A lot of people are familiar with Frank Abagnale, probably because of the Steven Spielberg telling of his story in the major motion picture Catch me if You Can. It’s a fascinating story for sure (even without the Hollywood embellishments), and worth watching if you haven’t seen it already.
But Abagnale has a deeper story that’s worth hearing, and he tells us some of it in this video. If you have time to watch the whole thing, it would be time well-spent. His perspective on fathers and families is especially touching, and the fact that he still thinks so fondly of his father despite never seeing him again after his parents’ divorce (unlike what you see in the movie) shows you how deeply the man’s model of fatherhood affected him in his childhood.
Even more though, while the story he tells turns out better than the movie, Abagnale’s experience working fraud for the FBI from the time where the movie left off is perhaps even more important. It is from that experience that the response he gives to a question asked at about the 37:30 mark in the video is quite remarkable. His perspective on credit and debit cards is eye-opening, and the solution he used when his sons went off to college is excellent and should be seriously considered by every parent. Everything he says in answer to that question is advice that needs to be heard.
And to finish it off, the last few minutes (starting around 59:00) talking about cyber going “black” is especially sobering and should be given serious consideration by leaders at the highest levels worldwide. On a related note, he concludes with an issue that is being overlooked because of our insatiable desire for everything to be high-tech and cutting-edge: requiring companies to address how their products can be exploited in the new cyber-world before mass-production and placement in our homes is an idea that has to happen. It’s either that, or those who want to be safe should study up on pioneer living and just dump the tech.
This is a good video and worth the viewing. Even more so, the advice is worth the taking…