I have to
admit; I am a YouTube fan. The cool thing I like about the platform
is that it proposes content to the viewer and makes you stumble onto
things, situations, or phenomenons you never heard of.
As an
entrepreneur with a background in traditional brick and mortar
business, I recently got introduced to the phenomenon of fake
business gurus. I didn't get scammed personally but accidentally
bumped into some YouTube channels exposing them and their overpriced, usually worthless, products or programs.
The guys who run the
'exposing' channels delve into the past of the so-called gurus and,
in many cases, dig up quite some dirt.
What surprised me the
most, is that many of these gurus sell products, online courses,
programs, masterminds, inner circles, and whatnot, without being
hindered by any actual experience in the field.
And although I am
a great advocate of online education, here is a phenomenon where
traditional brick and mortar business destroys the online world. If
you were to buy a thousand dollar product in a physical store, you
would walk in, touch it, talk with the owner or the sales rep, and
buy. If the product turns out to be terrible, you go back to the
store and look the owner in the eye. Online gurus work behind a
facade. They present their product in a fictitious environment, in
front of rented Lamborghinis, rented houses, or even private jets.
Before, I had no idea that people with hardly any experience in
business would take it to that level to catch clients in their nets,
and succeed. But they did, and many fell for it.
Now that I
have explained what surprised me, I want to talk about what bothers
me. Again, my compliments to those 'exposers' who invested copious
spare time researching these gurus. Some of them even got
testimonials of 'scammed' people, and those are what left me shocked.
Some, usually younger clients, bought into an online course. Then
they purchased un upsell, and another upsell. Then they were sold the
mastermind, and consequently, they reached the summit of the pyramid,
the endgame, the inner circle. The next step is the hard way down,
the fall from the sky. At this point, the path to the top cost tens
of thousands of dollars, leaving people broke, or worse, in debt.
Youngsters got stuck in a swamp, and every move they made sucked them
in deeper.
What moved me, what made me hit the keyboard?
Since I started my business journey a few decades ago, I made my
share of mistakes. Nobody in my family was self-employed. I had no
mentors, no-one to turn to. From the start, my parents recommended me
to continue working in my 'safe' engineering job, as an employee,
with mediocre pay and moderate career perspective. I have always been
on my own.
When you start your own business as a youngster, with
not much foundation and resources behind you, you feel like a young
deer taking its first steps in the forest alone. Imagine, at that
exact point, getting shot by a hunter. The outcome is always
catastrophic, even if you are not dead. Even in case you only get
hurt lightly, your starting capital might be gone, or you are in
debt. On the mental side, losing it all at the precise moment of
taking your first step in the business world, is a sad thing. You are
likely not ever to recover. And that, dear reader, is what bothers me
the most. Not so much the fact that youngsters lost their
entire starting capital, but the fact that they were stripped from
hope and dreams.
I decided to take action. Let's start with this
blog.
Top
10 about the author; Erik Victor
1. is a serial entrepreneur and
started his career in Engineering
2. currently a majority
shareholder in corporations in the fields of Industrial Real Estate,
Wealth Management & Investment funds, and International Tax
Planning
3. has a passion for the dynamics of young businesses
and actively endorses several start-ups
4. is an engaged member of
several think-tanks and an international conference speaker
5. has
a business footprint in six countries
6. speaks five languages
7.
personal life - resides in Europe
8. Erik (48) is known as a
discrete and private person, a family man
9. loves to spend his
limited holidays in the mountains or at sea on his yacht
10. Erik
has no social media accounts
Comments
Post a Comment