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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.
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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.
To any Vemma shill/victim reading this, please take the advice of one of your most notable cult masters, Bob Proctor, and read Hill's book.
Hill says that anyone who gets rich does so by first making a good plan to sell either real products or real services. I can't remember off the top of my head where exactly in the book that I read that, and searching for a direct quotation is difficult, because Hill uses the word "sell" very frequently. I will post the direct quotation later, when I re-read the book (I haven't finished reading it once as of yet).
But, here is the point: as a Vemma shill/victim, you are not selling any product or service. You are selling only a "business opportunity " that does not exist (recruiting people underneath you into an illegal pyramid scheme is not a "business opportunity," and you know that you aren't even trying to sell the Verve garbage). You are selling nothing but a substance-less delusion of riches. In other words, you fail at meeting one of Hill's main criteria for becoming rich: having a good plan for selling either real products or real services.
As Proctor and all other notable Vemma shills will tell you, Hill's book also says:
A QUITTER NEVER WINS - AND - A WINNER NEVER QUITS.But in the same section of Hill's book that immediately precedes that line (on page 91 in the version that I linked to above), is another quotation that is especially pertinent to you, the Vemma shills/victims, emphasis mine:
Your achievement can be no greater than your PLANS are sound. That may seem to be an axiomatic statement, but it is true. Samuel Insull lost his fortune of over one hundred million dollars.
The Insull fortune was built on plans which were sound. The business depression forced Mr. Insull to CHANGE HIS PLANS; and the CHANGE brought "temporary defeat," because his new plans were NOT SOUND. Mr. Insull is now an old man, he may, consequently, accept "failure" instead of "temporary defeat," but if his experience turns out to be FAILURE, it will be for the reason that he lacks the fire of PERSISTENCE to rebuild his plans.
No man is ever whipped, until he QUITS-in his own mind. This fact will be re-peated many times, because it is so easy to "take the count" at the first sign of defeat.
James J. Hill met with temporary defeat when he first endeavored to raise the necessary capital to build a railroad from the East to the West, but he, too turned defeat into victory through new plans.
Henry Ford met with temporary defeat, not only at the beginning of his automo-bile career, but after he had gone far toward the top. He created new plans, and went marching on to financial victory.
We see men who have accumulated great fortunes, but we often recognize only their triumph, overlooking the temporary defeats which they had to surmount before "arriving".
NO FOLLOWER OF THIS PHILOSOPHY CAN REASONABLY EXPECT TO AC-CUMULATE A FORTUNE WITHOUT EXPERIENCING "TEMPORARY DE-FEAT."When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.
Now, Vemma shills/victims, do you see your problem? Right there, Hill is telling you what your problem is. If you keep failing (losing money every month) with Vemma, that is because your plans are UNSOUND and you must change your plans by leaving Vemma. Leaving Vemma does not mean that you are quitting with your plan to get rich. Rather, leaving Vemma means you are doing the only sane thing that you possibly can do to have any hope of getting rich. But don't take my word for it - take Hill's word. Hill has given you the great advice to leave Vemma right there on a silver platter, in the words that I have quoted from Hill right above this paragraph.
Did you really think that participating in an illegal pyramid scheme like Vemma would be a sound plan? No sane person would agree that it is - Hill certainly would not. If you are sane, neither will you. If you are have lost your sanity as a result of brainwashing by the cult masters who recruited you, you should please seek psychiatric help immediately - I am not joking. Tell the best psychiatrist that you can find that you have been brainwashed into a cult that is an illegal pyramid scheme and that they have convinced you to believe that you will get rich by participating in the scheme, even though it is making you lose money every month. If you can't take your brain back on your own, your psychiatrist will be able to get it back for you. If you are a minor who has been recruited by Vemma, then please ask your parents or guardians to find a psychiatrist for you.
If you do not leave Vemma, then Hill is calling you a loser. If you stay in Vemma, then in Hill's words, you "lack the persistence to change or rebuild your plans," and therefore, Hill says, you will always remain a "failure."
Here is another quotation from Hill's book that is highly relevant to you Vemma shills/victims, emphasis mine:
An educated man is one who has so developed the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others.You, Vemma shills/victims, are violating the rights of every single person your recruit, by duping them into breaking the law by participating in an illegal pyramid scheme. You are also violating their rights by brainwashing them into letting Vemma rob them on a monthly basis. You are also violating their rights by brainwashing them into scamming others by recruiting new victims into the pyramid underneath themselves.
Stop being a bad person and stop violating others' rights, and instead, do like Hill is telling you to do: do what an educated person does - find a legitimate way to make money that will not violate the rights of others.
If I find more relevant quotations from Hill's book after I read more of it, I will post them in this thread too.
To add in more irony and hypocrisy via Proctor, we can again look to Proctor's old seminar, wherein Proctor quotes Einstein's commonly-known definition of insanity:
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.(editor's note: this quote is actually misattributed. It's from Narcotics Anonymous.)
For how many months or years, O Vemma victims, do you plan to keep on losing your money to Vemma over and over again, with the false hope that one day doing so will make you rich?
After you have matched up your continued participation in Vemma with Hill's quotation as given above, next match up your continued participation in Vemma with Einstein's definition of insanity. Both Hill and Einstein would agree that you trying to get rich via scamming others to join underneath you into an illegal pyramid scheme named Vemma is insane. You will never get rich by persisting in your insanity.
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Originally posted on IGN by SlayerofScams, reposted with author's permission.
Stayed tuned as the other 5 parts are coming soon!
