I’ve had a terribly busy week, which is the main reason I’ve been so terribly quiet. I’ve always come home just short of 9pm and – considering that my bedtime’s at 10pm, I have to feed myself, my dogs and my fish in that time, I just haven’t had any time to sit down.
I was looking forward to Thursday evening, because that offered me some relief but then a fellow industry sales rep phoned me and said that she and her husband will come and pick me up to go to a ‘business opportunity’. As all people, I’m pretty frustrated with my job and fed up with the idea that I’m going to have to work for the rest of my life (so cynical, so young) so I thought I’d give it a go.
As it turned out, the presentation was on Network Marketing and as I sat there, I got the sinking feeling that I was going to be pulled into a Pyramid Scheme. The more I sat there – and the more that they denied that it was a Pyramid Scheme, the more dubious it sounded. At first I thought that it was just because I was tired, (very tired and very grumpy) but then I realized that yes, I might be bad tempered and half asleep, but I still have my common sense.
And my common sense told me that this was going to be a Pyramid Scheme – no matter what they say. You have one person at the top – and many people at the bottom (each with people under them) so that forms a Pyramid. Plain and simple.
It was an interesting point of marketing to watch. They told people what they wanted to hear. Everybody wants more time, everybody wants more money and everybody wants to go overseas. I sat there in this audience full of desperate people, looking at those who supposedly have it all and wishing to be them. The thing was that I realized that all the speakers were what I termed ‘shiny’ people. I distrust shiny people especially.
What is a shiny person?
Well. They shine. Their faces are immaculately done (almost to the point of looking like plastic), the women have shiny jewelry, the men have shiny ties and shiny clean shaven faces and everybody have shiny shoes and shiny cars.
Shiny people.
As someone who spends more than half of her time with people covered in dirt, animal errrm and who live in houses covered in dust from the nearby dust roads, I look at these shiny people and shudder. There is something not real about it – something not trustworthy or believable.
And, I feel sorry for the people who fall for it.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that these network marketing schemes don’t work. I’m just saying that you should call a spade a spade and a pyramid scheme a pyramid scheme. The truth is that there is no such thing as easy money and in my experience, easy money often leads to easy problems and easy heartache.
So, if you are one of the people caught up in this marketing ‘business opportunity’ I wish you good luck with earning your hassle free income. Me? I’d rather sit back and try to write my book.
That’s hassle free enough for me.
Alyssa's Blog 