All right. Well, we moved sides now. I’m looking at the other side of my bed. My bed’s not made, whatever, you can criticize me later. I don’t really care. Okay. So let’s look on this side. Let’s see what we got. Now, since I am in North Carolina and if you didn’t know anything about NASCAR and moonshine, the works, the Appalachian mountains is synonymous with moonshine and NASCAR. I was born in Asheville, which is literally on the mountains and right now I’m in Charlotte, which they have the one at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, but even more important, they have the NASCAR Hall of Fame. So I say all that because I seen this book right here. Ed Otto, NASCAR’s Silent Partner. All right. Well let’s see what he did for the benefit of NASCAR.
That’s Ed Otto right there, silent partner. All right. My eyes aren’t working. I can’t read it through the phone, my eyes, it’s all blurry.
NASCAR comes knocking, racing ahead, a Yankee sport. Yeah because it’s all from the south. How was it a Yankee sport on the south? Look at this guy, look, we all know him. If you don’t, that’s P.T. Barnum from Barnum and Bailey’s.
Wait a minute now. I know we’re supposed to go to the north or whatever, but I just wanted to… The honest swindler, what is he even talking about? Swindler, an honest swindler, that’s what Ed Otto liked to call himself. It was a fitting expression and a common saying for a man who came of age in 1920s. How old is this guy? My goodness. We’re talking about the 20s, that looks like the 60s. Swindlers, in his mind, were the greatest showman on earth, they were the ultimate con man as in confident man, crooks, but in the playful sense of the word. They were guys who practiced shameless promotions, were good at giving people what they didn’t even know they wanted and could hoodwink with the best of them. They were masters of the hype who knew what the public would pay good money to see crazy things. He would also use the word swindle to describe a deal in progress. Wow. I’m almost going to… Screw the, this is a northerner’s sport. I like this one. This is interesting. He already got me here. He is an honest person, he’s like, I like a swindler.
The schmooze, a smooth talker, Otto was skilled in the art of schmooze and always maintain a pocket full of body jokes that he doled out when the time was right. Okay. Yeah. You got to learn a little bit about this guy. This is a nice… The savvy. Savvy part of Ed Otto understood the workings of the business world. How to spend money to make money, how to manage people, orchestrate logistics, solve problems, pay attention to trends, spot an opportunity and seize it. Okay. Yeah. This is going to be the soft touch. So this is all about sales and marketing. Okay. We’re done right here.
What was this guy like? I don’t know if they’re talking about Otto because I just picked something. What was the man like? He had brains, courage, perseverance, resilience, tenacity, humility, humor, energy, passion, and discipline. Strong sense of confidence and integrity, was downright unshakeable, people trusted him, he could keep secrets with an absolute clarity of right and wrong. Ed Otto did not come across as a hungry man, he was not easily intimidated. Interesting.
I mean, I know we were supposed to learn about how it was the northerner’s sport, but he kind of caught me on an honest swindler. Right. I saw P.T. Barnum and it was over, had I understand more. But I do like what he was saying. I mean, he’s talking about like a con man, but this is 1920 so that’s like a hundred years ago. So the perception of people and the perception like the names that we use people can change. He’s sitting there literally saying an honest swindler. When you think of a swindler, you don’t think of anything honest, you think of everything is like dishonest person. But the way that he’s saying, he said that he enjoyed the swindler, he’s even basically saying that P.T. Barnum was a con man. Today when we think of con man, we think of like a negative person, let’s send to jail but what he’s basically saying is the con man has the ability to give the crowd what they want because they can confidently manipulate your feelings for their benefit. It’s interesting because when we think about it today, like we have all the gurus and everything like that and by his definition, they’re honest swindlers. Can’t wait to read more, that’s going to be fun. The little excerpt, or whatever, notes then on this one should be interesting and insightful for all. Excuse me.