It’s an ever changing, result driven, productivity obsessed world… We constantly need to adapt…Double quick! How do we cope ?

By using shortcuts, making quick judgements, resorting to “life hacks” sometimes. This is actually an instinctive thing our brain does, but at the risk of not always being accurate.

Experience your brain doing it while watching this video courtesy of AsapScience

Would you now agree that it is crucial to deliberately engage in slow thinking from time to time? Ok. Let’s use slow thinking and consider the first myth

The myth of the silver bullet

‘You make it look so easy. What’s your secret?? ‘

“I discovered the number 1 secret to becoming rich”, “I can tell you the best kept secrets to success”. Do you discard these claims straight away? What about the stories of over night millionaires out there in the media?

If it were that simple, wouldn’t we all be millionaires?

The untold story

The truth is you are not told the whole story. The process behind some of the media and gurus can be simplified to this:

What do the public want? To get a beach body? To write a book? To become a millionaire? How can we package the object of their desire in a way that will grab their attention and make sales or get more viewers? How about making it sound like it’s dead easy?

That approach implies at best minimising the work involved or worse, completely ignoring the challenging bits. That equates to concerning oneself merely with the tip of the iceberg. That’s bad marketing and  yet it’s very popular because it caters to the lazy side of us.

Usually,  the unseen bulk of the iceberg involves work over some time. It’s the most important part, that drives the results.

The “secrets” are in reality the observed methods and principles that seem to lead to the desired outcome. Or in the worse cases, it’s pure misinformation for material gain.

Here are 5 tell tale signs  to look out for in order to avoid being conned:

• Google the “revealer” of the secret. If he is that good, he will be celebrated elsewhere than just on his site.

• Watch out for the sites that mention him. If they have a link to his products, they’re affiliates,  they’re biased.

• Study his language in his sales page. Does he use hard facts or does he just tell a good story with nothing to back himself up?

• Does he have a disclaimer,  or  an earning disclosure? If he does, is he completely contradicting what he says in his sales copy?

• Last but not least, does he have a money back guarantee? If not, definitely think twice!

Name dropping

Let me let you in on some sensitive info. By reading up to now, I know you’re serious.

So here goes.

I got this email a couple of years back:

This ” Christina Jackson” seems genuine, right? She had a website, picture, a few articles, contacts (not anymore as you’ll see later)…

I also checked out  Marlon Sanders, “marketing genius”.  He got 2 out of 5 on the above (he has a reasonable earnings disclosure page and a money back guarantee). Then I looked at his youtube channel and was underwhelmed by how many views he has. A marketing genius struggling with views?! That doesn’t seem right!

I sent a reply back explaining my thought process and why I would not join.

I clicked “send” and to my great surprise, got this:

Hmmm….

A couple of days later, Christina’s website was nowhere to be found.

Turns out my skepticism was well founded. Just another bad marketing ploy…

Why would a genuinely great product require such under-handed tactics to get buyers ???

That said, Marlon may well be genuine but the tactics of this affiliate of his puts him in discredit for sure.

This, if anything,  teaches me how careful I have to be in choosing any affiliate.

In conclusion, don’t look for silver bullets. They are overrated!  Look for principles, apply, test them consistently and re-adjust if need be. In other words,

Reflect,  Redefine, Rise

R.

P. S: Didn’t score 25 out of 25 on the quiz? Read my posts in the “Myth busting” category and see where you fell down.

Then take the quiz again!