Today’s Gold Rush

A Real Life Example

I played American Football for 12 years and coached for another 16 years, all of it as an offensive lineman. As the old school coaches say, “All of football comes down to two things, blocking and tackling.” Now that’s true, on offense if you block your man, my grandmother could score. On defense if you tackle your man, no one can score. But here is the interesting part. As a coach, I can tell a lineman that in order for him to be successful at his position, he has to block his man. So he knows his assignment, he has his goal, he has the ability and he goes for it. But then he doesn’t get the results he wants.

The coach could say, “You didn’t do what I told you….block him!” and on the surface it would appear the coach is right, he told the player what to do and now the player has to do it. That’s what is happening in the Internet world right now. The mantra is “Do A B C and you get D—that’s what I did and you can do it too!!!” When I was an offensive line coach, I could tell a lineman that his job was to block his man, it’s that simple. But over the years, I have broken down a single block into at least 26 individual parts that need to happen as the lineman approaches the line and within the first 1.5 seconds after the ball is snapped. All of these are important in order for that lineman to be successful at blocking his man. Add to this whether the opponent is outside, head-up or inside, what the defensive front is, which side of the line he is on, is it a cut block, scoop block, zone block…well you get the picture.

Unless the lineman has been taught all 26 aspects of the block AND then understands how to adjust them to his present situation in 2 seconds or less, it is impossible for him to be successful all the time or even half the time.

The point is the Hope-Mongers know they can sell you almost anything as long as you desperately hang on to the hope of hitting it big.

I have seen some of the most disgusting lies peddled as “real answers”. The “pull back the curtain, spill the beans, look over my shoulder, take you by the hand” clichés that people flock to are everywhere.

Why do people buy into this? They buy it because they don’t believe in themselves, they don’t know the industry and they are looking for short cuts that they THINK these people will provide. Sometimes they do, but most often it just another Hope-Monger preying on someone looking for quick money.

Hope-Seekers want to believe in “the Hope”, that the magic bullet is going to do it all for them and produce instant riches.

Here is an interesting side note. I once attended a conference, being the Hope-Seeker that I am, and had a startling realization. All the conference speakers were promoted as “Instant Internet Millionaires”, who just X-months ago were working from their kitchen tables just like you and now look at them. What I saw was that they were all under 35 years old. Then I looked around at those attending the conference and the average age had to be in the late 50’s. While it was true that the speakers wore Rolex watches, talked about their exotic vacations, and showed the stats on their business, The Truth of how they got those numbers or what they said to their customers to get those numbers was never revealed.

But that didn’t seem to bother anyone sitting in the audience, because the late 50 year olds were still drooling over the money numbers on the spread sheets and thinking to themselves, “If this little punk can do it, so can I.” It didn’t appear that anyone stopped to ask themselves if they were willing to be a Hope-Monger in order to join the inner circle and make the big money.

Maybe some were, but I’m not—it’s not who I want to be. I believe all of us can make the money we desire without the smoke and mirrors and without having to conceal what we do or lie just to “whack” someone’s credit card. Call it crazy, call it stupid, but I’ve lived long enough to know that when you start down that road of using and abusing people and become comfortable with vague dishonesty and “fudging numbers” it leads to jail (Enron), or corrupted minds and disturbed or destroyed lives (pick any grocery store checkout line magazine headline).

Eventually it will turn into a bad business, unless you are a good enough Hope-Monger to keep the illusion going, not caring what it has turned you into.

There are some people who are proud of their reputation of being a jerk and as they put, “At least I’m a jerk with money.” Hey, if that’s who you want to be, who am I to stop you. If that’s really what you want, you might as well stop reading now. BUT there is another way and if that is what you want, then keep on reading.

Well, back to the Gold Rush, do you know who made the most money in the California Gold Rush? The hotel owners, the restaurant owners even the brothel owners—those who took the money the miners made—some honestly, some dishonestly. And lest we forget a name that is still among us today that started during the Gold Rush—Levi
Strauss!

They made sturdy, hard-wearing jeans that the miners could use. They made them one pair at a time and sold them to the miners. The Levi Strauss Gold Mine is still producing today. We as Hope-Seekers need to regroup and stop grasping desperately for instant success. We need to release the fear of missing the boat and not making it in time, regardless of our age. We need to do some quiet soul searching and look for the things we are really passionate about and choose a path for making money that’s right for us—that’s what real hope is about.