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the gunnery exam after a long weekend of cramming.
Hypomanics are driven to call attention to themselves.
Faced with this stunning display of power, the rebels could do little but watch, with the exception of Hamilton, who yelled, “
Washington learned from his mistakes and began leading his troops like the guerrilla army they were.
cannonball that decapitated a portrait of the King of England.
He would periodically break down physically after superhuman exertions of energy into illness or an exhausted “
can recall no time when I did not love stories of glorious deeds, or have dreams of traveling the world in search of fame.
“This was the closest thing to a family Hamilton ever had,
Hamilton was notorious for being successful in bedding the ladies.
Hamilton’s overweening ambition was caused by “a superabundance of secretions which he could not find enough whores to draw off.
“chained to the desk’s dead wood.
Even to his friends Hamilton appeared to straddle the boundary of bold and suicidal.
“life was just a coin to purchase fame.
A compulsion to take risks is another classic sign of hypomania.
often evidenced “egregious errors in judgment that left even his keenest admirers aghast.
Brilliant creativity and gross lapses in judgment often have shared roots in hypomania.
Everyone’s morale was low, but Hamilton’s was closer to suicidal.
“I hate Congress—I hate the army—I hate the world—I hate myself.
Hamilton was in intolerable pain and felt he had to do something.* Action made him feel better—even if it took the
During the war, Hamilton had been privately collecting and reading economics books.
This ability to infect others with enthusiasm is an essential component in charismatic leadership.
He rode at such a fast pace that he exhausted his horse and had to switch it for another. Once home, he collapsed and was very sick for two months.
Just as he dreamed of glory and power, he wished nothing less for America.
In his notes he often couldn’t finish a sentence without starting a second and then a third—evidence that a flight of ideas strained his ability to think clearly.
America would never have had an executive branch “had not the members cast their eyes towards General Washington as President;
Originally, the letters were to be published twice a week. Hamilton vowed to double the pace. “Let any anti-Federalist try to match that output. None did, but the effort nearly killed
The clerk he had sent to America for an education—just sixteen years ago—had led the charge to create a nation. What must Cruger have been thinking that day? The bastard did all right.
Today, the world trusts U.S. Treasury bonds more than any other financial instrument short of cash
Jefferson complained to Madison that Hamilton was single-handedly outpublishing their whole organization. “He is a host unto himself,” replied Madison in defense.
The ability to work on little sleep is one of the more concrete diagnostic criteria for hypomania.
“Instead of being forced or fostered by public authority it [manufacturing] ought to be seen with regret,”
“That he could ever fail in life, that any possible ambition could not be achieved—such doubts never entered Carnegie’s mind,”
“he preferred to have two spoons going at once.”
“The prospect of want had become to me a frightful nightmare.”
Carnegie’s ambition was gargantuan from the start.
To better discharge his duties, he spent his evenings memorizing every street, every firm, and every businessman in Pittsburgh.
He would become an infamously ruthless competitor, who used cutting-edge technology to destroy his rivals with the ferocity of an avenging William Wallace.
“The rising man must do something exceptional, and beyond the range of his special department. HE MUST ATTRACT ATTENTION.”
Carnegie had mastered the ability to transcribe letters directly from sounds—one of only a handful of people in the country who could do so at the time.
“future millionairedom seemed to be dawning.”
The only bad thing Carnegie could say about America was that slavery was “the greatest evil in the world.” He declared himself to be an “ultra-abolitionist.”
“In less than a year, he had achieved complete familiarity with the most sophisticated railroad operation in America.”
Hypomanics have a hidden talent which is integral to their success. They have an uncanny ability to make other people feel good about themselves.
gave me my first penny of revenue from capital—something I had not worked for with the sweat of my brow. ‘Eureka!’ I cried. ‘Here is the goose that lays the golden eggs.’”
he pushed his men almost as hard as he pushed himself, which is to say “full throttle every minute.”
In a few years Carnegie had parlayed his borrowed $500 into more than $400,000, one of the largest fortunes in America.
Finance was the mere manipulation of paper and people. It didn’t contribute anything of worth to the world.
“Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch the basket”
Great entrepreneurs often do not create original ideas—they grasp the significance of an idea, wherever it comes from, and leap on it with everything they have.
Behind every successful hypomanic entrepreneur there stands a long-suffering person of normal temperament who must counterbalance and compensate for his excesses. Tom was the human shock absorber.
