You’re Being Trained to Stay Distracted – Here’s How to Stop (Ep. 282)

"95% of the world has no idea what is happening in the world. They do not have a clue, because they're not watching the news. They're not watching all the news. They're not on the political side of TikTok or whatever side of TikTok you're on. 'You think that everybody knows how to eat or what's healthy based on what you're seeing, but the majority of the world is not watching any of that stuff. The majority of the world is not listening to podcasts like this to get better. Instead, they're going to work. They're running their kids around. They don't put the news on. They don't care. They bury their head in the sand.' Like, that's 95% of people."

Hello, hello, and welcome back to the podcast. Thank you very much for being here. If you guys are enjoying this podcast, learning some stuff, not just about infinite banking, but business, please share it. I would appreciate that. Some of you have told me you like this podcast better than the Farming Without the Bank podcast. So fantastic.

All right. Today, we have another book review. I haven't gotten any feedback from the first one, so you know, maybe you didn't like it. But we can't quit so early in the game. So I have another one. This is one of my all-time favorites, and it is Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill.

If you guys listen to audiobooks, this is such a good book on audio because it is Napoleon Hill's… Like, there's two readers. One of them would be Napoleon Hill, and the other one would be the devil, and he's got a real scratchy voice, and he sounds mean. It's a fun book to listen to because it's kind of like you're listening to a play. Or a movie. You just don't have the screen, and so it's easy to visualize it.

I don't know when I first read this book. It was years and years and years ago. I think that I heard about it because I also read Three Feet from Gold, and that is also a very good book, and the same author, Sharon Lechter, wrote Three Feet from Gold, or she's involved in Three Feet from Gold one way or another. But she is also the one that helped with this book.

And Napoleon Hill also wrote Win Friends and Influence People or something like that, and that's a good book. Not one of my favorites. A lot of people in business like that book. Um, yeah, okay. It's okay.

But this book was written, and I listened to it in audio. Now, here's what I do. I will always listen to a book in audio, and if I like it in audio, then I will get the actual book. And so I haven't even cracked the seal on this one yet, 'cause there's really no need to, 'cause I have listened to it a million times.

So this book was written in 1938 by Napoleon Hill, but it was never released until 2011 is when they copyrighted it. He was terrified of… Well, his wife was terrified of the retaliation that he would get if he released the manuscript.

So I listen to this book every time I travel, every single time I travel. It's either this book or Becoming Your Own Banker on audio, and the reason why is because I fall asleep on the plane. And so this is, because I've listened to it already, it's nice to listen and then as I fall asleep, I am, you know, sleep through it, and then I can pick up wherever I left off. And I'm not missing anything like I would a new book. I also listen to this book at least once a year just when I'm not gonna go to sleep, like when I'm getting ready for the day or something like that, because it is so good.

So what he's talking about here, just to kinda give you a quick synopsis — this isn't gonna be a super long podcast, 'cause I don't need to read books to you guys — but what he talks about here is are we drifters? And the devil wants us to be drifters, and he's kinda comparing the devil and the government a little bit one and one.

But he talks about the fact that in 1938 or 1937 when he wrote this, he was already seeing a problem with our school systems and how they were making us drifters, where we're not committed to something. We don't have focus on doing whatever it is we're doing. We're gonna go watch a reality TV show, or we're not gonna pay attention to what's going on in the country.

He talks about how your cigarettes are the devil causing us to drift. Porn is the devil causing us to drift. Just being robots, again, in the education system, where we just do and think how they want us to do and think. And he already saw that coming as a problem. He already saw in the '30s that they were taking religion, and they were taking Christianity out of things, and they were just letting people go hog wild.

Now, that's super interesting because if you talk to people that were not here in the '30s, right? You talk to 40, you talk to 50, 60-year-olds who — we were born in the '60s and '70s, even people born in the '50s — it seems to be this repetitive thought process that we all have as we get older that, "Oh, great, now we've got technology, which is making it worse because kids aren't paying attention, and they're not being taught how to do X, Y, and Z."

And he was already seeing this coming then. So part of me likes this book as well — because as we see a crisis today, every generation before us has seen that same crisis. We never think it's as good as what it used to be as far as what we learned and the progression of people. We think it's always getting worse.

He also talks about television and how television was ruining people because it's making them lazy, right? And so do you want to be a drifter in life or do you want to be somebody that knows exactly where you're going? Again, a very, very good book. If you have a long drive, if you are in a piece of equipment all day, if you have, uh, the ability to put headphones in, this is definitely a book to get.

I actually had my daughter listen to this book when she was, I don't know, like 13, 14. Maybe she was 15. Mm, maybe she was 14, 15. And she loved it, and she also listens to it a lot. I don't know that she listens to it every year, 'cause obviously she does not live with me anymore, but she did tell me, like about a year or two ago, that she listens to it often. And I'm sure that you can go to YouTube, and you can listen to it on YouTube and that sorta thing too.

Even for her, like it makes her think about it. Like, what is happening in our society that is causing people to not care?

And we just talked about this, my husband and I just talked about this this week. I saw a video on social media of a guy talking about some celebrity wedding that happened in New York. I had no idea this celebrity wedding was happening. I could care less, but his comment was, people took their children there. They camped out for two days to attend this wedding that they were no part of.

