Many self-proclaimed financial gurus are fond of quoting
Napoleon Hill's
"Think and Grow Rich". I have that book around here somewhere, along with
Dale Carnegie's
"How to Gain Friends and Influence People". Those two books, along with
"Rich Dad Poor Dad" sort of became must-have books in recent years, for income seekers.
However, it appears that many people have been quoting Napoleon Hill out of context.
"SlayerofScams", a fellow scambuster on IGN, had this to say about people who wrongly applied the sound advice of Napoleon Hill. Here is part 1 of 6 of his "Napoleon Hill, from beyond the grave", which is reposted with his permission. Content's unchanged except a few bits of editor's note, and slight formatting changes.
----------
SlayerofScams / Dec 30, 2013.
I have discovered that Bob Proctor is one of Vemma's most notable shills and that his wife, Linda Proctor, has been given a prominent position within the Vemma pyramid. Proctor disgraces his former good name and defecates all over whatever legacy he might have otherwise had by promoting the illegal
pyramid scheme that is Vemma. Because of that foolish decision, Bob Proctor will now forever be remembered in history as nothing other than a lowdown dirty scammer.
(editor's note: Bob's daughter Colleen Filicetti, has the same Vemma rank as her stepmom, Linda: Ambassador, making about 15000 per month.)
Over the weekend, I was watching an old Proctor seminar video (it looked to be from the late 1980's although I am not sure exactly when it was released), in which he basically paraphrases the 1937 book by Napoleon Hill,
Think and Grow Rich, along with a few other books. In that seminar Proctor appears to be a respectable guy. That seminar presents some good ideas (although Proctor admits that the ideas are not his own).
Then I watched a video of Proctor shilling at a Vemma convention from 2013, and presenting those same ideas that he presented in the old seminar, in order to justify Vemma as a great company, and to justify all of Vemma's victims as winners.
Proctor was one of the people behind
The Secret which was big about 6 years ago.
The Secret is basically a plagiarization of Hill's book, albeit The Secret also cuts out a vast majority of the sensible advice that Hill claims (many times!) to be mandatory parts of his book. That is why reasonable people usually condemn
The Secret as crazy rubbish, whereas Hill's book remains famous and popular to this day.
In Proctor's seminar and in his Vemma convention shilling, Proctor directly gives credit to Hill and Hill's book, professes his undying love for Hill's book, and tells all his fellow Vemma shills that they too should get and read Hill's book.
All of that has led me to start to read Hill's book.
Here is some good news: Hill's book is in the public domain and so it is legally free for anyone to get and read. Here is a link to it:
https://archive.org/stream/Think_and_Grow_Rich/think-and-grow-rich-napoleon-hill_djvu.txt
To address the sane readers of this thread: for personal interest, you might want to read that book for some sensible advice on how someone, maybe yourself, might possibly get rich (of course, no guarantees exist). I am sure many of you have read it already. To give a brief summary of Hill's book: Hill interviewed Andrew Carnegie, and Carnegie introduced Hill to most of the richest men in America during Hill's lifetime. Hill spent 25 years interviewing them in order to learn their secrets and find out what they had in common, so that he could present to his readers a sound theory about how someone might get rich.
For the remainder of this post, I will address not the sane readers, but rather, the Vemma shills/victims.
