r/todayilearned • u/funkyflowergirlca • 20h ago
TIL Napoleon Hill, who wrote Think and Grow Rich, was a lifelong scammer. He lied about meeting Andrew Carnegie, never advised any presidents, and even inspired a cult that tried to raise an immortal baby. His whole career was built on fake stories, fraud, and constant reinvention.
https://gizmodo.com/the-untold-story-of-napoleon-hill-the-greatest-self-he-1789385645150
u/stillrooted 19h ago
Behind the Bastards did a couple great episodes on this guy. He really managed to get his fingers right on the pulse of what makes Americans believe stupid bullshit.
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u/MonoDede 16h ago
We love believing stupid bullshit. It's a national pastime at this point.
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u/FilteredRiddle 15h ago
At this point, believing stupid bullshit is more American than baseball and apple pie.
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u/neednintendo 11h ago
That's where I learned about this guy. Also so many bastards who affected our history significantly that most have never heard of! Great podcast, highly recommend to anyone who hasn't listened.
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u/TrickyCommand5828 8h ago
Just finished the Zizians and Curtis Yarvin episodes. Chilling stuff and makes the current political climate make a ton of sense. Uhg hahaha
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u/aDarkDarkNight 20h ago
So the original self help book author was all a scam? Kind of set the tone then for all the following ones.
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u/Nosferatatron 11h ago
Nobody with a successful career and business has actually got time to write books. Look at all the life coaches- they're just people who didn't want boring office jobs, they don't know any secrets!
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u/PakBejo 19h ago
I heard that Robert Kiyosaki is the same as well
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u/DevilsLettuceTaster 20h ago
Why would you want an immortal baby?
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u/Sjormantec 18h ago
In fairness, he did think and he did grow rich from it.
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u/CosmicBonobo 18h ago
Yep. Died aged 87 and worth $8 million.
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u/dennismfrancisart 7h ago
At a time when 8 million meant something.
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u/CosmicBonobo 7h ago
Well, $8,000,000 adjusted for inflation. He died in 1970 with a million dollars to his name.
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u/UrsaBeta 17h ago
Bought the book among many others when I first started my career in hopes of having a good start. It was the immediate follow up from the fantastic “how to win friend and influence people” by Dale Carnegie. A couple of pages in, he really rubbed me the wrong way and I absolutely hated every line but thought I’d give ie a chance since it’s so highly recommended across the internet. When the mystical stuff kicked in, I thought “wait a fucking minute…I’m looking into this”. Lo and behold, man’s a con artist. Threw the book in the trash. It was basically “trick you subconscious into making you rich! Will it, and it shall be so!”
It’s not hard to see something is off, almost immediately. The man sounds like an arrogant snake oil salesman selling the dream not the plan.
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u/SummerCoding 19h ago
The best way to get rich is to scam other people. Stealing ideas and exploiting a gullible labor force is the way to go. Once you get the money, no one will even attempt to hold you accountable anymore.
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u/KnotSoSalty 17h ago
The key to any success scam is selecting the right marks. You need to find a subset of people programmed to believe you without proof and who won’t do independent research.
People who read financial self help books sadly fall under this category quite often. The idea that there is a magic set of words or ideas that can make you rich regardless of your skill set or financial starting place is blatantly ridiculous. But the kind of people who would even open a book like that don’t read economics textbooks or even business magazines. They see themselves as outsiders, freethinkers, in other words: under qualified.
If you a group of people who will enthusiastically self sort into an under-qualified gullible group you’re already halfway to success.
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u/Nosferatatron 11h ago
The best way to make money in Bitcoin or investing or sales is to write books or sell courses about how to get started in those things. No real expertise needed
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u/BringOutTheImp 19h ago
Dumbest take ever.
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u/Arboreal_Web 19h ago
Um…are you new to world events? It clearly works for many high-profile individuals.
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u/waldo--pepper 16h ago
I don't mean to insult but I think I have noticed something that has always puzzled me. What is it about Americans that they constantly seem to be seeking out such figures on soapboxes? There seems to be a great hunger to foster and then follow nearly messianic self help gurus. In a nation which prides the ethos of self reliance this is perplexing.
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u/N0b0dy_Kn0w5_M3 14h ago
I think it stems from their puritanical beginning. For a wealthy, developed nation, the US has an extremely high number of brainwashed religious types. They don't appear to like, and mostly aren't very good at, thinking for themselves.
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u/xX609s-hartXx 13h ago
Rural people were constantly bored out of their mind and some well spoken salesman was interesting and the only change your town got in ages.
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u/brokefixfux 20h ago
Sounds similar to that “Art of the Deal” fellow
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u/thebarkbarkwoof 19h ago
He didn't even write the book
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u/hessiansarecoming 10h ago
And the guy who did feels terrible. Tony Schwartz. There’s a New Yorker article.
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u/Turn_N_burnn 18h ago
I’m selling classes on how to be rich and it’s all truth and hard work. DM for discounts /s
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u/samsonity 18h ago
Most of these self help dumbasses are just grifters trying to make a quick dollar off some poor desperate people.
Dan Lok is the worst of them all, if you look into his methods, he is pretty much running a cult.
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u/knowledgeable_diablo 18h ago
Don’t waste money on bitcoin, invest early in my bitsacoin and profit!! /s
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u/aamirusmandus 16h ago
Damn not a single George santos comment? Did he really leave our consciousness that quickly?
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u/IceCubeTrey 16h ago
This type of thing reminds me of the saying:
Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, teach gym.
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u/RutzButtercup 11h ago
I dated a woman some years ago who was absolutely enamored with Hill and anyone with a similar "just wish for it really really hard and it will be yours" sales pitch. She has spent her entire life dreaming of being rich and living off of other people's money.
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u/UditPlayzWHAT 10h ago
Oh boi
Can somebody list out more such famous books whose authors are fraudsters. I knew I was right for hating these so called finance gurus
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u/flynnwebdev 12h ago
I learned a while back that if something looks even remotely like it might be a con, then it most probably is, and it's safer to assume it is.
I've rarely been wrong following this logic.
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u/Suitable-Ad6999 12h ago
Even as a young man I started to read that book
“and then there was John. An advertising executive. He also believed in himself and worked tirelessly to achieve his goals.”
Oh really? Horseshit.
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u/paulsoleo 11h ago
If the last 10 years have taught me anything it’s that you can fake your way to the most powerful position in the world.
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u/Unlimitles 11h ago
Sweet, I’m about to dig into him for the next few weeks.
Always fascinates me how seemingly easy it is for people to get over on others.
Half the time when I do the digging I get a good idea of how they did it.
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u/TuneAppropriate5686 7h ago
Too bad he's not around today - about 30% of the US would have voted for him to be president!
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u/lolas_coffee 7h ago
Best Seller List for Nutrition, Finance, Exercise, and Business?
My guess is that 98% are grifters. And there are maybe 20 books total across all those subjects actually worth buying/reading.
Grifters.
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u/imapassenger1 17h ago
Now do W Clement Stone of "Think And Grow Rich". Someone gave me that in the late 80s and it all made so much sense to me. He also referred to Napoleon Hill as a friend so I assume Stone was a scammer too. Yes and Stone's book made no difference to my life. Just thinking positively didn't make anything easier for me. Maybe I was too negative...
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u/jafropuff 19h ago
Sounds like rich dad poor dad. I guess these scammer finance gurus selling their books and courses is older than we think