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With tough times ahead, more and more quick rich schemes are appearing on the net. These too have evolved… gone are the days of some bozo-looking email asking you to cash in some money first. Nowadays they may come in the form of quick courses promising a wealth of success, 1-2-3 easy steps to getting instant success, even a "train trainers" angle of approach.

The new wave of scamming all have one thing in common: to empower customers who have little product knowledge, the in-depth insight required to see behind the quick tips and promises, to promote the scheme itself… as trainers. Afterall, what could be more tempting than becoming a perceived expert in literally less than a day, by buying some course or going to some fancy seminar where thousands go to? Crowd size… that does symbolize something, right?

Personally these schemes are big headaches for practitioners like myself, who have been trained, who cannot begin to tell you how damaging these schemes are. And the fight for truth can be messy… because these "trained teachers" hold on to those quick-tips so tightly… they won’t barge and listen. And why should they? They are now experts… and here comes along some guy telling them that what they’re doing… is structurally hollow, based on quick easy tips without holistic understanding, using the latest well disguised fad /trend labelled "Millionaire-Marketing" or what have you. Of course they won’t listen.

And what then stops them in their tracks? Ironically, it’s another of such schemes promising easier, faster, better results… often packaging with ready-made courses and all. So they abandon the previously popularized thingy they’ve been doing… and switch allegiance.. switching ships…

Seemingly still lost at sea.

As far as history and my own experience has taught me, becoming successful has no one-off recipe, but a few are essential:

1. Right conditions (You could call it luck)
2. Hard work
3. Patience
4. Education (From a mentor, teacher, institution, a well guided trainer.)
5. Strategy (This requires an understanding beyond the tips. It requires a discipline of knowing where the tips were derived, when did they work, when should they be applied, when should they be changed and improved)
6. Purpose

The net is now flocked with what I cal "Sincere Scammers". Bright yet ignorant, optimistic yet misguided, they are riding off latest fads and tactics on disciplines that do not require much high-learning on the language side. Which is why you don’t see anything like "3 Easy Ways to Becoming a Neuro-Surgeon" (due to the many specific terms and facts required) … but you see tons with the word "Marketing", like "Easy Marketing" or "Make Millions with Marketing E-Couses" or something like that. The language is simple for sincere scammers to use.

Why do I call them "Sincere" ? It’s because they genuinely think they’re doing something right. It’s because if they go through the checklist above, items 2,3,4,5 they would just skip over, brush aside or not address.

A terrible plight. Because it’s such a well disguised trap, how then do we ourselves try to avoid it? There is one Razor’s test I know best, something which is written well in our Islamic tradition, and for good purpose:

Take knowledge with credible teachers, with the transmission of knowledge you know is sound. Look at the teacher himself and see if he walks the talk. Look at where he has learnt the knowledge from. Question his sources, his expertise. If you detect laziness in his methods, if he promotes material gain more than the spirit of learning itself, if he does not touch your heart more than your wallet…

Then time to shift.

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