Motivational Misfire

Hi Scott,

I went to a Tony Robbins motivational seminar. What I didn’t know what that prior to the main show, there was a great deal of, let’s say, warm-up speakers, talking about fluff about how to get rich.  One of the guys was selling a share trading program. He had a very impressive style, and was very amiable, very charismatic … but I wasn’t buying it!

Still, I was bored waiting -- so I thought what the hell -- I put my hand up as being interested and went up the back of the room to listen to his spiel. I must admit, what he said got my attention. He said he was selling his share trading system for a good cause: to help build homes for poor people affected by a tsunami.

I watched, I listened, I questioned, I doubted, and then I thought ... I can do this! I can make this work!  (Even though I knew Scott Pape would say “NO!”). But I knew me and I was dog determined to make it work. So I paid him $20,000 for his trading package and got down to it.

I invested extra into a trading account, extra into flying to Sydney to go to live trade events. And I invested copious amounts of time. I’m still up at 1am, still watching the market, still feeling excited. And I am still waiting to see my return. I read your stuff, I read their stuff, I read loads of information. Guess what? I am still down $20k … and you know what, I am grateful for the experience.

Lisa

Why would Lisa say that she’s ‘grateful for the experience’ … of dusting twenty grand?

It almost sounds like she’s been kidnapped into some sort of cult!

Actually, that’s kind of what has happened. Lisa has Stockholm syndrome (definition: “Feelings of trust or affection felt in many cases of kidnapping or hostage-taking by a victim towards a captor”). The guru has worked hard to get Lisa to buy into the reality that she’s going to get rich.

The gold-plated guru says the only thing stopping her living this amazing life is knowledge.

And only he has that knowledge ... yet he’s willing to do her a favour and sell it to her for $20,000.

So if the trading program doesn’t work, it’s the guru’s problem right?

Wrong.

The guru can only do so much, so Lisa needs to work for it, and prove it to herself. And it may be that Lisa requires even more knowledge from the kind guru, in terms of high priced live trading events.

So just for this week everything is upside down:

It’s usually my answers where the learning happens, yet today the lessons come from the questions.

Scott