WHY SELF-HELP BOOKS DON'T WORK (and how to make use of them)

[@RaysDad]

Instead of self-help books I've been reading French novels from about 150 years ago. They had an interesting approach to success back then. A young woman, often in her teens, would marry a highly successful man who was several decades older. With his money she would establish a beautiful home, provide well for their children, and pursue her personal interests. Then she would start taking young lovers, find one she especially liked, and become his devoted mistress. By then she would be spending little time with her husband (who probably had a mistress or two of his own) and much more time with her true love. For men it was the reverse: while young take an older married mistress, start a career with some of her money, and a few decades later marry a teenager. None of the self-help books counsel readers to follow this path, so I thought I'd present it here.

[@AnnaFitz]

As much as I laughed a lot with your inspirational 18th century French success stories, unfortunately, it was only available to a very small percentage of people, so you need to be born into a wealthy family as a first step - and that's not a guarantee :)