Applied Calculus For Business, Economics, And The Social And Life Sciences Book

AN AMAZING TRUE TALE TOLD WELL.

“The air was tense with ill-suppressed excitement. Hope and greed could be read in everybody’s countenance, [or] guessed from the wads of money nervously clutched and waved by thousands of outstretched fists! Madness, money madness, the worst kind of madness, was reflected in everybody’s eyes!” (Kindle Locations 2731-2733)

“…in the absence of hard evidence, too good to miss trumps too good to be true.” (Kindle Locations 1796-1797)

Narcissistic,  self-delusional, and adorable: charismatic people are oftentimes their own worst enemies—more credulous than even their easiest marks—and, sometimes, a danger to themselves and to the community at large. 

They're simply not like the rest of us.  Which is probably why we find them so fascinating.

My all-time favorite charismatic, of fact or fantasy, is the irrepressible, fictional character, Professor Harold Hill, of Meredith Willson’s musical: The Music Man. It is in this tale that the crux of charisma is revealed, in a tender moment, when the purveyor of band instruments and band uniforms to the untalented high school sons of country rubes, dares to tell his local love interest, Marian, the librarian— “Somehow, I always believe there’s a band.”

After reading Mitchell Zuckoff’s interesting and compressive biographical tale, Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend, I am convinced that Charles Ponzi, too, always believed there was a band. That he could, that he would, find a way to make good on all his extraordinary delusions; somehow.

Ponzi, at least for now, tops the list of my favorite non-fictional charismatics.

Recommendation: An amazing story, about an amazing man, an amazing time, and a pretty amazing city. I highly recommend reading this one.

“In the remarkable seven months since it had opened for business, the Securities Exchange Company had amassed thirty thousand investors and $9.6 million. All Ponzi had to do to keep them satisfied was to pay them nearly $15 million in return.” (Kindle Locations 2743-2745)

“Of all the get-rich-quick magnates that have operated, Ponzi is the king.” (Kindle Locations 4183-4184)

Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 416 pages