Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can is the story of how Frank Abagnale, one of the most famous con-artists in history, faked over eight identities, several professions, and cashed over $2.5 million of forged checks in the 1960s, until the police finally caught him at age 21.

Why would anyone become a con-artist as early as age 16? Sure, Frank Abagnale was an extreme case, but how did he end up with this “career choice?” I believe it comes down to this: Being a spoiled child, Frank Abagnale never had a chance to learn the value of hard, honest work.

Growing up, his dad had a successful business, and would always secretly give Frank extra money. He even got him a credit card and a cool car. However, not having earned any of this for himself, Frank didn’t know how hard his father had to work for all these things. He only saw the gap between his part-time warehouse clerk salary and the things he wanted: money for gas and taking beautiful girls out to dinner.

Naturally, he did the only thing he knew: take a shortcut.

But eventually, that shortcut became his way of life. Initially pulling off most his credit card, check and pilot scams to impress women, at some point he turned this means into an end. But no means works forever, so when you define yourself entirely by the one way you’re used to doing things, it’s only a matter of time until you’ll take a serious fall.

And that’s exactly what happened to Frank…

…but not for a while. It took national and international police five long years to catch Frank, because he was really good at one thing: lying. However, the longer you lie, the bigger your construct of false statements gets and the harder it becomes to maintain. For example, Frank had a notebook with very detailed notes about airline insider phrases, technical data, names, profiles and even phone numbers of people he’d met, just to make sure no other pilots or aircraft personnel could see through his ruse. Every time he took a deadhead flight – an empty seat in the cockpit for a fellow pilot, traveling to another airport for business – to get around, he’d had something to talk about with his “colleagues,” such as optimal altitude levels, fuel consumption or even a joke about a fellow pilot. While that made others believe he was a real pilot, this kind of lying gets exhausting quickly, because you have to keep track of exactly which lie you’ve told who forever and always. When you speak the truth, it’s still the truth five years later, so if someone else asks you about the…