The Truth About "Think and Grow Rich" | My First Million

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Think and Grow Rich. Amazing book. One of the bestselling books of all time, but the whole backstory completely fake. And he's a total con man. >> What? What do you mean none of it's true? >> All right, I have to tell you this story. So, I'm rereading a bunch of old books because I like rereading old books. And I started reading uh Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Have you read that one? I love that book, Sam. >> Rule number one, >> rule number one, the uh a person's name is the uh is the most beautiful English language, the golden rule. Um [laughter] >> I love that book. I just I the reason I like these old books is because some of them the the the rules have stood the test of time and the writing is always like older writing for some reason. It's like cute. There's something about >> I tell you something stupid I did. I took the book and you know how people wear like you're a denim guy, you know this distressed jeans? >> Oh yeah. >> I distressed the book. I rubbed it up a little That made it look like this is an heirloom that's been passed down from Napoleon himself. >> Did you like dogge ear certain pages even though you didn't even read the thing? >> Tattered tattered folded folded it like a baseball first 30 pages. But like [laughter] >> I made this book look like it has already won friends and influenced people. >> You just put it in the back of your pocket and just walk around with it. >> For people who don't know the people heard of the book, but if you if it's been one of those things like uh you know like the wire, it's like I heard it's a great show but it's kind of old now and I just I guess I'm out on that. Like if you know of the book but you haven't actually cracked into it, could tell the quick story of it. >> Uh Dale Carnegie um he originally was a public speaker and he taught public speaking classes. Then he created a book called How to Win Friends and Influence People. And I think it's like 15 or 20 rules on how to basically make friends and make people like you. So it could be saying their name, it could be asking them questions. So they do most of the talking. It's uh never arguing with someone uh because no one wins an argument when you guys fight. And there's like how many 15 or 20 rules and it's just like an old-timer book. It was released in the 1930s, so it's almost 100 years old. And it's probably has sold 50 to 100 million copies. And to this day, there's the Dale Carnegie Institute, which is a public speaking classes. And a lot of amazing people, including Warren Buffett, have said that uh that book influenced them and helped them. And in fact, Warren Buffett, he was an instructor at the Dale Carnegie Institute, I believe. >> Love it. Okay, great. And you were going to say, so you've been reading rereading this book? >> Rereading that one. I'm reading uh I just got the uh power of positive thinking. That's another one from the 1930s. Uh I just love these old books. And like I told you, I'm in the um motivational phase of my life right now. I'm back at it. Uh I just want to be influenced uh to be uh you know, motivated and happy and all that stuff. It's a girl dad thing. You know what I'm saying? Like once once you have a girl, you know, you're just emotional. You're And so I'm into this stuff. But there's one book that I started reading last night and I was curious about it. uh the author [snorts] because it just got me interested. But it's called Think and Grow Rich. Have you read Think and Grow Rich? >> A classic. I've again read the first 30 pages. Loved it. >> So you've read 30 pages. You get it. So let me tell you the story about Think and Grow Rich. Think and Grow Rich, one of the earliest self-help books. I think it predates uh How to Win Friends and Influence People. It sold around 100 million copies, making it one of the bestselling non-fiction books of all time. And to this day, it still regularly lands on the uh New York Times bestsellers list. I mean, it's a huge thing. And and so, basically, the story is that there's this guy named Napoleon Hill. >> Can I say it wrong and you correct me? Isn't it something like he got commissioned by Carnegie? >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> And he went and interviewed all these people or he hung out with what was it? What is the story? So, >> it's even more epic than that. So, basically, Napoleon Hill is this guy from Appalachia, came from nothing. He's this really poor kid and makes his way to New York City and he's writing an article for a magazine and he meets Andrew Carnegie who at the time this is like Elon Musk uh he's the best of the best. Andrew Carnegie runs Carnegie Steel. This is Tesla. This is the biggest company in the world by far. And he's talking to Andrew Carnegie and um uh Napoleon was like look um I'm just trying to figure out what makes s people successful. And Andrew Carnegie goes look son you seem promising. I want to tell you to do something, but can you promise me you'll actually do it because I have a feeling you're not going to follow through, but if you do follow through on me, I think you're going to be really successful. And Napoleon goes, "Look, I'm desperate for success. I'll do anything you say." And Andrew, imagine Elon Musk saying, "Sean, I need you to go out and talk to 500 people, the most successful people on earth, and I need you to tell me what made them successful because I want the world to know about this gospel. They have to know what makes people successful, and I need you to study them for the next 20 years, and I will help fund it. I will help make this a reality. Will you do that?" And Napoleon goes, "Hell yeah, brother. I am in. This sounds like the world's greatest mission. Let's do it." And so Andrew Carnegie introduces him to Henry Ford. They introduce him to um John Rockefeller, also one of the richest men in the world. It even introduces him to Woodro Wilson. And then FDR, the president of the United States. And Napoleon Hill spends a decade or two writing this book. And it becomes Think and Grow Rich. And it basically distills down all of the amazing stuff that makes someone successful. And it it goes even further after this book because Napoleon Hill got to meet all these presidents. Um he he basically was there when Woodro Wilson negotiated the end of World War I. And he helped like give Woodro Wilson like the speech that he needed to convince um Germany to like you know back down. And then it goes even further. Do you remember the famous line uh from FDR? He says uh the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. You remember that line? >> Napoleon Hill baby. He wrote that for him. He Yeah. Pretty amazing, right? >> Fingerprints are all over this country. all over this country. He shaped America. Well, none of it's true. [laughter] >> What? What