Pasadena City College Courier, March 3, 2005
By Caroline Ikeji, Opinion Editor
Opinion
"Oh, you'll make lots of money in no time, without a lot of work."
"It's such a great opportunity, and I don't want to see you let it pass by."
Ever heard someone explain a "money-making opportunity" using those lines? Welcome to the world of pyramid schemes.
In these types of businesses, a person involved tries to sell a company's product or service while recruiting others to do the same. The recruiter then gets a percentage of the recruit's income. Then they earn a portion of their recruit's money, and so on and so forth.
In other words, the few people at the top make the most the money without doing anything. You, on the bottom, barely make any, while you will be working your butt off to make money for the people who get into the business first.
Get rich quick? Huge opportunity? I think not. Sounds like a lot of work to me. I also have a much better chance to make more money by finding a "real" job that doesn't involve brainwashing my friends into becoming my source of income.
I have several acquaintances who are involved in a business of this type. I have had a few try to recruit me into their company, and I have seen one lose several friendships over it.
It is also amazing how annoying these people can get while trying to suck you into their world.
Take acquaintance No. 1 as an example. He gave me his pitch and added that I was the perfect candidate for the "job." He also would not stop raving about what a great company it was and why I should get involved. This was getting extremely annoying. Luckily, my cell phone hung up on him while he made his pitch so I missed the rest. I guess even my cell phone knows how stupid this type of thing is.
He tried to give me the pitch again, but irritated me to the point that I now refuse to talk to him. The same person tried to recruit two of my friends on separate occasions. He told them that he wanted to hang out with them. Instead, he took them to one of his company's introductory meetings. Both angry friends reported to me that they wasted precious hours of their lives by going to this meeting.
One of those friends spoke up at the meeting and said that she would rather have the satisfaction of helping people than being filthy rich. Yet, this statement didn't even register with these people, and they just continued to try to convince her to join their company.
I don't understand why people are so obsessed with making m oney that they're willing to lose friendships over it. Friendships are invaluable and cannot have a dollar amount put on them. Personally, I would rather be penniless and surrounded by friends than a lonely millionaire. Money can buy lots of material things, but it definitely cannot buy friends.
These people seemed to have forgotten the meaning of "no." Acquaintance No. 2 also tried to pull me into another scheme. He told me he wanted to hang out but would not tell me what he was planning to do. I was suspicious because I had not talked to him in ages. After prying some information out of him and telling him that I was not interested, he kept going on and on that he did not want me to miss out on such a wonderful opportunity.
Maybe you are gullible enough to believe in the claims of people who guarantee to make you rich quickly, but don't assume that I am. You may think that you are trying your best to convince me, but in reality, you are really putting me off by not taking "no" for an answer.
These get-rich-quick schemes may seem enticing, but they really are not. Do you really want to use and maybe lose your friends just for your material satisfaction? Do you really think that being rich is the key to happiness?
If you really want to make money, go find a real job and leave the rest of us alone.
Maybe you'll keep your friends while you're at it.
And for the rest of you, if your "friend" suddenly wants to take you somewhere, or promises you a way to make easy money, beware!
http://www.pcc-courieronline.com/030305/opinion/pyramid.html
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