The Confidence Man: Ponzi, Grand Deception, and the Lure of Easy Money

Four Pages a Day: The Hard Work and Rejections That Make a Writer

Have you ever thought you might like to become a writer? Here's something a lot of people could do and very successfully, but not very many will and you know why? It's because becoming successful as a writer is just about the hardest work in the world. Outside of writing my own radio programs, I've never done too much of it. I tried to hire writers for my radio programs one time, but it just never worked out. They didn't write things I was interested in. But I guess I had one of the finest writing teachers who ever lived. He was Professor W.S. Campbell, who for so long headed up the writing department of the University of Oklahoma. I didn't go to that fine school except for the writing course, which has probably turned out more successful writers than any other in the country. Dr. Campbell is dead now, but he had a formula that was sure fire. The first thing you had to do, aside from getting a generally good education, was to pick the magazine you wanted to write for, if magazine writing was what you wanted. Then you'd have to read every issue of that magazine you could find. In this way, you could discover the kind of stories the editor of that particular magazine liked. Then you study the ads, because the ads and the stories were naturally slanted toward the same market. Then you just had to start writing stories similar to the ones you'd been reading and sending them in. Of course, they'd come bouncing right back time after time, but gradually you'd be getting better as a writer, and eventually you might get a note of encouragement from the editor along with your rejection slip. And finally, when you had enough rejection slips to paper the walls of a good-sized barn, you'd have a story accepted. From then on, usually you were in and could call yourself a professional writer. The big thing seemed to be to write about things in which you were intensely interested, things which moved you emotionally. You know, if you'll sit at your typewriter and pick out four double-spaced pages every day, just four pages a day, you'll finish a full-size book every 90 days. That's four complete books every year, or 40 books in the next 10 years. Of course, writing a book and having a book published are two indistinctly separate things, but of one thing you can be absolutely positive. The editors of magazines and the publishing houses will read your manuscripts, and if you show any promise, they'll tell you so. They're searching constantly for new writers because that's where their bread and butter comes from. Don't ever believe people who tell you it's who you know. It's nothing of the sort. Actually, writing can be a wonderful profession if you're qualified and willing to devote the same number of years to it that you'd have to devote to anything else in order to become successful. A good writer can work any place in the world. All he needs is a typewriter and a post office. He can sit out on the patio and have his coffee at 10 in the morning if he feels like it, and he can enjoy whatever fame he can earn. But at some time, he's got to go into that room, close the doors, put a piece of paper into the typewriter, and perform what the writers themselves call the hardest work on earth. Like having a baby, the joy comes after it's all over. A sort of humorous aspect of our society is the number of writing clubs where the members meet to talk about writing, but who, for the most part, never quite get around to doing the actual work. I'll be back in just one minute. If a writer waited around for a wisp of inspiration to come floating through the window, he'd eventually petrify in his chair. Inspiration comes from work. It has hardly ever been the other way around. Why don't you write a book? All you have to do is decide to spend three or four hours a day in front of a typewriter until it's finished.

The Confidence Man: Ponzi, Grand Deception, and the Lure of Easy Money

I suppose criminal psychology is one of the world's most interesting subjects and, at times, certainly the most terrifying. There's hardly a day goes by when the paper doesn't report some strange, senseless, twisted crime. But the most interesting of all, because of its sheer waste of talent and time, is the story of the Confidence Man. For example, there's a really interesting book published in 1955 by J.P. Lippincott Company called Grand Deception, which is a collection of the world's most spectacular and successful hoaxes, impostures, ruses and frauds, collected and edited by Alexander Klein. And in reading the many dozens of cases, the so-called normal person must shake his head and ask with wonderment, why don't those characters go straight? A lot of them have everything in the world it takes to be a really large success at just about any legitimate business, but because of some mental or emotional quirk in their natures, it's just no fun for them unless they're parting someone from his wallet dishonestly. And the thing that keeps them going is another quirk of human nature that's never changed and was old in the days of ancient Egypt. I guess you'd have to call it the ubiquitous belief that it's possible to get something for nothing. Freeling Foster, in his book Keep Up with the World, tells about the most spectacular. Charles Ponzi, an ignorant Italian, came to this country in 1899 and settled in Boston. For a while he worked at odd jobs such as dishwashing, but in 1919 he opened an investment business and offered to pay interest of 50% on any sum invested with him for just 90 days. Well, to the few who asked how this was possible, Ponzi claimed he was making a fortune in international postal coupons, buying them in countries where their price was low and selling them in countries where they brought higher prices. But, of course, he was lying. He was simply meeting the few demands on him for interest with money from his constantly growing capital. And, my golly, how it grew. After kind of a slow start, the money started coming in so fast it became impossible to keep books on it, and his 16 clerks had to work so rapidly that they tossed the money into wastebaskets under the counter. By public demand, Ponzi opened branch offices in four states and shortly was taking in such staggering sums each day. Now, on one day, he took in more than $2 million. Not bad, you'll admit, for one day. That he was naturally investigated and exposed. This started a run in all the people who thought they were getting something for nothing panicked and, of course, lost their shirts. When he was arrested a few days later, it was learned that during his operations of less than eight months, he had taken from some 50,000 investors about $18 million, half of which was never found or restored. Ponzi served a couple of prison terms and was deported to Italy in 1934, later went to South America where he eventually died in a hospital charity ward, 1949. But what a terrible waste of everybody's time. He could have founded a legitimate company and, while it would have taken longer, could have eventually left behind him a sound business, friends instead of enemies, and a good name instead of a prison record. Put your money where you know it's safe, where it's guaranteed, and where you earn a good but honest return. In this way, you'll get something for something. I'll be back in one minute. If a person would just put the same time and energy into being legitimate, he could keep what he earns, after taxes that is, and sleep like a baby. But as Plato said more than 300 years before Christ, everything that deceives may be said to enchant.

