OMG! I live in Oakdale and this is the first I’ve heard of Idle Hour, immortal babies, or master metaphysicians. So happy to fall down this rabbit hole. Woooooo!

I met W Clement Stone in the early 70s when he was interviewed on my campus radio station at Northwestern. A few days later a case of his books were dropped off at the station. That year I also got a recording gig at Combined Insurance, narrating a training tape for a pre-written sales talk for a new policy. They had…

Got completely and utterly sucked in. Incredibly well researched and a fun read. Amazing job!

Fascinating story. Man, I just can’t believe that this con artist actually got away with all of those schemes of his for so many years and didn’t end up in prison!

Awesome. I don’t know why I started reading this, but couldn’t look away.

So basically, this guy’s part of the reason why I hate LinkedIn with the passion of a thousand burning Trumps.

So basically the modern version of this guy is our new President.

That is not surprising. A con man is nothing but a salesman who is selling BS. And he definitively knew what he was doing otherwise numerous women wouldn’t have fallen for his lines and people wouldn’t have kept giving him money. So someone could extrapolate useful information from all his hokum.

The thing is, if you adhere to genuine mysticism, you can’t merely think anything into existence. It has to be coupled with energy and action. The Secret tells only a third of the recipe. But wow, did they get richer than me.

Not surprising that he was a contemporary of Aimee Semple McPherson.

I wonder if Meredith Wilson’s Prof. Harold Hill, who used the “Think” system to teach kids to play music, was inspired by Napoleon Hill...

i know you’re gonna get a bunch of TL;DR comments - and i’m not through with it myself, yet - but when Gawkworld covers cults, it is my fucking JAM. Scientology, the Kellogg guy, the bang all the ladies yoga guru... pure, uncut cocaine for my brain.

I am going to have to read this in small segments. I literally get sick to my stomache if I read to much at once.

—-Mmm, L Ron Hubbard?

Fascinating, painstakingly researched piece, Matt. Thank you. I can’t be the only one for whom parallels to Trump’s history kept popping up as I read. I can’t help but think this would have been Trump’s story had he not started out with his father’s millions.

Hill was involved in countless scams over the years. One of his earliest involved buying lumber on credit, never paying his suppliers, and selling the lumber to others for cash at rates well below market value.

Second-greatest.

I know absolutely nothing about Hill’s life. Nada. And that he was personally a fraud isn’t surprising in the least.

There will always be a market for this kind of huckster because there is a certain type of person who finds this premise very alluring. You mentioned The Secret, but I think even Scientology holds the same type of appeal for some people—the idea that you can control your destiny is very seductive.