Information is scattered everywhere on the internet claiming to hold the secret on how to make money online, offline, or wherever. The question that should bug your mind is: is there really a secret to wealth?
The short and simple answer is “no”.
The only single secret to wealth is “acquiring a skill”. Of course, this is a no-brainer and lots of people don’t want to hear this. But it remains the truth and the only way out.
Right now you may be asking: if acquiring a skill is the only way to wealth, then how about those who made money illegally?
Seriously, do you realize that scamming, drug dealing, robbery, etc., are all skills? In fact, they’re not just skills, but complex ones for that matter. The skill set involved to execute any of these jobs include persuasion, planning, investigation, monitoring, etc.
How? You may ask.
A scammer who is not grounded in the art of persuasion will not succeed at convincing you to part with your money. They also must investigate and assess the market frequently to thoroughly understand what currently works. Imagine if someone tells you to hand over you credit/debit card PIN in order to unblock your account, would you do that? Chances are that you won’t. But this was a technique that worked seamlessly just some few years back when people were yet to realize the dangers of giving out such information. Today, they must use another means which will be more effective, and to determine which method will yield results at present, they must conduct thorough research and run trials. Same applies to any other illegal job, no one wakes up to do them, you must learn first, else you won’t last a week in business. Above all, you must learn to trade cautiously and with confidentiality in order to successfully escape governmental watch. These people have serious acting skills and they master top secrecy.
These are of course the wrong ways to make money, but the point remains that skills are required to carry out any particular task effectively.
Let me let you in on a secret, these people you see everywhere on the internet convincing you that they have the foolproof formula on how to make money online, offline or anywhere if you apply their methods are hiding something from you… Those materials they are selling to you, be them courses, books, etc.., are all simply their own skill set and moneymaking method. Buying those materials makes them money and teaches you nothing new about making money.
When these people try to sell to you, instead of purchasing that material, try to figure out their marketing and advertising technique because that’s their own skill (to sell whatever they hold) and they’re really good at it if they were able to move you to spend money on them. It is different where they’re straightforwardly teaching you a particular skill, or where they’re honestly solving a specific problem for you, e.g., relationship, car fixing, catering, writing, etc.
It’s not possible to teach someone how to make money without teaching them a skill. You must first be taught a skill and then be taught how to make money using that particular skill. Or, where the person already has a skill or talent, you’ll then teach them how to make the best use of that skill so that it’ll make them money. That’s how life works.
When people misunderstand this process, that is when it appears as though their methods don’t work. How would it work when the most vital step was skipped? That is, “skill acquisition or improvement”.
The funny one is when these “business gurus” promise that just one book or course they have prepared is going to solve your money problem no matter your profession or field of business. Let me tell you something that I expect you to already know, no one material can thoroughly deal with money and lead generation in all fields of business, it’s not possible. Yes, it may be useful to an extent, but it should have a target field. This is because how to attract clients as a lawyer cannot be the same way doctors attract patients or writers attract clients and carpenters attract customers, and no one individual will have all these solutions at once because they don’t belong to all these professions at the same time and can’t know how they work from within. In as much as readers who are not writers tell me that they also find my blog useful, but that doesn’t mean I’ll recommend this blog to an engineer. Yes, an engineer may think it’s useful and I’m grateful for that, yet writers remain my major target.
These so called business gurus feed off your vulnerabilites such as the desperation and urgency you feel to make money fast. No, I’m not blaming you. I’ve actually been in your situation before and have taken much more stupid advice from the internet, and that is why these people must be exposed. People such as Wesley Virgin, etc., are good examples. He uses your desperation to make himself some good money by making you his affiliate or luring you to purchase his book with the promise that it’ll teach you how to make money online.
Every business person, even you as a writer, ensure that in business, you deliver as promised. Don’t lure people to purchase something that contains a different thing, no matter the value of that new thing, it definitely isn’t what you promised those buyers and not what they expected, they’ll stop trusting you. This was what happened to Wesley Virgin. His book contains some mindset techniques that could easily be found everywhere on the internet for free, but he sold that book at a whooping sum of money promising that it is all they’ll ever need to become millionaires, and of course that has never worked for anyone no matter how hard they tried. His techniques such as meditation, affirmation, self-acceptance and seeing yourself as someone worthy are all good habits, but only those won’t ever make you a millionaire and definitely not overnight wealth as he promised. That’s why they call him a scammer, but in reality he is actually just a marketing guru. You see, marketing gurus are real predators who know the right bait to feed their prey to get them hooked. Unfortunately, some of these marketers choose lies over truth because it works faster, but they forget that it won’t last, because people will eventually discover your tricks and stay away from you. It is best to learn genuine method and take it slow, eventually people will know you and love you, instead of running from you. Honesty takes time, I won’t deceive you, but it’s the best way because it serves you long term, if you establish yourself as an honest person, people will one day believe you without trying to verify, because they trust that you won’t lead them astray.
These business gurus actually have some serious skill like I mentioned earlier, and that is, “marketing and advertising expertise”. If you must learn from them, this is what you should learn, “how to sell your product to literally anyone who cares”. You need to learn their persuasion skills as well. The art of sugarcoating called “sweet-tonguing” is what they posses and that is the best thing you can learn from them, that is if they know how to pass such knowledge and if they’re willing to do so.
