got a young lady in the area pregnant and her father demanded he demanded that they get married so this is I mean I love

when someone makes a bad decision Sunday like you're just like you know what else it needs you need to be married it's like what no that will not help so he gets married and yeah it's back then that's not a crazy whatever it's not great so but then after they get married a little while after she she confesses that the kids not his oh shit wow so he gets the marriage annulled and he's still in high school and after high school he what's what's the matter Oliver I just stressed over my annulment 17 it's a nightmare after high schools he after high school he gets job working for a coal magnate Rufus Ayers now there

are some biographies that have been written about Oliver over the years so every once in a while I'll just say it from a biography of Oliver so from a biography of Oliver he quote compensated for his youth and five foot six stature by adopting the appearance of a serious young executive ramrod straight posture impeccable double-breasted suits immaculately pressed white shirts conservative bow ties and white handkerchiefs neatly posed in the breast pocket okay so he just started dressing the part he's a tiny fancy guy he's a tiny well he started dressing the part you're correct it's amazing that his

middle name is Napoleon so he starts writing stories in which he he's writing stories about himself doing stuff and what and in the stories he is always very incredibly honest and very trustworthy and these are not writings of fiction these are hmm okay sure sure I'm not I'm not one to judge okay or say I've never judged anyone so I'm not gonna start now you just let you judge me on this show today so I'm gonna ignore that nonsense so Ayers is impressed with Oliver and he promotes him after six months to clerk in a coal mine in Richmond okay and then one day a cashier at the local bank which is owned by Ayers

uh-huh quote went on a bender one weekend sure so the cashier is plowed and he takes his gun out he's at a hotel he takes his gun out and the he drops it and the gun goes off and it shoots and kills a a black bellboy in the hotel okay so Oliver rushes over and he says he interviewed the only eyewitness who was there who said that's what happened the gun fell down and then Oliver goes to the bank because the guy was a cashier which is a weird move so sorry so so the man is back at the bank on Monday like man did I have a hell of a weekend I killed a no when I dropped a gun no no no Oliver goes to the shooting okay

here's what happened and then goes to the bank uh-huh right so it's an interesting move usually if there's a shooting you don't go I got to check the bank right oh you okay and for some reason the cashier left the doors unlocked as well as the vault unlocked Oliver wrote that the bank was a mess inside quote the money is scattered around as if a cyclone hit okay I what's going on so the Bay I mean are we just in the middle of like a banker meltdown worse than 2008 well he tells Ayers what went down but that no money was stolen wait so sorry sorry just to be clear sorry so Oliver goes to the bank

the bank is totally open the vault is open there's money all over the place and the banker is not there the banker shot the guy in the hotel right so okay so there's just no one at the bank that's right and it's just and there's nobody there yeah okay so there's just okay I just want to make sure I'm very clear there is an open vaulted open bank that's right okay got you thank you so much everything seems fine so he he wires Ayers and he and he tells him what happened and that no money was stolen and Oliver's biographers would write quote he faithfully counted the money bounced the books and discovered that not a

scent was missing and then he made sure everybody knew he didn't take any money and then Ayers was like man this guy's awesome and he promoted him to be a manager of a coal mine in his operation okay because he allegedly went into the bank balanced the bad books I guess which which and there's money all over the floor yes and he just he or reorganized it just he had a montage at the bank of fixing it that's right okay now the New York Times reviewed a biography in which the story was in and concluded Oliver had covered up a murder and he he had told the coroner it was accidental and he he paid for the bellboys burial and

then and he apparently did it to get a job promotion okay it I had been very baffled for a second right okay so he just again like you were sorting alluded to when you sort of alluded to earlier he just kind of inflates himself yeah and he and he and he he's doing it for his own benefit right right he he it was like his way of getting a job promotion that's his way of showing that he was a good good guy good character employee right okay that's right and and he's only 19 years old sure right of course not he's been an old twice Oliver's biography then says he kicked around for a while doing different jobs but he

actually married someone at this time so he leaves that out of his biography and he married Edith Whitman on June 17th 1903 Newspapers reported he was married in Tayswell they have a daughter in 1905 the family moved to Alabama for a few months until Oliver sent the family back to Virginia to live with Edith's death okay down so he's down in Alabama alone he he gets into the lumber business and then in his spare time he would just fuck sex workers quote throughout the south wow so he just loved wood it's a hobby situation yeah right yeah of course yeah I like to build and fuck the marriage is it's a bad

marriage at one point he went to Virginia took the daughter without the mom knowing left the daughter with his mom and then told his wife that she'd never see her daughter again well there's I mean there's some flags emerging here have you ever I mean that's just a like a classic fight I mean yeah that's a good tactic yeah I remember you took you I remember you told me a couple times that you told Heather that Finn was missing and she'd never seen him again just to get what you wanted well I want to yeah I was like I wanted to go to a ballgame and she was like I don't want to go to a ballgame well then there was

the other one where you told me she wouldn't let you order off the kids menu that's right and so you said you went away for about a week and you yeah look people who are married don't get this marriage is hard cuz cuz I'll say as an outsider who's never been married it just sounds crazy no it's just hard work it's just gonna put in the work yeah I know and it just sort of seems it just sort of seems like this is outside of the work because it's like you know you're sort of you're insinuating that you know I just think that's just so much stress and pain for you no no it's the work of marriage it's

the kind of stuff that actually brings you closer okay right okay yeah I mean I guess I guess I just I don't again I've never been married so I don't want to yeah yeah I mean you don't know cuz like if I did that to something like I was dating a girl who like had a kid and I did that like I think that would be bad but but I again I've never dating is not the same it's different it's it's different it's different 100 yeah it's different I care again to you 80% of our listeners do fake kidnappings with their with their wives and her husbands okay okay okay yeah yeah so he also on January 24th 1908 he wrote

