All of my life, I have had a suspicion about “passive income”. At one time I sold insurance. The idea with that was if I sold a policy, as long as the customer kept it, I got paid “residuals” in perpetuity.
The reality? The insurance company has about 10 ways to cut you out of that residual income. Leave the company, fail to recertify, don’t get a signature, customer makes a tiny change, like increasing or decreasing coverage. The person you reported to in the chain ultimately got your residual in time, and then their superiors, until it rolled all the way up. So your own team was out to get your income.
That kind of piranha attack on your supposed residual income stream makes me suspicious. When I grew up there were a thousand pyramid schemes. How on earth could everyone be making money in that plan? Multi-level marketing, insurance schemes, investment schemes. All through out the 70s, 80s, 90s, and up to now.
This kind of game or in some cases, ponzi scheme has existed forever. We are seeing it all around us now in the fraud being exposed everywhere. When we stop being suspicios of people’s great money making gambits, we lose. Vigilance, and a healthy skepticism is necessary to prevent getting caught up.
What is the game now? People selling you systems to make money online. No inventory to buy, no referral network, just “trust me, I know what I am talking about.” When someone says “trust me” you should be reaching for your wallet and putting it in the safe. There is no “get rich quick” scheme that ever wasn’t about fleecing YOU of the money you have to invest in the idea.
Understand that reality up front, and then look for the tells. The signs that it is just a scheme. Experts with less than five years of expertise. People lacking in ethics, morals, or concern for the customers. People that identify you as a “mark”. If you feel like the target of a conversation is your wallet, your instincts are right. If you can’t see that, start looking closer.
Somehow our culture has focused so much on money that we are swimming in a pond with sharks. Everyone’s money is tapped so many ways. If you think this article is about one on one schemes, like YouTube for example targeting you with “how to build an audience” it isn’t. It is every referendum you vote on to “help the homeless children”.
At one time, I worked down town Washington D.C. in Dupont Circle. I was selling furniture I was about 22. During that time, a homeless person came in. I was kindly disposed to helping the homeless folks in my neighborhood. They seemed like people that weren’t bad at all. One guy came in and drew an amazing sketch of me for $5. He was an artist that ended up “down on his luck”.
But Jimmy, this gentleman was kind of amazing. He had an entrepreneurial streak unlike anyone I had ever met. He aparently had a house in Virginia, but couldn’t live there because of an ex, and back taxes. So he asked me one day for some colored paper and pens. I was happy to help. He went outside, and did something, and I didn’t see what.
Then, I closed shop, and walked to my car. I found a large can covered in the paper, and a very well written statement was put on the front of it. It said “help the homeless children”. The interesting part was that he had put the can directly out front of a strip club. Every person coming out had small change in their pocket, and an overburdend sense of guilt, along with too much alcohol in their system.
Jimmy emptied that bucked about every hour, and scooped up probably hundreds of dollars that day. He probably took in as much as most of the dancers that day. It didn’t last, the owner of the establishment ended up taking it away. But Jimmy ate well for a few days.
THIS is human ingenuity without ethics. This is how many politicians function, and this is how all too many companies and sales people in the world operate. Once you see it, you realize, there is no way that the world is awash in good intentions. It is in a game of “how can I take your money, and make you happy to give it up”.