exhibit · audio programme · 14 discs
kevin trudeau · 2009
Your Wish
Is Your Command
Fourteen CDs, recorded live in front of a small audience at an undisclosed location in the Swiss Alps, sold for ten thousand dollars, and presented as the manifestation protocol of a secret brotherhood that had never let it out before. Inside is a competently taught course in goal setting, self-suggestion and the psychology of learning, nearly all of which was published between 1910 and 1960 and sits in any public library.
$10,000
the original asking price for the set
14
discs, recorded live in the Swiss Alps
1910
the year the oldest idea in it was published
contents
What is actually on the discs
Stripped of the framing, the course is four things. Two of them are worth your time, one is ordinary, and one has no mechanism behind it at all.
01
The teachability index
Willingness to learn multiplied by willingness to change. If either is zero, so is the product — which is a genuinely good way to explain why people buy courses and nothing happens.
worth keeping
02
The four stages of learning
Unconscious incompetence through to unconscious competence. A standard model from Gordon Training in the 1970s, taught clearly here, and free everywhere.
worth keeping
03
Goals, written and reviewed
Specific, dated, read daily. This is the most evidence-backed thing in the set, and it does not require believing anything about the universe.
ordinary and useful
04
Manifestation and the brotherhood
The claim that directed thought causes external events, wrapped in secret-society provenance. No mechanism, no evidence, and the part the price was attached to.
no evidence
interactive
Ancient secret,
or library book?
Eight ideas taught on the discs as closely held knowledge. For each one, pick who published it first. No trick questions — every answer is a book you can borrow this afternoon.
the seller
The record, in full
This is not a smear and it is not a change of subject. A programme about whether to trust a claim has to include what happened to the people who trusted this one.
matter of public record
1990–91
Two felony convictions — larceny, then credit card fraud. Served close to two years in federal prison.
2004
A federal court order, following FTC action, bars him from making deceptive infomercial claims about products he sells.
2007
Infomercials for The Weight Loss Cure misrepresent what is actually in the book. The FTC returns to court.
2013
A Chicago jury takes about an hour to convict him of criminal contempt for violating the 2004 order.
2014
Sentenced to ten years in federal prison. The civil judgment against him stands at more than $37 million.
2022
Released after serving roughly eight years.
None of that makes the teachability index wrong. It does mean that when this seller tells you a claim has been verified, the verification is the thing to go and check — and that a price of ten thousand dollars was a measure of what secrecy could be sold for, not of what the material is worth.
salvage
Keep the tools, drop the story
There is a version of this course that costs nothing and loses almost nothing. Score your teachability honestly. Learn the four stages so you recognise the effortful middle instead of quitting inside it. Write goals with a number and a date and read them daily — the effect is that you notice matching opportunities and act on them, which is a real and well-documented thing that needs no metaphysics at all. Then read Hill, Nightingale and Maltz, which is where the rest of it came from.
And keep the meta-lesson, which is the most valuable item in the set and was never meant to be part of it: this is what a world-class sales operation looks like from the inside — scarcity, secrecy, provenance, price as proof. You have now seen it fully assembled. You will recognise the next one faster.
community insights
Findings
Our own summary of what the programme teaches and what it leaves out. Vote for the ones worth keeping.
"The teachability index is the one genuinely useful tool in here: your willingness to learn multiplied by your willingness to change. If either is zero, the product is zero."
"The four stages of learning — you do not know what you do not know, then you do, then it takes effort, then it does not."
"The secret brotherhood framing is the sales device, not the content. What is actually taught is Napoleon Hill and Earl Nightingale with a new wrapper."
"Nothing in here needs to cost $10,000. That price is not what the information is worth — it is what scarcity and secrecy can be sold for."
"Specific goals, written down, reviewed daily, with a deadline. The part of the system that survives contact with evidence."
"Trudeau was convicted of criminal contempt in 2013 and sentenced to ten years for lying in infomercials about his own book. He served eight."
"The FTC judgment against him ran to more than $37 million, on top of two felony fraud convictions in the early 1990s."
action steps
Five to set up.
Five to do daily.
Half of these are the working parts of the course. The other half are the habits that would have stopped anyone paying ten thousand dollars for it.
Score your own teachability index
Two numbers out of ten — how willing you are to learn something new, and how willing you are to change what you already do. Multiply them. Under 50 and no course you buy will move anything.
Read the originals instead
Think and Grow Rich (1937), The Strangest Secret (1956), Psycho-Cybernetics (1960). This is where nearly all of it comes from, and they are in every library.
Write your goals with a number and a date
Not 'more money' — an amount and a deadline. The specificity is the part that has evidence behind it, independent of any belief about how the universe operates.
Look up the seller before you buy the system
Search the name plus 'FTC', 'lawsuit', 'settlement'. Five minutes, every time, on any four-figure programme. It would have answered this one.
Set your own price ceiling for information
Decide, now and in the calm, the most you will ever pay for a course. Written down in advance, it survives the pitch. Decided during the pitch, it does not.
Convert one goal into this week's actions
Every week, take one written goal and name the three things you will actually do about it by Sunday. Manifestation without a task list is just a mood.
Review the written goals daily, briefly
Sixty seconds, first thing. The mechanism is not cosmic — it is that you notice opportunities matching what you have recently read. That is a real effect and it needs the daily read.
Notice when scarcity is being manufactured
Secret, limited, closing tonight, members only. Catch it once a day in any advert you meet. The tell is that the pressure is about the sale, never about the work.
Ask what would have to be true
For any big claim: what would have to be true for this to work, and could I check any of it? Applied daily, this is a better filter than scepticism, because it also lets good things through.
Do the boring thing you already know about
The gap is almost never information. Whatever you would learn from a $10,000 course, you are already not doing the free version of it.
“Test the method on its own terms, and test the seller on his. A technique can be useful and the person selling it can still be taking you — those are two separate questions and you are allowed to ask both.”
HourLife distillation
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Frequently asked
What is Your Wish Is Your Command about?
Fourteen CDs recorded in the Swiss Alps and sold for $10,000: the teachability index, the four stages of learning, and a manifestation system presented as the private property of a secret brotherhood. Most of the useful material is a century old and free. The seller was later sentenced to ten years for lying to his customers.
What are the key takeaways from Your Wish Is Your Command?
Readers on HourLife most often highlight ideas such as: “The teachability index is the one genuinely useful tool in here: your willingness to learn multiplied by your willingness to change. If either is zero, the product is zero.” “The four stages of learning — you do not know what you do not know, then you do, then it takes effort, then it does not.” “The secret brotherhood framing is the sales device, not the content. What is actually taught is Napoleon Hill and Earl Nightingale with a new wrapper.”
Who should read Your Wish Is Your Command?
It's a strong pick for readers exploring Become Hard To Manipulate, Marketing & Persuasion, and Money Calm. HourLife distills its core idea into community-voted insights and one practical action worth trying.
What's one thing I can do after reading Your Wish Is Your Command?
Score your own teachability index — Two numbers out of ten — how willing you are to learn something new, and how willing you are to change what you already do. Multiply them. Under 50 and no course you buy will move anything.
How long does it take to read the Your Wish Is Your Command summary?
About five minutes. The HourLife summary distills Your Wish Is Your Command into its core idea, 8 community insights, and 10 practical actions you can apply right away.
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