Edith a letter quote I'm leaving the country where you'll never bother me you can only communicate with me through my father and not unless he thinks best he wasn't leaving the country that was just a letter he wrote to his wife but also who I mean I know he's like 19 but like you know you have the appearance of a grown-up you know though your letter being like well if you want to talk to me you've got to go through daddy how's that for being a grown yeah it's it's not yeah it's not great and he is 19 but this is even for a 19 year old this is not I would say not great but he's had an annulment yeah so Edith somehow got

the child back she fouls her doors on what grounds she says that he's violent disrespectful and well who yeah oh she they go to she goes they go to divorce court he doesn't show up all his friends and his co-workers come and just describe how he's just having sex with sex workers up and down Alabama I'd still like to testify your honor so she gets a divorce granted he didn't come because he was super busy cuz oh no Dave I believe I believe he did come so so this he's got kind of a racket going so he's got this lumber business that he started with another guy yeah and he starts going around and getting lumber

on credit from suppliers and he gets about $20,000 worth of lumber and then he goes and he sells the lumber for any price he's offered so even if it's way below what he paid he just sells it right but Dave is he is he creating a lumber bubble yeah this kind of a lumber bubble he's making a lumber yes okay so he he's not paying back any of the suppliers so he he's just he's basically just taking wood from people and selling it and keeping the money right he's like Robinwood that's right and the other lumber companies are just taking a hit cuz no one's buying their lumber his partner gets freaked out and and sells

his shares and bails on the company and then word gets out that Oliver is committing I guess lumber fraud is what we sure sure it's what we call it it's called a lumber racket and now every competing lumber man in the area it wants a piece of Oliver so in September he goes on the run and now newspapers his old partner was named Accree so newspapers are reporting it and they're calling the search the accree Hill sensation okay I'm sure accree was like awesome thank you for including me in the headline it sounds like a great band yeah yeah it really does arrest warrants go out the postal service

starts investigating him for mail fraud and he just fucking hits the road and he ends up in Washington DC start to use the new name he's got a whole new life story he is gonna play great in DC yes you could do this easily you can be the president so he is now a car expert and a car salesman okay he starts going by his middle name so now he's Napoleon Hill as opposed to Oliver Hill and Napoleon was not too far removed from this time right yeah Napoleon yeah no point that side so that's why he was named Napoleon in as is that weird um well it depends what your allegiance is are you know what isn't it weird for American

well if you don't like the English why not or if you don't you know what I mean you don't yeah I guess but sure but there's other like how about John Wayne that's a middle name that's a really good middle name that racist old what one article get over it other than that he was a humanitarian so he he would later say this is the time that he met Andrew Carnegie oh shit here we go he met he met Andrew in he said he met in in in his New York mansion he went there and Carnegie invited him in and Carnegie sat him down and told him his principles of achievement his master her his mastermind Carnegie told him his

principles of achievement his mastermind alliance and his ultimate secrets to financial success okay and this is again this is all from our boy Napoleon Hill yeah okay this is Napoleon's version so then Carnegie after he does he tells him all his secrets of how his his you know all this I guess trade secrets of how to become oh there's got to be a lot yeah yeah so then he introduces Napoleon to all the most powerful rich guys in the country so Napoleon could interview them to learn how they become successful is this for as he I understand that we're potentially on a leap here but are we saying that this is because he's a this

is nothing to do with writing I mean he's a car guy at this point right or he's this is a writer if this is so he can learn okay just he and just Carnegie showing him the ropes okay so he just again just very simply met up with our Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie was just like let me impart all the things that I've learned and why don't you meet everyone else who's rich and successful and pick their brains my little car friend he's he's giving him the keys to the castle the secrets all of the skills okay okay so so yeah he's gonna he's gonna introduce him to those powerful rich guys in the world who then he would

interview and discuss and Napoleon and car sorry Carnegie told Napoleon it would take him 20 years to learn all the secrets of how to become a successful businessman so it's a long-term venture that he saw sure now he's now really in it sure so he travels the country and he goes around meeting people like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford okay now at one point in his book Napoleon said he asked Carnegie how people could control their wheel of fortune get pats agent pretty standard question to ask sure how does one control their wheel of fortune and Carnegie said quote first of all to control the wheel of fortune one must

understand master and apply the 17 principles of achievement so I should follow five of these principles and I might here suggest that these five if properly applied will carry one a long way on the road towards success in any call that's the Carnegie sounds just very giving very give a list of list of 17 things because that's what Carnegie did he came up with a list of 17 yeah that's why we know the Carnegie 17 right so obviously none of this is true Napoleon did Napoleon did not meet he did not be Carnegie he did not even leave Washington DC and go to work he was just hiding in Washington DC from

all the people who wanted okay but in December he joined the automobile club of Washington and then a couple months later he started the automobile college of Washington made himself and he made himself president well Dave is he and I understand that the Ascension to President now doesn't matter and in any sequence of experience but is is it strange to immerse yourself in the world of cars for roughly two months and then decide that you can open car University I mean it's interesting it's an interesting choice I don't know back then how rudimentary cars were but I imagine a couple months you could

learn how to take one apart put together there are still people who knew more oh sure most yeah right okay okay so so Napoleon Hill has started car University that's right he puts ads and papers saying that one could become an expert in assembling cars in six weeks and a graduate of his college could make up to 200 which is about five thousand dollars a week okay sounds pretty good sounds a little too good so he started with two other partners but very quickly the other partners bailed that they're called our partners in that business correct that's right thank you it turned out to not be so much of a

college what happened was Napoleon had made a deal with the Carter Motor Corporation to build their cars so students were actually dude he's like Nathan for you in this so students are actually just unpaid laborers actually they're paying to be laborers to build cars it's genius for a company that's been selling him and he's taking all the money he's taking money from people he from students to to learn how to build cars to build cars for him then he's taking and and getting money for the cars being built and then the people getting these cars are like are you sure this is built properly a lot of these the

