The Greatest Swindle In The World

Robert Philps, later a Minister for Mines and a Queensland Premier, called it "the biggest ever mining swindle in the Colonies". He for one certainly knew, because Robert Ross himself sold Philps a swag of the Company shares in early 1888. This is the true story of multiple gold frauds by Robert Ross near Yeppoon Queensland, and a dubious Sydney Company involving many leading identities now well known in our history. Some made fortunes almost overnight and some ended up mortally wounded. The Supreme Court sessions featured most of the leading 'silks' in the Colony and even our later first Prime Minister Edmund Barton and all the sworn evidence and verdicts were meticulously recorded and then first sealed under Statute for 30 years.

Winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt, a timeless story of how war transforms lives in unexpected and often tragic ways as seen through the eyes of three World War I vets The year is 1918, the war on the Western Front all but over. An ambitious officer, Lieutenant Henry D'Aulnay-Pradelle, sends two soldiers over the top and then surreptitiously shoots them in the back to incite his men to attack the German lines. When another of D'Aulnay-Pradelle's soldiers, Albert Maillard, reaches the bodies and discovers how they died, the lieutenant shoves him into a shell hole to silence him. Albert is rescued by fellow soldier, the artist Edouard Péricourt, who takes a bullet in the face. The war ends and both men recover, but Edouard is permanently disfigured, and fakes his death to prevent his family from seeing him as a cripple. In gratitude for Edouard's rescue, Albert becomes the injured man's companion and caregiver. Finding that the postwar gratitude for the soldiers' service is nothing more than lip-service to an empty idea, the two men scramble to survive, ultimately devising a scam to take money for never-to-be-built war memorials from small towns. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Pradelle has married Edouard's sister Madeline and is running a scam of his own that involves the exhumation of war victims. In this sorrowful, heart-searching novel, the interwoven lives of these three men create a tapestry of the human condition as seen through the lens of war, revealing brutality and compassion, heroism and cowardice, in equal measure.

Most ordinary people are being swindled out of their chance of success, doomed to permanent failure or for the vast majority, doomed to never even having a chance to try for their success, their dream. Why? Because the Road to Success is paved with... bullshit. And this book sweeps aside this bullshit in a entertaining, but no holds barred way. Because a revolution is needed, a revolution for the ordinary man and woman. Andrew Carnegie dreamed of a Monetary Revolution for the Common Man, Henry Wallace spoke of a Century of the Common Man and The Great Success Swindle proclaims a Success Revolution for the Common Man. So is this just another self-improvement book? No, It is not a self-improvement book in the traditional sense, it is a life-improvement book - most people do not need self-improvement despite many of the vast tomes dedicated to the subject, they are fine as they are, it's their life that sucks. The Great Success Swindle intends to measurably raise the rate of ordinary people reaching whatever their version of success and a great life is. The book is no fluff, no bullshit, gloves off but entertaining look at: Why so many ordinary people are doomed to failure before they start How to tell you are being swindled How to recognize swindlers How to break out of the swindle and immeasurably increase your chance of success The book also includes 21 Rules of Success for the Common Man

Here is a saga of the roaring twenties, with its glorification of business, its get-rich-quick mentality, and its paucity of government regulation--which bred speculation, corruption, and corporate chaos throughout the country. The Great Los Angeles Swindle exposes the schemes of C. C. Julian and his Julian Petroleum Corporation, known familiarly to thousands of Los Angeles residents as Julian Pete, thanks to Julian's folksy weekly newspaper ads. The Julian Pete swindle ranked with Teapot Dome as one of the great scandals of the era and symbolized the failure of 20s boosterism and speculation. Here is a saga of the roaring twenties, with its glorification of business, its get-rich-quick mentality, and its paucity of government regulation--which bred speculation, corruption, and corporate chaos throughout the country. The Great Los Angeles Swindle exposes the schemes of C. C. Julian and his Julian Petroleum Corporation, known familiarly to thousands of Los Angeles residents as Julian Pete, thanks to Julian's folksy weekly newspaper ads. The Julian Pete swindle ranked with Teapot Dome as one of the great scandals of the era and symbolized the failure of 20s boosterism and speculation.

Do you dream of doing something awesome, big or small towards a Great Life, anything indeed, but when you try to motivate yourself into actually getting off your burgeoning ass and taking some kick-ass action, nothing happens, zilch? Somehow, for some damn reason you can't identify, your motivation always fails to show up for the party? Goes AWOL? There's a strong chance it's never your true dream you're chasing, but some swindling parasitic desire foisted on you - in short, you've been swindled, you're a casualty of The Great Motivation Swindle. Too many great people are failing to achieve the success and Great Life they could be living and it seems to be assumed that this is a natural state of affairs and there is little that can be done about it. So what do you do if you find it harder to get motivated than a shark at a salad bar? If you're feeling more demotivated than an albino in a heatwave? What happens is you turn to self-improvement. But the killer is that this industry is largely just putting out the same swindling message as society, more and more dressed up in pseudo 'science' and psychological jargon. The mountains of motivational literature, images and quotes that are designed to get you fired up enough to get going and kick some ass, are in fact doing the oh so opposite: rather than motivating ordinary people to get out there and chase down some sweet dream, they are demotivating them or worse still, encouraging the swindleous practice of substituting some other bastard's aims and desires for yours. So what's the alternative? The alternative is a Revolution. A Revolution for the Common Man. A Revolution where you buck the swindle and the whole concept of 'self-improvement', replace all the corrosive crap in your head with your own unique desire and motivation to pursue your own happiness and go grab whatever the hell you want, as you. The book also includes 19 Motivational Rules for the Common Man