Like, they don't even know these people. They're on social media. It's no different than you guys saying, "Oh, Mary Jo, I love you," which I'm assuming you all do. "Mary Jo, I love you," but you don't really know me. You may not like me in person. Who knows, right? But we have this persona that everybody's life is so perfect because we just see whatever's on social media.

So they go to this wedding, they camp out, they're crying, they're happy, oh, all, life is all fantastic, right? But he's like, "This is the time you're spending. You're spending your time watching people on social media, having these influencers, putting celebrities on a pedestal instead of actually utilizing your time wisely. Why are you not paying attention to your business and how to — how to do business better? Why are you not paying attention…" This gentleman in the video said, "Why are you not spending that time reading the Bible and understanding all the Christian side of Jesus and God and all the things? Like, why are you not doing that?"

And this kind of drives me a little bit crazy, is when people have no clue what's going on in the world. I was just talking to my daughter about this, last night in fact, and she said, "Everybody knows. Everybody knows what's happening." And we were talking about politics, and she's like, "Everybody knows what's happening."

And I said, "No, they don't." And she's like, "Mom, everybody knows." I said, "No, they don't. 95% of the world has no idea what is happening in the world. They do not have a clue, because they're not watching the news, any news. They're not watching all the news. They're not on the political side of TikTok or whatever side of TikTok you're on."

Like, she's very health-conscious, and so I'm like, "You think that everybody knows how to eat or what's healthy based on what you're seeing, but the majority of the world is not watching any of that stuff. The majority of the world is not listening to podcasts like this to get better. Instead, they're going to work. They're running their kids around. They don't put the news on. They don't care. They bury their head in the sand." Like, that's 95% of people.

And so I used a couple examples of people that we know, her and I know, and I said, "Do you think they would know what you're talking about right now? No, they would have no idea." You cannot assume because you know and the circle of people that you're around know that everybody else is doing that, because the circle of people you're around are not necessarily drifters in the form that Napoleon Hill called them to be.

He also talks about in this book how he didn't know how he was gonna write his first book, and that basically God just provided as he needed money. He just had God speaking to him on one side and the devil speaking to him on the other. So it's kind of a yin and yang, whatever, devil and angel kinda shoulder thing, where this book just… He's trying to decipher the good and the bad and the easy and the hard. It's just so good. So good. Definitely, obviously recommend it.

If you are looking for something that your kids would actually listen to, because it's audio and they've got that raspy voice, it's very easy for your teenage kids to kind of decipher, or even younger kids to decipher. They're not gonna know what all the terminology means and all the things.

But he did have — Napoleon Hill apparently had people that wanted him dead. And I don't know why, I don't know for what, or who, but he was trying to escape these people, and he goes through it all. He goes through it all in here.

Look at who's around you. Who's drifters? I don't want to be a drifter. I don't want to surround myself with drifters. Are there drifters in my circle? Yeah, absolutely. But they're not going anywhere. They're gonna be the ones that are complaining that life is hard and they can never get ahead, and they're just spinning their wheels. Yeah, because you're a drifter. You're not focused. Are you actually solving problems, or are you not solving problems?

And as we talked about this podcast, a lot of this podcast is infinite banking related, but a lot of it is also business related. How are you going to grow your business? And my daughter has a bread stand that she just started, and so we were talking about that last night. And I said, "Marketing is everything. How are you going to market that business? You need to be posting every day. You need to create a following. You need to do this, and this, and this." And we talked about the business side of it.

And I said, "You can go and watch a movie of Spider-Man," or whatever the heck she's watching, I don't know. I don't watch any of that crap. But I'm like, "You can go watch a movie, but then you're drifting. You're drifting into an area where if you didn't get the business stuff done, you're procrastinating on it, and then you're gonna complain that your business isn't as busy as it should be, or it's not growing as fast."

I says, "You can't have a bread stand in North Dakota in the middle of winter. So you better push hard now so you can build that business, and by winter, you have a following so that maybe they will come out in the winter. Maybe it's porch pickup. I don't know what that looks like, but you better put the time and effort in now. Just because you're not baking bread today, or cookies, or whatever, you don't get the luxury to say, 'I'm not working on my business today.' That's not how that works. You need to be focused and dedicated."

If you have, or if you are someone in your life that is not focused and dedicated, this is a great book.

Oh, he also talks about eating, and the fact that they also want to feed us sugar to cause us to be drifters, to cause us to be tired and lethargic and all that kind of stuff. Need to put this on my fridge, you guys.

Anywho, let me… You know, grab it, and then let me know what you think of it. Get it on audio, listen to it, and let me know what your thoughts are, because for sure, The Noticer is good. I love The Noticer as well, also an amazing audiobook. This one too. If you have a book suggestion for me, hey, pass it on. And it better be good, 'cause if it doesn't catch my attention right away, I'm out.

But let me know, 'cause I love books, so keep me posted if you got something for me. Otherwise, grab this one and let me know what you think. maryjo@withoutthebank.com. You guys have a fantastic rest of your day.