do you mean none of it's true? >> Everything I just told you is a lie, except for Think and Grow Rich. Amazing book. One of the bestselling books of all time. >> So, what do you mean? Where did this come from? >> Listen to this. So, uh, Napoleon Hill originally was called Oliver Napoleon Hill. That was his name. Married someone at the age of >> already minus five. >> Yes. Married someone at the age of 16 or 17. Eventually gets divorced because he goes broke and spends all of his money on prostitutes. Um, starts a lumber company and he uh gets arrested for fraud. Uh, gets arrested again for stealing a bunch of cars. And if you go to the MBD master document, I actually list his wrap sheet. So, he got in trouble in 1908 for lumber fraud. In 1908 again he gets arrested for uh cashing fake checks. In 1909 he creates this thing called the automobile college which uh teaches kids how to work on cars. Turns out he actually kind of teaches them how to go and sell the course. So it's a multi-level marketing scheme and he gets run out of town because he runs off with a lot of money. Gets arrested again in 1910 for car theft and just like a history of just like literally been in jail. We're talking like 15 or 20 times. And he comes out with this. I mean, he just tries business after business after business. He literally tries like 15 businesses. They all fail. He uh marries a woman. He convinces the woman's parents to loan him money for this like uh farm or something he wants to start that goes up. That goes broker up uh bankrupt and he divorces the woman. I mean, >> broke. >> Yeah. Like really bad. And so in the 1930s >> So did the Carnegie part happen at all? Did he even interview any of these people? >> So Carnegie died in 1919 and in the 1930s he comes out with this book. He had written a bunch of books already that none of them were hits. This particular one was a hit and he tells the story of meeting Andrew Carnegie and how Andrew Carnegie asked him to do this. There's zero proof that he met Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Carnegie I've read actually three biographies on him. He I got married at Carnegie Hall because I loved him so much. The book comes out I think in 1929. Carnegie has been uh dead for 10 years and David Nassau who wrote the best biography on Carnegie. They're like dude Carnegie documented everything. There's no proof that he >> said no or Carnegie didn't say anything about this. What about the people Wilson and FDR and >> none of it happened. He'd never been any of these guys >> and nobody debunked it. >> Well, so here's the thing. People did debunk it later on, but it's sort of like R. Kelly and his music. You could separate the art from the artist. Do you know what I mean? Like I can still [laughter] I can still listen to the music and acknowledge that it's good music, but a lot of his his the book was so good and I could talk about some of the stuff in the book. It was so good that it's known that he was a fraudster and that all of this story it's completely fake. But the book is actually so good that he he he didn't get a pass, but people acknowledge the book's great and uh also he's full of [ __ ] So in the book there's actually a bunch of amazing stuff. For example, have you ever heard of the term mastermind? >> Mhm. >> He created that. So he came up with this idea. >> Probably not. Probably lies. Probably all lies. You think I believe that? >> I think he was >> fool me once. Shame on me. Twice. Don't fool me again. >> That's a Andrew uh a Napoleon Hill term. So he created this idea of I mean >> he popularized it at least >> popularized it. But it's I think it's the first time that someone has ever said the word mastermind or at least published. Um he did a bunch of amazing stuff. So in the book he says that you need to be you need to have a specific goal. you need to write it down and you need to repeat it to yourself every single day, twice a day. That's been proven to be true. Like there's a lot of research that shows like if you write down goals, you repeat it to yourself, you are something like two times more likely to achieve your goal. Another thing that he said was like this idea of persistence and grit. And he like goes through tons and tons of chapters of like the importance of persistence and grit. Angela Duckworth, I think we talked about it, has this book called grit, and it's also been proven that grit is more likely to make you succeed than IQ. And then there's other parts where he talks about like daily affirmations and like this is all woowoo stuff, but this is like proven to be true that if you like affirm that you're going to be successful and all these things, you are actually more likely to be successful. And so he actually does have a lot of amazing stuff. There's some other weird stuff. He talks about how like sexual energy is the most powerful energy on earth and you need to harness it. There's a bunch of weird stuff in there, but there's a lot of really amazing stuff. And so, uh, what I but when I read about his background, I just thought it was like one of the craziest things that I've ever read about because it's so in-depth about how he just lied about the entire backstory. His whole life basically is a lie. Oh, and by the way, I have to add, if you read the book, have you noticed how he mentions the secret? >> Uh, I don't remember that, but yeah. Okay. >> Okay. So, in the book, he talks about there's the the secret to success. It there is in fact a secret. Andrew Carnegie, the most successful man on earth, he conveniently dropped the secret into my pocket. And um that's what I want to talk about. Well, in the book Think and Grow Rich, he never actually outlines the secret or sorry, he never like explicitly says what it is. But what he does say is he goes, "I've written another book about this the secret and I've outlined it uh like perfectly. I made it incredibly clear." Now, the thing is is like I'm not even going to tell you the name of the book. It's going to come to you when you need it. And it was called, this book was called the law of success. And it was a 14 volume course that you had to buy. It was very expensive. And so the book Think and Grow Rich, it's just the front door offer. It's like the cheap version. So like the the $10 book that upsells you on the $2,000 course. And so this is like one of the early versions of like an unclosed loop, like an open loop uh to like get people to go and buy stuff and then you could go and buy his seminars. And so his marketing prowess was like pretty amazing and he it's totally worked. Uh Napoleon Hill became like a seminar company and it actually was somewhat successful before he uh stole a bunch of money and and it got in trouble for fraud. But his marketing was amazing and the book actually has a lot of amazing stuff. But the whole backstory completely fake and he's a total con man. >> That's pretty wild.