rearview mirrors in the engine the tailpipes in the back seat the mufflers the steering wheel look sir a car's a car yeah I mean it's really fucking crazy you know you're getting pretty mad at me for a guy who hasn't really taught me how to do this yet I'm just telling you we have fucking deadlines on your diploma I want to help you I'm trying to reach you this is like a dangerous minds but with cars nobody's going home tonight we got 15 cars to build what the fuck are you talking about there's nine of us oh sorry did you not want to learn how to build cars did you not come

here to learn it's a class thing the first thing you said to me when I met you was why isn't that car done I'm trying to learn yeah well that's why you're a college yeah well someone needs to teach me and stop yelling at me for not building cars fast enough isn't this a program okay everybody else want to listen to me right now this guy over here Frank Frank has a D right now for I'm not learning a D for bad attitude for not car building for having a bad attitude about not car building sorry sir a lot of us are having a lot of us are having trouble building the cars not to speak up or be rude but it just

doesn't seem like we know what we're doing yet and someone should teach us okay so you you got the directions with the car right in the box there was directions yeah but it's like a car little guy this little guy with a screwdriver and then yeah but mind it screw to use yeah but a lot of these screws look the exact same I just saying it I mean couldn't I do this at home I guess okay Bill has a D what those got a D Frank's got a D who wants to sir who else sir I'm having a fantastic time this guy this guy you know I could you know what I call him I call him straight a Jimmy and you know why cuz straight a

Jimmy comes here and he builds cars and he shits his goddamn mouth my name is actually my name is actually Pat so straight a Jimmy shits his goddamn mouth and he builds cars and that's what a really good student does the rest of you guys why don't you go to complain college you know why you didn't go to complain college because you already have a degree in that that's why yeah well maybe somebody could teach us like I mean at complaint university maybe someone teaches you how to complain you know but you don't just learn walk into a college and learn how to build a car you asshole but again to be clear this

is Frank yeah no I'm aware it's Frank Frank is the next student here at the automobile college of Washington well dude I would ask for a ride home but it looks like you don't have any fucking clue how to build a car so I'm out of here who's coming with me I'm coming with you it's me from before to tell you it's also I'm the weird guy from before where I was the second what's your what's your name you my the name that I have yeah I don't want to tell you anymore I think as a teacher you should know that that's fair you know and then I'm ready to go to to be clear my name is Pat that's for sure yeah that I said that and then you

told me that I should leave or no you said that I was something Jimmy straight a Jimmy yeah I thought you wanted I thought you wanted a really good transcript but I guess not all right go ahead and get out of here I got a new I got a new class coming in tomorrow I don't need you guys okay just call the car car I'll just tell the car to car company that they what car company no don't worry about it this is what do you mean don't worry about it it's teacher talk are you making us build cars for a goddamn company you know I'm a teacher's lounge right now I'd appreciate if you guys just took off and got out there's

one room in this building I supposed to be in the lounge thank you gentlemen so maybe the longest thing we've ever done now so Napoleon meets Florence Horner in 1910 she's in high school she's from a wealthy family three months later they get married okay doki the week after she gets out of high school just as you're supposed to do boy well not a creep move at all right they don't make a lot of graduation nuptial cards a gentleman waits until his lady graduates before he marries yeah a week well now that she's firm in the world of adulthood I think it's right if I take her so he's 27 this is his third marriage and while

Napoleon is on his honeymoon his business partners and suppliers start bailing on him the Washington Post reported one business partner was accusing Napoleon of stealing a car and wanting the college put into receivership what is receivership me it's like bankruptcy when okay yeah okay so so the Carter the Carter car company then goes bankrupt in 1912 and the writer of those of the article that's based on that no back think this could have something to do with the way the cars are being built by people who don't know how to build cars I don't think that's true that's impossible just like every

car is the chitty-chitty bang-bang car but Napoleon does not shut down the college no of course not he just he changes the focus so instead of teaching students how to build cars they're now taught how to sell them okay you are you there is a car salesman college well now there is what is that I mean what is that like I can't even imagine how they negotiate the constant negotiation it's really bad yeah so I want you guys to get that in by Thursday at 1 p.m. sir if I may I was thinking that it might make more sense if we were to maybe split that over three days just three installments of giving you a

little bit of each paper sir I can actually do that and I can do that in two papers I can do that over Wednesday and Thursday all right guys it's not negotiable I'm liking what I'm hearing what's your credit like sir it's fantastic well do you mind if I run it well I'm not crazy about it coming to this office real quick let me introduce you to Barbara hi thanks so much they call me the closer I don't know why oh come on I'm the teacher this goddamn school so what we're looking for is to give you five different installments of getting this paper by Thursday five you guys just said to someone else at one

no listen this is what we're after that's right now can I just get a credit card or some family history for me real quick on April 11th 1912 Motor World magazine published an article about the automobile college it was titled pointing the easy route to get rich quick land and it broke it broke down the ways the college was a grift the plan for students to make 5k a year was that the students were okay we sales agents they were just considered sales agents so that's like that's how you can make five credit healers to actually sell cars all right or you know I made a lot of money and make it a fake college

that's another route you guys can go they also would get three bucks ahead for every student new student they brought in so the so it's like amway yeah I mean yeah I'm with the college on November 11th 1912 Napoleon and Florence had a baby he was a baby boy he was deaf and he had no ears oh my god you could have gone and just you could have gone with the first one I would have assumed from Napoleon's official biography quote in the years to come despite intense fighting with both family and school teachers Napoleon would never allow the boy to learn sign language he was determined to single-handedly teach his

deaf son to speak and even to hear see now that's what happens when you're able to open a bullshit car college where eventually you're teaching car salesmanship you just believe too much and you should you have every right to believe that you walk on water but the idea that you're going to complete I mean that that essentially obviously removes the child's ability to communicate completely which is cool so cool dad check my boy's gonna have the biggest years this town's ever seen ain't that right son baby steps the automobile college shut its doors in 1912 and soon after Napoleon decided he

