I hope you enjoyed my April Fool’s apology.  I told you I’m a changed man.  And it’s true.  I’ve said many times that the get-rich-quick guys only get rich off you while you get poorer.

Well, I looked at some of their products and realized I was wrong.  Some DO tell you how to get rich…

..if you’re a sociopath.

Many Get Rich Schemes are Immoral and Illegal

I’ve seen the get rich in real estate guys teaching methods that boil down to tricking little old ladies into giving you their house for a piece of paper.  Another technique I’ve seen in the “get-rich-quick-through-real-estate” is put no money down by lying to banks. Lying to a bank is illegal.  Lying to little old ladies is immoral and might be illegal.  But even if it’s legal, is that any way to get rich?

Or they are teaching you how to find loopholes in the law to do something you KNOW is unethical.  Look no further than Kevin True-dough who was told he couldn’t sell health supplements on TV.  So, what does he do?  He sells a “book” on TV promoting natural cures and then when you read the book it tells you to sign up for his membership web site to find the REAL cures.

He’s not doing anything illegal…unless giving potentially life-threatening bad advice is a crime.  (Is it, yet?)

The sad thing about the “loophole” mindset is that I’ve seen this mentality creep up a lot in personal development books.

How Tim Ferriss Promotes the Schemer Mentality

In a book where I liked a lot of the advice, the Four Hour Workweek, Time Ferriss tells a story about how he became a National Chinese kickboxing champion without knowing how to kickbox.  It seems he found a rule that said if someone steps outside the ring 3 times, they lose by disqualification.

So, what does he do?  He loses weight quickly to go down 2 weight classes.  Then, he gains it all back before the event and simply pushes the smaller guys out of the ring.

Victory through loopholes!!!!!!

Tim Ferriss sounded real proud of himself.  But he should feel ashamed of himself.  Not only did he ruin the event (if it happened at all), but disrespected the other athletes who competed.

However, a lot of scammers think that sort of thing is “awesome”.

It’s the same mentality that cheaters everywhere have.  And most of those business “opportunities” are only helpful if:

1. You are a sociopathic slimeball who rips off people.
2. You think that as long as it legal then it’s OK.

If that’s you, then why are you reading THIS blog?

The Mirror Factor

Most people don’t get rich through these schemes because they ARE ethical people.  They won’t rip off little old ladies.  And they don’t see how they can skirt the law.  They are out to make an honest living.

And the sad thing is when BS gurus tell these ethical people that their ethics (known as negative thinking to the BS gurus) are keeping them from getting rich.

That’s a common tactic. Blaming YOU when THEY are the problem.

Don’t fall for it.  Just because there are a lot of sociopaths out there, doesn’t mean you can be one.  So, if you’re thinking about following some “guru” “coach” or whatever, look past all the “get rich” talk and look at the person himself.  Then ask yourself this:

If you were that guy, could you look yourself in the mirror every morning?