Napoleon Hill: The Self-Help Scammer Scion
2/2/202656 min
Napoleon Hill spent decades claiming he was mentored by millionaires and advised U.S. presidents – at a time when almost no one could fact check him. Obsessed with becoming rich and famous, he eventually pulled it off with his book, Think and Grow Rich, which became the template for modern mindset scams. Its legacy runs straight through Tony Robbins, The Secret, and every manifest-your-millions coach who insists your bank account is empty because your attitude is wrong.
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First 90 secondsMatt Novak· Soundbite0:00
[upbeat music] Wondering.
Sachee Cole· Host0:03
... Sachee, you have famously written two books, which you can all purchase right now.
Sarah Hagi· Host0:10
[laughing] And you are an avid reader, but I wanna know, if you had to write a self-help book, what would it be about?
Sachee Cole· Host0:17
I kinda think I did.
Sarah Hagi· Host0:19
Yeah, you kinda did.
Sachee Cole· Host0:20
My second book is about... It's called Sucker Punch, available, uh, everywhere books are sold, and it was about divorce, so I feel like that was it. It was like, "Here's how you do it in the ugliest, least helpful way possible," but I do think it was kind of a self-help book.
Sarah Hagi· Host0:33
It was. It was, um, [lips smack] quietly self-help, let's say. I don't actually read any proper self-help books. I'm not against them, but, you know, I just... I'm not into them. But I feel like it would be really easy to come up with something kind of like, Let Them-esque, like, Don't Let Them.
Sachee Cole· Host0:50
Right. Stop them, in fact.
Sarah Hagi· Host0:52
Stop them. Don't let them. Stop them.
Sachee Cole· Host0:54
Yeah.
Sarah Hagi· Host0:54
You're in control.
Sachee Cole· Host0:55
Ooh, we should write that together.
Sarah Hagi· Host0:57
Right. You're hearing it here first, guys.
Sachee Cole· Host0:58
Okay, nobody take this idea.
Sarah Hagi· Host1:00
Well, today, I'm gonna tell you about the guy who basically invented self-help, the godfather of positive thinking, and an absolute all-time master of self-hype, a man who failed at every single thing he ever did, except selling Americans a total delusion. [upbeat music] It's 1923, and two great men are shaking hands for the first time. One of them is Thomas Edison.