“Kill Off P.T. Barnum”

In 1855 P.T. Barnum was attracting a world-wide name for himself. He turned a dying dime museum of New York City into the thriving Barnum’s American Museum, the Disneyland of the day. He wrote his autobiography and saw it become a bestseller. He created General Tom Thumb and entertained royalty with him. But not everyone loved Barnum’s success. In 1855 someone wrote an article titled, “How to Kill Off Barnum”. Here it is:

As you can see, the strategy of the unknown writer was to cut off Barnum’s success by keeping him out of the newspapers. The ironic thing is, the article appeared on the front page of a newspaper. Here it is:

Obviously, this “strategy” was poorly thought out. Not only did it assist Barnum in remaining and maybe becoming even more famous, but the young showman went on to become one of the wealthiest and most well known people in the world. The writer of the article, however, remains completely unknown.

I find this relevant today. Too many people are criticizing others who are achieving success. Instead of focusing on their own goals, they spend their time and energy writing negative posts and reviews. They don’t seem to see that (a) their work isn’t stopping anyone and (2) their work is a distraction from their own calling.

Reading Will Bowen’s new book, Complaint Free Relationships, is helpful. Listening to Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art is also enlightening. Both show that complaining about others is a way to avoid doing your own work.

P.T. Barnum said, “We cannot all see alike, but we can all do good.”

Do something good today.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — My book on P.T. Barnum is There’s A Customer Born Every Minute. It’s at Amazon, in book stores, etc.

Tagged as: Books, joe vitale, P.T. Barnum