00:01 Have you ever noticed in your life that some people seem to have a lot of good luck and others, you know, seem to have well, a lot of bad? This is not your imagination. And it's really not a bad thing either because it's just showing that your perception antennas are perhaps just a bit more sensitive than others. Hello, my name is Ernest.

00:23 Welcome. And what I talk about in this series are the unfortunate consequences of ignoring one of the greatest abilities you naturally possess, perception. So with no ado, let's dive right in. Do you know someone who's foolish? I'd be willing to wager you probably do. And I'm not a betting man.

00:48 Hello, this is Ernest. Welcome. One of the greatest things about creating an advanced perception is that you're seldom, if ever, bored. Because while others may mock or laugh at you for not seeing the obvious, those with advanced perception see what all the others obviously don't. In this case, when we're talking about an interaction with fools, advanced perception is profoundly important because this situation is a case of the old saying, who really is the greater fool.

01:29 The fool or the one who follows the fool. Sometimes though, appearances are deceiving and not as simple and straightforward as it seems. You see, if you notice someone in your social circle that keeps the company of a fool, especially if keeping that company continuously causes problems for that person, any reasonable person would ask why such a relationship even exists.

02:02 And here's the not so obvious answer to that question, their fragile self-image and ego. You know, it's absolutely amazing to me to witness the lengths of what people will do in order to support or boost their ego. Have you ever witnessed that personally, especially if they have a fragile self-image? This is exactly the same reason a group of several women will go out on the town or go clubbing in the parlance of our times will usually have one woman in that group that is somehow deficient.

02:47 She may be fat. She may not be very attractive or at least compared to her company. But her job, whether she's aware of it or not, is to boost the ego of the other women in the group. And this is nothing new. It goes back centuries and probably always has been the case. Court gestures or otherwise known as the king's fool are very well documented dating back into antiquity.

03:20 But what many people don't realize is this relationship is a very dysfunctional two-edged sword. Because more often than not, the one that is using the fool for ego gratification is actually the one that can find themselves in some very serious and unpleasant circumstances. Allow me to give you a true life example from my personal past.

03:50 exactly as it happened. Back in the 80s, I was a bit of a social butterfly, you might say. As a matter of fact, it was pretty much a requirement if you wanted to make any money in the entertainment business of Hollywood. your personal feelings about someone, no matter how much a scumbag or personally revolting to you they may have been, you had to kiss their ass and play nice.

04:19 And practically all of them also knew that. So it was this intricate game masked by pleasantries and superficial concerns. Yet most of the time it was still rotten to the core and just about anyone working in Hollywood knew that. I was visiting the home of a then well-known producer.

04:45 I won't use their real name, but let's call him Roy. Discussing potential production work when I spotted her. This incredibly hot woman basking in the sun by the pool. Now, when I say hot, bear in mind I had seen quite a few beautiful California women up until that point. But realizing that I had been jaw-dropped gazing at her for far longer than I should have, I came to my senses realizing this was probably his girlfriend or even wife.

05:22 So, I awkwardly turned to Roy, trying my best to appear nonchalant, and began to ask, "So, Roy, is this your He cut me off laughing just a bit. Wife?" "No, that's Betty, the pool girl. Would you like to meet her?" My hypersexualized early 20s thought was, "Yes, I would absolutely love to meet her." M E A T.

05:52 So I responded to Roy with yes, I would like to meet her. M E T. To which Roy responded, sure, I'll introduce you right now. And then he took me out to meet her by the pool. He introduced me. Then in a bit of a strange manner, he said, "You guys go ahead and talk for a minute or two.

06:16 I'm going to go make some drinks. I'll call you when I'm done. I want to pick up where we left off, Ernest. So, please come right when I call. Okay. Well, that minute or two went by very quickly. And just as Roy requested, I bid Betty farewell with the usual pleasantries, and I noticed she simply said bye and was mildly giggling.

06:42 It just seemed a bit odd. So Roy had made us some cosmopolitans, which I must say, even after all these years, I remember being very good. Just before breaking back into our previous business conversation, just out of curiosity, I asked Roy how old Betty was. He said she was 24. I remember saying to him, "Christ, if that's what your pool girl looks like, Roy, I guess I couldn't even imagine your house cleaner." He just laughed a little.

07:19 "So, you really liked that, huh?" "Indeed, I did," I responded. "Well, we can talk about Betty later, but let's get back to this deal we were just discussing. Now that I've told you this true tale from my past, I'm going to tell you what happened to Roy as a consequence of his relationship with his pool gal, Betty.

07:44 But before I do that, ask yourself if you think you can piece together what I'm going to tell you before I actually do. You may be really surprised. And just so you know, this story was never in the news. As a matter of fact, there's a hell of a lot that takes place in Hollywood that you never hear about and probably never will.

08:13 And this story is one of them. So, I guess it was about 2 or 3 months later that I was having lunch with a film production associate named Jackie, who also knew Roy and consequently knew Betty as well. And he told me what was to become a bombshell. Jackie was a nononsense kind of guy. He knew the business and I like the way he did business.

08:40 Jackie informed me that despite her incredible beauty, she was also incredibly foolish and the only thing truthful about that relationship was that she actually was the pool girl and she was 24. But what was going on was that Roy had convinced that beautiful fool that he could get her into the movies through his connections if she would provide certain services for some of his clients.

09:16 And according to Jackie, it was a well-known secret. When Jackie told me this, I immediately remembered the words of SE Moore. The secrets of fool keeps are written down in an open book. As soon as I heard this, I told everyone in my business circles to cut Roy off and have no further association with him or Betty. I wasn't blaming Betty for any of this.

09:45 But even so, it became obvious to me that Betty wasn't the brightest candle in the candle opera. She was a very foolish woman. And anyone foolish, be they man or woman, should be avoided like the plague, even a woman who's as hot as the sun. In the end, it was Royy's insatiable ego gratification by using a fool that he could control as a willing puppet that was his downfall.

10:16 independent of the wheels that I had sat in motion after my conversation with Jackie where I had told everyone in my business circles to avoid Roy like the plague as well as Betty. Betty had shed some of those secrets with a woman she had recently met who she thought was really nice.

10:41 What she didn't know was that woman was a news reporter and the story she had coaxed out of Betty was going to boost her career big time. The very short and not so sweet, Betty moved to a foreign country and eventually disappeared. Roy ended up losing everything he had and ended up fleeing the country. Wanted for multiple counts of federal charges, but successfully avoided extradition by taking his own life in Argentina.

11:18 I'd like to finish by just saying this. Anytime you observe a situation involving a foolish person, remember that every puppet has a puppet master. And what drives the puppet master is an insatiable ego. And what feeds that insatiable ego is the fool. Which of course brings us back to the original question full circle.

11:46 Who really is the greater fool? The fool or the one who follows the [Music] fool? And speaking of fools, don't you be a fool. Make certain you subscribe and hit that notification bell because you, not being a fool, understand that doing so really does help the channel grow and that is very much appreciated. Until next Monday or Friday, this is Ernest and I usually always am.