I’m sitting in Starbucks – having been chased out of my home, my first choice for a comfortable place to work and drink coffee – and twenty minutes ago I was amazed at how many people come here to conduct business.
Now I am amazed that apparently nobody comes here to conduct legitimate business. Maybe its legit in a legal sense but it’s business I would be ashamed to tell my mom I was in.
Listen, if you’re reading this and you don’t know it already, ALL MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING SYSTEMS ARE SCAMS. They are essentially envelope stuffing systems with more complexity. They are pyramid schemes that manage to stay on the right side of the law through a baloney dodge of having a legitimate product line in parallel with the nonsense that happens on the layer that does the recruiting.
If you’re not sure you understand how these things work well enough to identify them and not fall for them, here’s the simple test: ANY ’employment’ scheme that (a) promises you huge money easy and quick and (2) wants YOU to pay THEM up front is certainly designed to make money… for the people selling that material. You, on the other hand, will be pushed to attend paid seminars or buy materials to “help” you better sell and add people beneath you.
In the case of the scheme I had to listen to (hey thieves – INSIDE voices, dudes, INSIDE voices – your mark is 2 feet from you, those of us across the room don’t need to hear you), recognize that someone who spends ten minutes telling you they “can’t spend forty-five minutes answering your every question” is full of bull. That “Informational Session” they want you to come to is just setting you up to talk to the more experienced closer.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
