Shady Schemes

This week I learned some important and hard lessons concerning work, entrepreneurship, and the dangers of desiring to get rich quick and retire early.

I was approached by a man around my age while browsing at an electronics store last week. We chatted and discovered some common interests, among them the goal of becoming an entrepreneur. I was excited to meet somebody who wanted to take life and their financial well-being by the horns just like I do. We got to talking about mentors, and he offered to connect me with a mentor of his who was teaching him entrepreneurial principles.

Later that week, he contacted me and we set a time to meet up so I could meet his mentor and we could get to know each other. It wasn't long before things began to seem fishy. The mentor and my new friend were using flattery quite heavily before we got down to business. As we spoke, they started talking about their desire to retire as soon as possible, not having to work yet continuing to bring in money to support a grandiose lifestyle. They vaguely described their method of achieving this ideal. The gave me a book to read, and I thought I would at least try reading it to see if I can make sense of it all.

Well, half-way through the book things were still clear as mud. It was full of promises, but void of explanation. It didn't take long for me to decide that this method had to be buttered up quite a bit. And, finally, the bomb was dropped. It was an attempt to rope me into a multi-level-marketing scheme. I had a follow-up meeting with those guys and I brought my heavily-annotated book with me. I had noted many contradictions, fallacies, and other critiques all over the pages. I was ready to refuse their "mentorship". I told them I was not interested in MLM, so the mentor said it was apparent that we should not move forward. I asked what they were involved in specifically, and he stated that because I hadn't "earned" his time and shown enough interest, that he couldn't tell me. Right.

The use of flattery has become increasingly alarming to me. This experience is the latest of a handful of such interactions. Flattery, the promise of large sums of money in a short period of time, and vagueness are red flags you should pay attention to if you don't want to find yourself in something shady. 

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