People often make serious mistakes because they took the wrong advice. If you look back on your life, you will see that many failures and losses were the result of implementing bad advice. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind before you take advice that you should be avoiding at all costs:
1. Outdated Advice:
“Look at me,” purrs the seminar leader, “I’m rich because I invested in real estate in Florida. Do what I did, and you’ll get the same results.” Fine, except that the real estate market, the money situation, laws, mortgages, and a host of other things have changed dramatically in the past eight years since the guru made some money. And did he make his money in real estate, or in the seminars he’s been running to teach others how to do it? The same goes for Internet Marketing, foreign exchange scams, investments, and on and on.
2. Motive:
What does the presenter of the advice have to gain or lose when you accept his advice? What is his vested interest and agenda?
3. Authentic Knowledge:
How do you know this person advising you actually has the authority and insight to offer you good advice? At the end of many of the talks and seminars I present, I have people slithering up to ask me if they can give me some “Constructive Criticism.” I ask them how long they have been presenting seminars, how many people they have spoken top in the past 23 years, and how much money they have made, before they advise me on my presentation. Most of them are passive aggressive losers who wish to castigate me for calling people “fat” or using the word “loser”. Go figure. Someone once said, “Never take advice from someone who doesn’t already have what you want”. I would add, “And make sure they earned it themselves, under the same circumstances you currently face.”
4. Consider the Source.
Consider the source of the advice. A bank manager or a teacher can’t tell you how to get rich – they aren’t making money themselves! Never take advice from people who even are more screwed up than you are. And let me assure you, truly wealthy people will NEVER tell you how much money they have, and they seldom flaunt it. Read “The Millionaire Next Door”. Anyone can put doctored income statements and fake checks on the internet as “proof” of how much money they made. The Internet is a dangerous place; it’s where the worst people hide. You can be anything you like on the Internet.
5. Consider the Setting.
Are you being offered incentives, meals, drinks, and holidays in order to get you to hand over money? Are you getting whipped up into an emotional frenzy and told that if you don’t invest quickly, you will lose? Is there pressure to buy NOW? Are you being wined and dined, patted on the back, and manipulated? Is religion being used? Wake up and smell the coffee.
6. Beware of Statistics.
Be very aware and careful of the use of statistics. Have you heard the one about the river-crossing statistician who drowns after determining that the water is, on average, only three feet deep? This, says author Sam L. Savage, is just one example of the “Flaw of Averages.”
7. Manipulation Tactics.
Be careful of social manipulation, “Group Think”, peer pressure, greed, the use of sex, and quick, but short-term financial relief.
Personally, I have seen enough conmen and scammers to last me a lifetime, and the worst of them appear on seminar stages, behind pulpits, and at Franchise Shows. They come in all guises, always smiling and hugging.
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