Why would a real millionaire bother to tell us their secrets?
Today's Adventure in the Biz Opp Jungle:
'In which Charlie answers one of the big objections you
may have when you read a pitch from yet another
millionaire guru.'
Hi,
The letterbox clatters and an envelope drops onto your
doormat.
"Aha," you think, "This looks like another mail order offer."
You open up the letter to see a bloke beaming out at you. In
the background are palm trees. He's sipping a cocktail. There's
a photo further down of his country pile in Devon.
Quickly, you realise this is a letter from a self-made millionaire.
He's offering to show you the amazing secrets he has
discovered.
And really, he stumbled upon these secrets. It was an amazing
overnight transformation.
Because the truth is, he was once a lowly under-achieving
nobody. He wore rags. He couldn't afford to wash his own
face. He could barely scrape through to the next month's
payday. His bedroom window looked out directly onto the
back wall of a public toilet. He made his living on a production
line, picking hair-balls and rodent's feet out of cheap pasties.
When he tried to talk to a woman, he'd get slapped. Literally,
people would punch him in the face repeatedly, just for
existing.
But look at him now!
He's on a yacht!
He has a pretty Japanese wife!
His office looks out onto fields....yes, FIELDS, I tell you!
Now, even if you don't believe the back-story... or at least
you're unconcerned with the back-story... you decide to
accept that this guy is super-rich.
You're interested in how he makes this money. Because he
looks like a bit of a dweeb, so perhaps anyone can do what he
does.
Fair enough.
But that's when you get whammed in the face by an almighty
objection....
"Why would a real millionaire bother to tell us their most
prized secrets?"
One of my readers put it perfectly in an email to me a few
weeks ago...
"It's common sense that if an individual has a system or
scheme to produce overnight millionaires that, unless he has
used up the potential of that system, why would he flog it to you
or me for £20, £100 or even £5000? Why not just run the system
himself?
Most of these guys get rich not from walking the walk but from
talking the talk."
If you've been wondering the same thing, then let me offer my
own insight...
In some instances, the truth is that the millionaire is a
millionaire because he tells people the secrets of becoming a
millionaire.
And if he stopped telling people the secrets of how to become
a millionaire, he wouldn't be a millionaire any more.
Now, it depends on how you feel about this....
Because obviously, this way of making money does work. The
few people who can successfully follow what these guys do
can literally transform their wealth. I've seen it happen.
Of course, this success is funded by the thousands of people
who buy the same system, yet fail. It's a brutal Darwinian
process with a small percentage of survivors dominating the
rest.
I'm not going to be judgemental about this moral issue. I'll let
you make your own mind up.
It's down to whether you're a hungry shark, or a mellow and
fragile fish.
In other instances, the truth is that the individual isn't a
millionaire at all. They're "quite successful" and while they make
money from their home business, they want to make an extra
source of revenue from selling their secrets.
In this case they've let an over-keen copywriter beef up their
achievements in the sales letter. Or they feel that's how they
HAVE to advertise themselves. They're caught up in the "brag
culture" of direct marketing.
To my mind, this shows a lack of confidence. And it's
unnecessary. Because I don't think intelligent types like
yourself NEED or DEMAND that the person selling their
blueprint is a millionaire. Just that the system is genuine and
workable.
This old "look at my massive yacht!" style promotion should
have died out by now. But it lingers on. And on and on...
In the cases I've described above, I accept there may be more
"talking the talk" than "walking the walk".
But this isn't true in all cases. If it were, I'd have packed up the
Biz Opp Jungle years ago, driven to a beach, and swam out
into the ocean in my clothes, never to return.
The exceptions that make it all worthwhile
Many people who turn their experiences and ideas into
blueprints, seminars or courses DON'T claim to be millionaires.
They don't rely on phony "rags to riches" stories. They don't
pretend success came instantly, overnight, without any effort.
And their businesses are real, stand-along enterprises that
don't require them to pose as gurus.
For instance, as you know, I have a biz opp product called The
Inbox Tycoon which shows people how to set up an affiliate
email marketing business. (See:
www.bizoppjungle.com/cashgenerator)
You could ask me: "Why bother telling others if you're so
successful?"
The reason is, as I've always said, the key to making money is
having lots of income streams. I have helped set up many
other email businesses and websites as described in my
manual (outside and beyond the Biz Opp jungle). These aren't
based on telling people how to make money. They cover
alternative health, pain relief, food, health & beauty, computers
and money matters.
The business model is transferable to other types of niche,
and not just biz opp. It doesn't require people to become biz
opp entrepreneurs. It doesn't continue the madness of
marketers telling marketers how to market to marketers.
By selling my insights and strategies in a manual, I also get a
nice little income stream to boot.
I'd be missing an opportunity if I didn't, right?
Of course, the difference was that I didn't pretend there was
any rags-to-riches miracle. Or that I am anywhere close to
being a millionaire. I don't have a day job, I can enjoy spending
time with my family, I work for myself.
It's not a bad life!
The perils of the 3 click culture
Unfortunately, the culture of "BIG INSTANT MONEY IN 3
CLICKS OF A MOUSE " promises in many sales pitches give
people a distorted idea of how much money they can make
and how fast this money will appear.
These sales pages are advertising, so they do offer best-case
scenarios.
My view is always that starting a successful business - home
or otherwise - is never easy, never instant, and profits are
never guaranteed.
That said, people DO make money from home. People do
generate extra cash from these projects. It's a shame that stuff
is sold on wild exaggeration and cherry picking, but it's the
culture of direct mail advertising, everyone is trying to outdo
everyone else's promises until you get crazy sales messages
based on imagination, not fact.
The upshot is, there is hope. Some products genuinely are
written by people who have turned a business idea into a
success, and who add another string to their bow by passing
on their knowledge.
In my view, these are the people to follow.
You can check out my website for the latest reviews and all my
past recommendations:
Later Alligator,
Charlie Wright