Thank you reddit. I was almost a huge sucker for a pyramid scheme.
I was at a coffee shop the other day doing some stuff on my computer and this guy sitting next to me asks me some questions about what I'm doing, how long I've lived in Colorado, etc. and then talks about this "asset" he's building. He then goes into detail about how he's building this asset to eventually reach financial freedom, become a millionare, whatever, but never actually mentions what it is. Then he starts telling me that I seem like a really ambitious person and if I would be interested in potentially being mentored by the same person who is teaching him how to build this asset. Being the 20 something new professional I am, I think "Hey this sounds great. I don't want to work this job forever! I want to create a passive income asset and be a millionare!
So we meet for a coffee a few days later and bells have yet to ring in my head that this is some sort of pyramid scheme. We have a sort of interview where he asks me if I'm more of a process or outcome focused person, who I would ask for advice when starting a franchise, etc. Then he compliments my answers as being better than his when he was starting out, and I feel very flattered like the sucker I am. He even makes it a point to explain how what he's offering is not a pyramid scheme in any way haha. We then set up another meeting to discuss the details of the "business" his mentor runs further and then he gives me this book to read called 'The Business of the 21st Century'. I read about 30 pages of it and it was basically talking about this thing called Network Marketing that has made the author wildly successful.
Anyways, I'm reading this book at the same coffee shop we had the interview at, literally at the same table, when about 30 pages in the author mentions that he partnered with Donald Trump in order to write the book 'Why We Want You to Be Rich' and I thought wait, Donald Trump? This doesn't exactly console me on the legitimacy of this book (If you support Donald Trump I apologize, but I am very skeptical of him as a businessman, and this honestly was the thing that made me skeptical of this whole situation). So I do a quick search on the book and all this stuff about how this book is part of a pyramid scheme comes up and I think "Fuck. I'm so stupid." I was laughing my ass off reading this post because it was almost the exact same experience I had. Literally the exact same things this person wrote happened to me like the whole 'process oriented' or 'outcome oriented' thing the guy who interviewed me asked me.
Anyways, don't be a sucker, and be careful. And thank you reddit. I don't think I've ever loved this website more than this day because it sure saved me a hell of a lot of headache, bullshit, and potentially wasting a lot of time and money.
Submitted January 21, 2018 at 07:39PM by apathetic_buddhist http://ift.tt/2G0RStl
