One of the newsletters I subscribe to is Perry Marshall’s (www.perrymarshall.com). His specialty is Google AdWords, Guerilla Marketing, and other misc. marketing techniques.
Recently, he told the story of an email he recieved. A man wrote to him and said, basically, “I need to make $5,000 real fast.” He promised to buy a $50 book if Perry thought he could make $5,000 real quick.
Whatever, dude.
Perry’s response: “Sorry . . . can’t help you. If you want to spend your life wandering the ghettos of the Internet, be my guest. But don’t blame me if you get stabbed by a heroin addict.”
—–
Wait. Doesn’t Perry promise great results? Yes. Of course he does.
But the guy wants a two-step process: Buy book, make $5,000. Or maybe a three-step process: Buy book, place ads, make $5,000.
What’s missing? WORK! And a product or service. In other words, there needs to be a meaningful, valuable product. Otherwise, you’re just working on some scam to take peoples’ money and give nothing in return.
Make money stuffing envelopes — telling people how to make money (stuffing envelopes).
It is sad, but there really are people out there who want to invest some tiny bit of money and make a fortune with little or no work on their part. These are the people who want to take a pill to lose weight, and who buy hair in a spray can.
I’m a big believer that people work too much and accomplish too little because they lack focus on what’s important, what their goals are, and where to find their chosen path.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in hard work. Any goal worth achieving is worth working hard for.
Whenever the news is filled with stories of people getting ripped off by some flim-flammery, I hear people saying “Tsk. Tsk. How could anyone fall for that?” The answer is simple:
There’s a human tendency to want to get something for nothing. Most people learn that that’s not true. But most of them are still tempted. Over and over we hear the addage “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
The internet is probably everyone’s favorite productivity tool. But it is also a tool that breaths new life into old get-rich-quick schemes. Now, instead of trying to rip off one person at a time, you can attempt to rip off millions.
And some people take it even a step further: They go looking for get-rich-quick schemes. They look for ways to make a quick buck with no work and almost no investment.
In other words, as Perry says, they troll the ghettos of the Internet. And, yes, the inevitable result is that one day they will be ripped off by their own greed.
It is much better to take all that effort and put it into creating a real product, a real service, and working hard to make your dreams come true.
For a related article, see The Fred Flintstone-Ralph Cramden School Of Success.