wanted more and Chicago was the place to go so Florence's family actually got him work at LaSalle Extension University through a connection and after arriving he quickly printed up station or stationery quote Napoleon Hill attorney at law 2715 Michigan Avenue Chicago now he's obviously never gone to law school sure he has no legal experience right but he was just like this is I'm here I might as well do this yeah but Davey had a letterhead and in a lot of ways isn't that everything yeah so it's just the beginning of a bunch of nonsense he buys a candy store with some other people that falls apart he

opens the George Washington Institute which is a college to teach students in the principles of success and self-confidence uh-huh he's the guy he's a hundred percent the guy he is a hundred percent the guy to teach self-confidence he was soon accused of fraud though in 19 yeah I know in 1917 he told the newspaper he was going to sue a railroad because lighting in passenger cars was harming his eyesight quote I haven't using the IC train at less than two months yet I have been compelled to use glasses for the first time in my life so this is the sort of person who walks into a Walgreens without

a mask and wants to fight right yes that's exactly what he is sort of person is like I know you don't understand I I am unable I get corona from the mask like I literally have a doctor who says that I will get corona if I wear a mask do you understand what I'm saying so an investigators looked into the George Washington Institute Institute for selling bullshit stock it turns out he had way overvalued the school when he starts selling or giving out stock and so arrest warrants are issued for him and basically he said the school's worth a hundred grand but it's only worth 1200 so it's a big difference bit of a

difference bit of a difference so nothing he's arrested sorry arrest warrants are issued for him nothing is known about the result of the charges or if he had to pay back the students or anything this is just a lot of cases that happen here where he's arrested some and then it just kind of drifts away okay Florence has their third kid in October and this is when Napoleon would later report that president Wooder Wilson came to him to ask for his help with World War one okay wait and I mean I know it's bullshit but even in his bullshit it's based on what that he's just just get stuff done I guess he runs

the college that's got the goods sure yeah okay Wilson offered to pay him a lot of money but Napoleon refused any payment this guy does he's not after money this is not a guy who's after this he doesn't do this for cash that to be honest it's a little offensive that president Woodrow Wilson would even try to give him money I mean this is a man whose heart bleeds red white and blue I mean the the that's right the the pulse in his vein is that of the Star Spangled Banner I mean he is he is patriotism personified yeah so now what what does Wilson want what is he doing well we don't really know sure we

just know that he wanted Napoleon involved in his administration so and again I went the winners like winners that's right so Napoleon said he made propaganda for Wilson to fire up Americans working to make weapons for the war and and then he was there in in the Oval Office the day when president Wilson got word that the Germans were surrendering the Germans are surrendering Napoleon what's a good battle plan so what are Wilson president of the United States of America then asked Napoleon for some tips on what to put in the terms to end World War one mm-hmm and Napoleon told

him quote I would ask whether the request for an armistice has been made on behalf of the German people or the German warlords and president Wilson said quote of course yeah of course bingo there we go why not also just you know tell a bunch of guys that they're just gonna go to soldier camp and then drop them off in the war obviously none of this happened what and he came up with that for a future biography now the problem this account is that Napoleon had already written about what he did on armistice day in in something called napoleon's Hills magazine

well you got to be careful quote like most other people I became as drunk with enthusiasm and joy that day as any man ever did on wine I was practically penniless but I was happy to know that the slaughter was over and the reason about to spread it's a beneficent wings over the earth once more well right so you know a guy like this can be two places yep and 1918 Napoleon started Hills golden rule magazine he got he got involved in a stock-selling scheme for an oil company that was owned by a Texas couple so he was almost like a time traveling Lenny Dykstra it feels like so he would in he would put ads in his

magazine to to boost their stock and get people to buy their stock and this led to Napoleon being charged with fraudulent advertising right turns out he'd started a bunch of magazines over the years and he used them to get word out about whatever he wanted shouldn't have given him that typewriter let him stick to the gun he's like a dude who started a bunch of blocks yeah a bunch of Twitter accounts right or no he started yeah he's exactly a starts a ton of profiles yeah yeah so then he like talks to it and then he like writes to himself and he's like dude everything you're doing is unbelievable and he's

like thanks man but I don't do it for the accolades and then someone's like he's both people now the golden rule of golden rule magazine was something he was always gonna preach loosely a version of it it's a karma type thing where if you help others good stuff comes back to you a lot of times I guess of his money sure and that's and that's the code that's the code he's lived by that's right so Napoleon soon realized he could get his name in the press by giving awards for the golden rule okay the golden rule metal the golden rule award sure in 1922 he gave a golden metal golden rule metal to a chiropractor who

just beat out Woodrow Wilson after after a hundred and fifty thousand magazine subscribers voted wow so and but that's pretty common so there's a hundred and fifty thousand magazine subscribers around the country and there's some names on there but they choose a local chiropractor over the president of the United States yeah sure right and and Dave was the chiropractor close to in proximity to where Napoleon was yes he was in the same yeah in the same city that's interesting that's so interesting because I wouldn't have guessed that so that's so I mean and for a chiropractor that has to be really

exciting you know oh yeah here you are a chiropractor and you've beat not the president I mean yeah big deal huge yeah yeah you can almost like frame that and put it up in your office and tell yeah yeah I mean if you I mean but again my guess is nobody's gonna need that no I don't think so so the press fell for it and ran with the story it was all printed all over the US there are pictures of Napoleon handing out the golden rule awards that would keep happening over and over again in 1922 Napoleon and another bullshit willy Wonka yes in 1922 Napoleon and another man started the intra wall

correspondence school so it's a charity sure and sure it is it's it's to educate prisoners in Ohio prisons to help them live a decent life when they get out uh-huh right of course he also pushed to get one specific Ohio inmate released he was a Czech forger and it worked and the inmate got out and then quickly began running the charity huh turns out the whole charity was the forger's idea well okay but it's weird I mean it is it's it's curious you know for that to be your first hire oh by the way can we get that forgery guy that you have locked up for forgery I want him to be involved in my business so I mean

