A lot of us have asked what motivates RB when he doesn't appear to make a lot of money from his (alleged) cons looking at the meagre life he appears to live? I know it may be that it has funded his travel and potentially paid for properties, but my interest piqued when I heard part of an interview with psychologist and author, Dr Maria Konnikova who wrote 'The Confidence Game' among other books, she also the host of a podcast The Grift about con artists and the lives they ruin.
The Grift on Apple Podcasts
These are her words on the ABC Unravel podcast Snowball (Ep 7) with Ollie Ward.
When Ollie met Lezlie - ABC listen
I thought this was a very interesting analysis.
MK was asked what motivates the con when people don't get away with a lot of money. She said
"That is not at all uncommon, I think it' s a huge misperception among the public that con artists are motivated by money, I really think that's not it at all because for the most part con artists don't make a lot of money and are incredibly intelligent and could've made much more money in more legitimate professions. So I don't actually think it's about financial gain at all, I think that why they do it is power. They're motivated in the sense of power over other people, control over other people's lives, the idea that they're shaping other people's reality in a way that they want to shape it. This is something that can be incredibly intoxicating, and I think that that feeling of power is actually one of the reasons that con artists are more often than not, and by more often than not I mean like in 90% of cases, true con artists are repeat offenders and given the opportunity to go straight (so to speak) they don't take it, they won't take it even though they say they will and they want to because they're always driven back to that and they are unable to let go of that rush of power over other people. I mean it is intoxicating if you think about it, you're playing God, you're controlling other people's lives, you're crafting their realities, you're creating entire worlds and people believe you."