Talent Isn’t Enough: Earl Nightingale on Taking Your Gift to Market

Some years ago, a man came into my office whom I've never forgotten, and for whom I've never stopped being sorry. I've often thought that there must be thousands of people in the same boat. My secretary had given him an appointment, and he started right off on the wrong foot by arriving 15 minutes late. He then told me a long, sad story. As I remembered, it went something like this. Mr. Nightingale, everyone tells me I have a beautiful singing voice. In fact, they tell me my voice is better than most of the male singers in this country including, and right here he tossed off the names of our highest paid male singing stars. Well, I asked him why he'd come to me, and he replied it was because I was in the radio and television business. And I then asked him what he had done to get his voice heard by people other than his family and friends, who all raved about what a great voice he had. And right here he got a sort of pained look on his face and said something to the effect that someone ought to do something about the fact that he had such a great voice. At first I thought he was kidding, but after studying him for a moment, I realized he was quite serious. So I overcame the urge to throw him out into the hall and then tried to explain as patiently as I could that when we have something we think is worthwhile, it's up to us to do something about it. I told him that in his case, his course was clear. Since he had the finest larynx since Caruso, he should do two things. One, he should study voice under a competent coach, and two, he should sing every chance he got. Sing in church, sing for service clubs, sing for nothing, but sing until he qualified for the big chance he felt someone ought to give him. I then went on to explain that the world didn't give two hoops in you-know-where whether he had a good voice or not. He could make Perry Como sound like the baritone in a Salvation Army quartet, but unless he brought his songs to the people, the world would keep turning, the sun would still come up, and he could just forget about the whole thing. Well then, thinking that maybe I was being a little rough on him, I told him how all the big stars got started, how they worked and kept going and kept picking themselves up every time something or someone knocked them down until they had earned the greatness and its corresponding rewards they sought. Well, I guess I made quite a little speech, but I couldn't reach him. He finally left the same way he came in, petulant and hurt because the world didn't stand at attention just because the good Lord had given him a great voice. He probably went back to his hometown where his mother would sit in pure rapture while he shook the kitchen walls with his booming basso or whatever he had. This was quite a number of years ago. I wonder whatever became of him. Probably the same thing thousands of other youngsters do, even though they've been awarded the precious gift of real talent. Nothing at all. While the great stars keep coming along, working their way up the hard way, and someday knowing the acclaim of the world that will pay any price for greatness except making it easy to get there. Something to think about, isn't it? Well, I'll be back in just one minute. Having an outstanding talent is like raising a great crop. Unless you take it to market and sell it, the world will never miss it because no one ever knew it existed. If you think you've got something the world should know about, make it your career to see that the world knows about it. Thank you.