Napoleon just runs within the late 1923 articles were written about Napoleon his debts and all the people who are trying to find him using the charity to fill his pockets was covered in the articles at the time he was touring the country seeking charity donations Novak wrote quote his constant movement around the country was not necessarily out of wonderlust of course but rather to stay one step ahead of the law right an article about him bilking churches and even getting kids to pitch in was written wow this guy I mean but he but like he's learned no lessons so there's no bottom well there's no less learned

and then I mean he's going to churches getting like a thousand dollars at a church and then just living off of it right like it's just free money yeah well and well I'd I'd rather look at it like God's money if that's okay because he needs it that's right he does because it's a guy it's a guy and he lives in a club good that's right so he's doing this all of the country another article covered how the prison had not received a penny huh and so when that comes out Napoleon then says it's not me the warden and the prison chaplain are corrupt right and he also blamed it on the Czech forger wow just who's running it in

Ohio and then the Czech forger is set back to jail no allegiance or alliance in any way just a bus tossing little warmonger so now he's also this whole time he's he's he's doing the interviews that Carnegie set up and he says these are ongoing there's no evidence that any art interview ever happened except there is one photo of Napoleon with Thomas Edison oh okay weird and Edison is Edison is looking at the camera and and Napoleon has turned sideways looking at Edison so like they were having a good conversation so like mid mid natural chat it looks like it looks like they were talking for a

second and then someone yelled hey Edison and Edison turned and looked and then someone snapped up can I relate it to Ivanka whenever she goes to any head of state thing oh yeah she just sort of is like hey can I be in the picture while I pretend to talk we're pretending to talk watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon watermelon by Angela Merkel watermelon Justin Trudeau watermelon watermelon in December 1923 the specialty salesman magazine learned how the photo would happen quote he'll send

a press he'll send a press agent over to announce that mr. Hill one of the leading magazine writers wish to attend the Edison Convention of Dealers of course he was he was allowed because he was a magazine writer and then when he's there he asked Edison to pose with him a request he could hardly refuse at that point he handed Edison a golden rule medal and quote Edison returned the medal without comment finally how you're supposed to react mr. Edison I know you've won many things and have had more patents granted than anyone in history but here's your golden

diploma from the school of horse cock Napoleon now had a photo though that he could use and he he sent it out with I like that that is like gonna prove anything as you can see clearly I met with Carnegie and I'm on the investigative path of 17 like-minded geniuses here's a picture of being Edison he built the whole story around it and he would send it out with the the leading line the two the lead two of America's most famous men so dude how much would he have crushed Instagram oh I mean this dude would have slaughtered Instagram oh he's fat you all the way

he's that guy perfect yeah yeah just steals and fucks people over and yeah and just is like in places where it's like hey look where I am yeah big hashtag right guess so he had no other photos of proof of any other men that he met because he said they're all burned in a fire yes yes you don't understand they burned in the great fire of bullshit and my girlfriend is in Canada I tell you I have a girlfriend in Canada she's great I've been in her come on look at the letters it's not me writing left-handed so in 1928 Napoleon tracks down publisher Andrew Pelton now Pelton published self-help books from the new

thought movement which is what Napoleon was part of okay the main idea of the new thought movement was that quote ideas and thoughts have direct and material actions upon the world sure so thoughts have meaning I guess is the way you could turn your thoughts into rewards you know you can sure using your mind you can become successful right I like how this was not known fact so Pelton said he would publish the book okay law of success was released into the world it contained all the interviews with the famous men Napoleon had conducted mm-hmm so he's got all this stuff about how he hangs out and talks

love is great man and then and then how he did it and how they did it and it's just all wrapped up in this this sort of bullshit theory of like you can make what do you want right look at me I made it all I mean I made it I made it so it sells royalty money starts coming in and then it really starts coming in in 1929 he starts making around 35,000 a month in today's money he buys a Rolls Royce a huge house with 600 acres and the Catskills he's spending more money than his royalties well in 1929 is a great time to be on a Spence break that's right he bought an estate with a bunch of other investors with the idea that they

would turn it into the quote world's first university-sized success school the what what I mean it it's like it is true the more words the harder it is to track but I still know there's no substance what is the what is the nonsense called it's so great world's first university-sized success school so it's woof-o's it's okay we're other institutions like excuse me that feels like infringing upon what we do no but we're gonna like breed success well we do that we're Harvard we do no but this is I understand but this is different we're gonna like preach it and we want people to have a success well we don't

say it but that's exactly you don't say it that's the thing you don't say it you don't say it but we said it huh it's weird how Harvard's full of all these smart people and yet you guys didn't say it and and gosh I did say it so gosh what does that make me I guess that makes me smarter than Harvard doesn't it because I said it stupid by the way I just wanted to give you a golden rule diploma this is 100% boolean wow thank you this is a hundred percent but it's what we call bendable boolean it's a new product we're working on we've actually figured out a way to make boolean bendable and we figured out a

way to make silver into water parks so oh yeah that's what we're doing I know Harvard does a lot of cool stuff too we got a lot of stuff cooking here we made birthday cake that flies this doesn't sound like a successful this is with a sort of stuff that was again Harvard I'm not asking you to take our idea but it sounds like you're just not willing to keep up I mean do you guys even have floating toilets what no I don't if someone dies on your campus are they dead forever yeah that yeah okay so that's again another difference we don't have that at our school if someone passes away at our school we just bring

them back to life so we're we're shutting down Harvard because of this conversation hmm that's interesting well nobody likes a quitter well if you're not doing anything you come over to my school and learn how to open an actual university yeah I'm good thanks we have a dolphin man and we also now have yeah no we do we do and we're the first school that has made fingernails for police cars now they have nail fingernail human fingernails on them so it's easier to get into places at barricades and whatnot but anyway I love what you guys are doing so thank you all right we'll see you later oh I have a

