How to Spot A Liar: Tai Lopez Bullshitting
Tai Lopez is a self-help guru pitching products self-development and get rich products.
To sell, he works hard to covertly brag and portray himself as very wealthy and successful.
We had an article on him here, an early TPM article that analyzed some of his persuasion techniques.
This is him in a rather typical "Tai Lopez" setting (and one that has become very popular with various self-help gurus):
Now see if you stop the inconsistency in this video:
Tai Lopez: I was on this airplane back from Europe it was 10 hours to get here London to Vegas and I went you know there's that little area even though I had a lie flat you know but they have that little area where you can have snacks and I don't know if the stewardess thought I was a terrorist or something I was gonna try to like open she kept checking on me like every 20 minutes she's like are you okay do you want to go sit down I'm like no I don't want to sit so I got
Did you catch it?
Spotting inconsistencies is a great way of spotting liars and, in general, manipulators, assholes, takers and... People you don't want close and/or you want to be guarded with.
The inconsistency is this, inconsistent with his private jet above:
I don't know if the stewardess thought I was a terrorist or something I was gonna try to like open she kept checking on me like every 20 minutes
This one tells you that Tai was flying in a commercial plane, and in first or business class (at most).
Tai probably added "even though I had a lie flat" to display wealth and status when he realized his story framed him a little bit too much as a "commoner".
I personally think Tai is wealthy "enough" now.
But if one wanted to be super distrustful, then it would fair to consider that since stewardesses tend to be both (a lot more) trusting and careful around business and first-class travelers, that scene above was a lot more likely to happen in economy than first.
Of course the inconsistency is in relation to the person and the image he seeks to portray.
First and business classes are great.
But it's an inconsistency with Tai's image of an incredibly successful entrepreneur launching a series of businesses doing millions a month -he implies-, writing a book called "the way of the billionaire", and taking endless pictures with supercars and private jets.
I spot a lot of these in real life from various levels of liars.
And it's a great skill.
Learn to look at the inconsistencies, and you will have a very reliable tool to assess people's honesty.
This is also why PU's general stance is:
Tell the truth as much as possible, and be as close to the truth as possible
Even when you look at it purely from an effectiveness point of view, it's generally better for your life and relationships -especially the close one that also tend to be the most important ones-.
It's because the more lies you spin, the more traps you set up for yourself to fall into -and the more opportunities for any good social strategist to devalue you as a lying turkey-.