How Great Service and Fair Prices Can Build a Million-Dollar Business

I received a telephone call the other day that really set me to thinking. I was working in my study, and as usual, the phone interrupted my work. I think I was reading the sports page at the time. And a charming female voice asked, Is this Mr. Nightingale? And I said, Yes. And then she said, Mr. Nightingale, Mr. Spelvin can speak to you now. I thought, Well, isn't that nice. This Mr. Spelvin must be a pretty important man. I wonder what he wants to talk to me about. Well, there was a short and impressive delay at the other end of the line, and then a man's voice asked, Mr. Nightingale? Again, I said, Yes. And I don't mind admitting I was becoming pretty excited by this time. He said, Mr. Nightingale, this is Mr. Spelvin. I believe someone at your house called my office. Well, I started racking my brain why anyone at my house would call a Mr. Spelvin. You know the feeling you get when you should remember someone's name but can't? So I decided to take an embarrassing chance, and I asked, Mr. Spelvin, could you tell me what it is you do at your office? There was a pause while I began to sense that I'd really put my foot in it. And then he answered, Well, I'm the plumber. Well, I told him about the leak in the basement pipe, and he said that he'd put me on his schedule and be over in a few days. Now, I know men who head giant corporations who won't keep you waiting on the phone since they know it's bad manners, and I'm not trying to say that plumbers aren't important people because they are. If it weren't for plumbers, we'd all be up to our necks in trouble. But what I am saying is that, for the most part, the service business in this country is getting too big for its britches. Pride goeth before a fall, and when the service business gets straightened out, a lot of people in it are going to fall a long way, and they'll wind up having to put a tourniquet on their wallets. A big percentage of them are giving poor service and charging outlandish prices, and it can't last. In fact, if you're a plumber, electrician, carpenter, TV repairman, automotive mechanic, painter, or just about anywhere in the service industry, you could really build a fine and lasting business for yourself by giving old-fashioned, excellent service and charging fair prices. An auto mechanic went to Florida and started calling in person on all the businessmen in his town. He asked them if they were happy with the way their cars were being taken care of and with the prices they were having to pay. He then offered to take care of their cars on a year-round basis, do excellent work, and charge prices for parts and labor that would be honest and fair. Well, to make a long story short, he netted about $500 his first month in business and went on to make a million dollars. We've come to such a national acceptance of sloppy, half-hearted, mediocre service in this country that an honest, hard-working, conscientious man or woman stands out like an elephant in a herd of field mice. Maybe this is your big chance to start and build a really good business for yourself. All you have to do is start operating as though we had a normal economy where people could only be paid for their work, measured by its quality and promptness. You could almost go door to door and pick up enough business to get started. From then on, word of mouth would build you up in a hurry. Well, at least it's something to think about, isn't it? I'll be back in just one minute. Without a doubt, there are still a lot of very fine service people in the country, but they're in the minority. I think the others should keep in mind the fine old line from the Bible, As ye sow, so shall ye reap. You might sidestep this law for a while, but eventually it's going to catch up with you.

Acres of Diamonds: Russell Conwell on Finding Opportunity Underfoot

Hello again. To my mind, one of the most interesting Americans who lived around the turn of the century was a man by the name of Russell Herman Conwell. He was born in 1843 and lived until 1925. He was a lawyer for about 15 years, then became a clergyman. But one day a young man came to him at the church and told him he wanted to get a college education but was in such a fix financially that he just couldn't swing it. Well, Dr. Conwell decided right then and there what his aim in life was. He decided to build a university for poor but deserving youngsters. But he had a problem. He'd need a few million dollars to swing the deal. But things like that don't seem to stand in the way of people with a real purpose in life. Several years before, as I remember it, Dr. Conwell had become tremendously intrigued by a true story which had an ageless moral to it. The story was about a farmer who lived in Africa and, through a visitor, became tremendously excited about looking for diamonds. Diamonds had already been discovered in some abundance on the African continent and this farmer got so excited about the idea of millions of dollars' worth of diamonds that he sold his farm and headed out to strike it rich by discovering a diamond mine. Well, he wandered all over the continent as the years slipped by, constantly searching for diamonds which he never found. He finally wound up completely broken by the whole thing and, as I remember the story, became despondent and tossed himself into a river and drowned. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, or rather the farm he'd sold, the new owner had picked up an unusual-looking rock about the size of a country egg and put it on his mantle as a sort of curiosity. And the same visitor came by again and, seeing this rock on the mantle, practically went into terminal convulsions. Pulling himself together, he told the new owner of the farm that the funny-looking rock on his mantle was just about the biggest diamond that had ever been found, whereupon the new owner of the farm said, well, heck, the whole farm's covered with these things, or words to that effect, and sure enough it was. And I'm reaching way back to remember the exact details, but if my memory serves me right, this farm turned out to be the Kimberley Diamond Mine, the richest the world has ever known. The farmer who'd sold the place had literally been standing on acres of diamonds and then sold his farm and wound up in the river because he never found any. In telling this story, Dr. Conwell likened each of us to the first farmer. Each of us really is right in the middle of his own acres of diamonds if only we have enough sense to realize it and develop the ground we're standing on before we go charging off looking for greener pastures. Well, Dr. Conwell told this story more than 6,000 times. He must have been a terrific speaker because he attracted enormous audiences and he raised enough money to start the college for poor but deserving kids that he had his heart set on. In fact, he raised about $6 million, and the university he founded is still going strong. It's Temple University in Philadelphia with 10 degree-granting colleges and six other schools. When Dr. Russell H. Conwell talked about each of us being right on his own acre of diamonds, he sure knew what he was talking about. I'll be back in a minute right after this educational advice. I believe you can still get the book, Acres of Diamonds. Why don't you check with your neighbor, and I guess it always will be. You know, opportunity doesn't come along, as most people think. It's laying there all the time. We just have to be able to see it.