little something for you in my pocket it's my middle finger yes I also invented that the other day when I was just sitting around I decided a new thing I want to do is tell people have one more thing to show them pull out my middle finger and look at the look on your dumb face all right tata bye I stole a bunch of pencils bye so Francis and the boys come to the university and so Napoleon goes on tour sure of course makes sense and then Wall Street crashes oh great depression comes a few months later the house is it weird how the stock market used to reflect the economy oh that's weird a strange thing a few

months later the house is in foreclosure Florence moves back to West Virginia and Napoleon has an office in New York and he stays there working out his next book which is called the magic ladder to success oh god and when that comes out his biography his biographers called it quote stillborn not a good term for a book no it's I've never heard it so then Napoleon decides to get into movies he tried it's an idea he wants to get high school kids to come up with a way to adapt the law of success into a film right so he's looking for a free crew well what he wants is actually to all these kids to compete for the prize

of whoever has the best idea but what it really is is he just is trying to figure out a way to get all the kids to buy his book oh wow even weirder honestly like what a weird little yeah he ends up producing a Mormon movie and when the Mormon movie is in production is he wait is he stillborn again when the movies in production the investors were asking for the production company to be put into receivership so while he's shooting it people like shut it down right yeah and again this film is this film is about climbing the ladder to success in some way not it was just all Mormage pure it's just climbing the ladder to God

okay and it's a huge hit in Utah but nowhere else obviously so he goes back to he starts doing different magazines and finding people to invest going from city to city doing scheme after scheme now later he would claim this is when FDR asked him to help get Americans more confident about the economy again sure right he's the guy yeah well yes I mean Wilson probably recommended him oh yeah now this is weird because Napoleon is actually a huge conservative but he said his ideas made the way to empty into FDR's new deal sure oh and he also said he came up with the phrase we have nothing to fear but fear itself oh my

god this guy and by the way that that's I mean I just I said it and someone wrote it down I don't even remember really saying it but I definitely said it and in a way Dave he's lived his life by that mantra that he didn't come up with that's right so in 1935 Florence had finally had it and she filed for divorce hmm he still goes out and he's doing touring and speaking and the next year he's speaking in Knoxville and afterwards Rosa Lee Bieland introduced herself to him and they chatted and then they agreed to meet again the next day and Rosalie describes the magic quote when I arrived he met me at the elevator

escorted me to his study and without inviting me to be seated started immediately to tell me his story we talked for more than five hours we compared notes and spoke very plainly and frankly before I left we were engaged oh my god what the fuck honest to God this is the guy to open a car selling University it really is she was like so if I just pay two fifteen a month and a down payment then I can be with you for the rest of my life wow is this your new girl I'm Lee singer so they do a prenup and the idea was to protect the royalty money from people he had swindled over the years and Florence

so he in the prenup signs over all of his book royalties to Rosalie okay they get married very quickly and together they start working on his next book which would be called think and grow rich but they have no money so they go to New York but has that has he read his book he should read no he should read all his books yeah so they have no money so they go to live with one of his sons the only son who will talk to him Blair and his wife who live in Hell's Kitchen in New York okay but while they're he's verbally abusive to his daughter-in-law so she Dave if you're in Hell's Kitchen you're supposed to be verbally

abusive I agree that's the premise of the show so she leaves and goes back to West Virginia and then a few days later Blair follows her down there but before Blair goes he loans his dad $300 okay so Napoleon and Rosalie are now free to work they have money to get by without the annoying couple who actually lives in the apartment bothering them right great perfect so she's really good at organizing his thoughts and stuff into a book form and then health and publishes it in 1937 now people it's the middle of depression people are really hurting yeah and then here comes this book telling him they can get rich using just

their thoughts probably pretty enticing yeah the books a huge success people wanted a way out of their desperate state during the great depression and he's saying it would just take positive thinking visualization and hard work and that's it good luck everybody so he's making money again because the royalties he starts spending money again he's buying fancy cars expensive clothes he buys a huge Florida estate Rosos buying clothes and jewelry they have a staff at the house they're spending again money faster than it comes in right and then to get a little taste of who Rosalie is out of nowhere she sends a letter to

Blair taunting him detailing the rich life they're living and then Blair responds and demands is $300 and no one replied it's called family yeah that's how you're supposed to do it that's how that's a good that's a good dad now I'm going out for cigarettes by 1939 they're broke creditors are sniffing around she's writing a book on her own called how to attract men and money while Napoleon tours I don't it can you ban someone from writing a book it is time it is a hundred percent time to get attention to rekindle book sales they make an announcement they say they're going to adopt 15 children and would

raise them without the terrible parenting that was currently plaguing America oh god no this is this is this is this is terrible this is I mean this is like this is like Tiger King shit I never saw Tiger King I can't watch stuff like that Dave it's really if you like watching animals be tortured it is yeah good easy watch I don't you should read my book so the Kansas City Star was given an interview and the star said they said they had a housekeeper with who had a young daughter Jean and Jean wasn't getting quote a proper upbringing so they took her in sure then after that they decided well let's keep doing this

and that they that's how they came up the idea to adopt 15 kids between two and five years old oh my god what I mean and what it's like what if you were I mean if you were to paint a nightmare for me I think you just did it like what even in the world of bullshit pick another you know angle yeah so besides Jean they're all supposed to be orphans but the one rule is is that they could not have been living in an orphanage that is gonna make it okay what so what are you just like flipping over boxes on the street let's free-range babies yeah right exactly hey no they're free range you can eat their eggs so so the plan is

basically to get some okay so obviously they're looking for like more polished children well they really just want attention they never follow through they're just putting the story out there and of course everybody reads it they're just want people to remember that they're there to sell right okay right since it okay James B. Schaefer was born in 1836 in Michigan and he moved to New York around 1930 and then he founded the Royal fraternity of the master meta physicians which is also part of the new thought movement okay great name yeah what is the new thought movement so the basic idea was the mind

could change everything around it if you could imagine it it could become real oh god so right so we've just written a secret 35 times yeah by the mid 1930s Schaefer had a huge following and was packing Carnegie Hall every Sunday morning he had around 10,000 followers Wow in 1938 the Colt bought a hundred room mansion on Long Island which that got a lot of attention but people didn't seem that freaked out because they're really not harmful then in 1939 the Colt announced they wanted to raise an immortal all right I'm good I think I think we found our moment so so they're just

gonna live the plot of Ghostbusters 2 essentially they unofficially adopted a baby girl who is five months old oh this poor poor child they're just gonna Dalai Lama her this gets a shitload of national attention this is why Dave what about this is huge we raised an immortal it's a five month old she's in charge now so they they plan to raise the girl with a vegetarian diet and only positive thoughts which would turn her immortal how about a mom's out that's how possible is that gonna help basically the way this was anyone could actually become immortal if they just thought hard enough but they were gonna

start with a baby and work from there to be safe make it a lock not this is out there a writer E. J. Khan Jr. went to the Colts mansion in 1940 and spent 24 hours there to write an article for the New Yorker he wrote that think and get rich was one of their main texts quote the most revered texts which was written by a member named Napoleon Hill and which many metaphysicians regard as gospel the book is actually called think and grow rich but they got it wrong and he probably didn't know he was like I think that was it I don't remember he reported Schaefer went to the 1939 40 World's Fair in New York and demanded

officials dig up the Westinghouse time capsule so he could put a paper of baby Jesus's bit sorry baby Jean's footprints in this had to be cut done because baby Jean would be the only human alive when it was opened in 69 40 well I mean that part might be true that yeah that's hard to argue with yeah that's I mean that dates way off I think did they mean did they mean 2090 no it's 69 40 I mean they're they're pretty on the day okay pretty sure okay Schaefer also filmed baby Jean with a movie camera while the reporter watched and they had the baby in the baby's crib posing with a copy of think and grow rich oh my god it's a

baby like the book should just be called think or grow or grow grow Schaefer Schaefer is a guy who believed what he was saying but he was also super into money in women within the cult there was a secret male society named the Storks oh god I don't even want to fucking know call within a cult the Storks took care of young unmarried women and their babies a local archivist in the area quote for an extra 500 and you had to be male and you had to wear a diaper pin on your lapel what you could make liettes and full diapers for unwed mothers I don't even want to say what well he sort of made a diaper party

situation within he's made he made a diaper department and there's a diaper department who have special lapel pins and they're able and that and you pay wait you pay 500 or you get 500 you pay you pay 500 to go change diapers yeah you you become a diaper boy for $500 is there something more nefarious there must be what's the angle the angle is it's fucking hot oh my god oh look at that boy he really had to go he's eating a lot of carrots huh all right all right well I paid for this oh so cool to see I mean that would be like nine nine thousand dollars today is about what that is to hang out and put diapers on

fold diapers okay anyway those are the Storks so there those guys are those guys are killing it killing it chill chill dude and now the cult also ran schemes Schaefer sold stock options between a hundred and four hundred rich people who came seeking some life secret would have valuables go missing while they were there weird one woman one woman had two rings with five thousand go missing and she told Schaefer and he said quote nothing is lost in the infinite you can think them back in your experience oh thank God so now Napoleon and Rosalie's marriage is collapsing he's never home she thought

he was cheating and hired a private investigator now soon after her book how to attract money and men was published she hired a divorce lawyer and the PI must have confirmed it while he was traveling she sold everything that they owned and so now Napoleon has nothing again okay she then went and married the divorce lawyer oh good lord that guy was like and also if you want to come over later we can kind of get over some of the finer detail points I really just want to I know how hard it is right now I'm gonna be wearing some really really small shorts I think that's it just probably shorts oh gosh divorce I call

them divorce shorts that's what I call them but yeah divorce I I mean I would love to come over but I just I'm so raw emotionally got a I got a big tub but it's called divorce tub it's where you can relax after your divorce this is purely just you getting me through my divorce yeah yeah yeah no this is actually what divorce is it would seem predatory otherwise no no no this is completely a hundred percent what divorce is part of our job I've never been divorced before so I can't yeah yeah yeah massages of massages hot tubs I didn't know the tub was hot take off your clothes just whatever whatever take off

take off your clothes okay so everybody can take off this is if I went if I go to another attorney this is the same yeah this is a divorce like this is gonna happen with any any divorce attorney this is just standard it's okay okay well I'll get you the retainer money and I'll head over for the hot tub okay great great okay can't wait to be in you just some of the phrasing seems sort of yeah it's legal it's jargon it's jargon jargon that's right that makes sense okay all right well everything feels like it's on the up and up here yep just gonna motivate your titties legally speaking yes right okay because otherwise what but

but yeah I know I wouldn't just say that if I wasn't your attorney I would never say that right okay all right well good I get a I get a bad feeling so I'll be they'll see you later that's it bye so later see about bye well I'm not nervous because of you I'm not I'm just freaked out over the whole thing it's just a lot okay it's gonna be hard yeah it's so hard it's just very confusing okay thank you so much bye fucking weird bye so so Napoleon with no money and nothing he decides well what to do so he goes to Florence's house and asks his ex-wife for money hey oh Jesus Christ look we're not getting back together I'm trying to

climb the money ladder but I don't need money please give it to me she's she's watched him get rich from afar right like he's and now he's okay so you came back to give us some money finally any money so for some reason she didn't give it to him might have been cuz he took 300 from Blair but anyway whatever in 1941 the mother of baby Jean said she had been coerced into giving up her baby and she wanted her baby back and she went to the press so now the two-year-old immortal had to be returned to its mother Dave she'll lose all of her goddamn powers 1941 she's gonna well all of her powers her magic I don't have mortals

have power I think once you're immortal you're mortal I don't think it reverses I don't well I guess the question is at what age is a mortalization conceived true it's a good question see now a lot of people would think removing a two-year-old while in the state of immortality uh-huh is taking a life that's why I'm pro-immortal I am right I'm pro-immortal I believe that I believe that more I believe that immortality starts at the conception of the idea of immortality that's right and I believe anything beside and a lot of people a lot of these left-wing lunatics thinks that you think that immortality doesn't set

until about you know 10 or 11 years old but no that's not what's in the Bible it does not no it in the Bible it clearly states what I'm saying I don't even need to reveal the passage what's the passage exactly so the baby coming to the cult in the first place was sort of the end of the cult it kind of freaked out a lot of the cult members sure all right we have a baby so no just let's all I don't know fuck it I don't who's got milk what's going on here even Shaffer strongest followers at that point we're like I don't know so we just jump the money the money had already started driving out so turns out Napoleon Shaffer

had actually known each other for quite a while Napoleon had come to him in December 1939 he wanted Shaffer to go in on buying psychology magazine for 2.5 thousand each so Shaffer then turned to a rich cult member for the money and three years later in 1942 the rich cult member realized that she had been swindled and she charged Shaffer with grand larceny and of course when they looked into it it turns out the tune of Shaffer had just kept the money and not bought the magazine and he ended up pleading guilty okay he was given a five-year sentence the judge called him quote a

thief a next Klansman who swindled his own organization a spiritual faker a religious hypocrite who's been a loose praying on misguided women for too long that's I mean that felt like a five-year sentence but it's interesting so they both have the same idea so first Napoleon had the the I'll just get a bunch of kids idea and then Shaffer does it they're both named Jean like clearly they were just working together on this whole yeah they just went solo for a minute now Napoleon moved to South Carolina and fell over the sorry and fell in Napoleon Napoleon moved to South Carolina and fell in with a guy who

was still really angry about losing the Civil War he ran Presbyterian College so he really felt he ran into every guy so he met his next wife Annie Lou Norman and then he published another book called mental dynamite finally finally it's getting weird push it mental dynamite also failed but he did say Gandhi had ordered copies of it and that Gandhi hired investigators to watch him and find out if he was the real deal because the book was going to be distributed all across India it's at some point you do get a little worried that you know maybe there's some psychosis like maybe that you know I think that it's still

all just genuinely like he's just out doing himself really I don't think that there's psychosis I just think he is a world-class bullshitter I mean maybe there's some narcissistic shit going on sure yeah but I'm saying like he doesn't he's not like Gandhi but I don't think he believes it okay it's yeah it's just a to pushes you know shit right so he moves to California he has a radio show he kicks around trying more schemes at one point he hooked up with a rich insurance guy in 1952 and then Donald Trump's former pastor Norma Vincent Peel published his popular book the power of positive thinking and he credited

credited Napoleon and the insurance guy with helping him write it oh my god it's funny I mean it's not funny it's terrible but it is like the whole all you can keep thinking is like in today's world this guy would a hundred percent be in government and be doing pretty well those him and the insurance guys started a fake charity and they started a new magazine called excess unlimited Napoleon he tried to take it outside the US and it goes to Australia New Zealand other countries it's it's not really catching on well surely Gandhi would want to distribute it that's right you would think so I mean he hired the PIs yeah so

Schaefer got out of prison and tried to get his followers back by lecturing and writing but it just not happening and in 1955 Schaefer and his wife were found dead in their car in New York it was a double suicide that's crazy the journalist who wrote this article this is based this podcast is based on Matt Noeck filed a Freedom of Information Act request for files on Schaefer on December 29th 2014 and then he gets a letter stating all records relating to the request were destroyed on December 29th 2014 so they felt the need to once so I mean I guess that's how you I mean I guess that's how you say no to using

the Freedom of Information Act like yeah there's not anymore but when was it destroyed yeah second you asked we burned it so there's nothing that's how the NFL handed the handled spy gate they're like everyone's like where's the tapes like we burned them it's like what it's like sorry sorry we fucked up now what are you gonna do look clearly the FBI whoever the fuck it is knows how to make it mortals that's what this is that's what this means oh no that would be terrible news in 1960 Napoleon published a new book written with his insurance buddy called success through a positive mental attitude soon after he

split from the insurance guy and tried to sell the science of success course by licensing them for other people to teach but mostly he just really struggled to get by right he died in Greenville South Carolina on November 8th 1970 and then his wife had to fight with a charity he had set up the Napoleon Hill Foundation over control of his estate wow so even when he's gone like hit like his estate is just like no we're still we're working on a scheme I mean he set up a grift and then the grifters he set it up with they're like oh let's fuck this woman out whatever we can't like just right he's the perfect ending right right

yeah they've learned back no vac quote Foundation managers were building the supposedly nonprofit organization out of money and had squeezed Miss Hill out after Napoleon died so the legal battles with that and and the wife that organization and the wife would go on until the 80s Napoleon Hill still has followers and most believe he was just a self-help guy so Matt Matt Novak quote modern readers are probably familiar with the 2006 sensation the secret but the concepts in that book were essentially plagiarized from Napoleon Hill's 1937 wow so it is the same show rich yeah same shit same shit which he

has reportedly sold over 15 million copies oh my god so the the only source of this is the untold story of Napoleon Hill the greatest self-help scammer of all time on paleo feature which is I think is on gizmodo like I can't but part of gizmodo it's written by Matt Novak you can also follow Matt Novak on Twitter he's a good writer ever it's a few of his things it's great I mean it's also always amazing to me like because you see that like that I always remember that when I would like watch infomercials when I was a kid and it would always be like the secret of success or like you know how to make a ton of money

or you know how to be like and yeah I was always even from that age I was like the way to make the money is to be the person is like I'll make you money like that's yeah you make you know that's like that's right so it's always funny to not even funny but it's always a little disturbing when you know I mean I'm we like I mean there's so many of those stories I've had friends sign up for pyramid schemes before and shit and like oh yeah herbal life and like it's just it is what it is it's like I think the only difference in that story truly is that someone like that I really think would end up in government you know all right

well thank cats