The Inveterate Correspondent
Two things happened simultaneously:
A distributor who had given up wrote to me. In fact we’ve been writing back and forth for some weeks because I refuse to be the one to end the correspondence and obviously he feels the same. This is his latest:
“How to avoid being scammed:
“As with most things in life, the best way to avoid falling victim to a scam is to use common sense.
“If something sounds too good to be true it probably is. Do not be rushed into sending off money to someone you do not know, however plausible they might sound and even where an approach is personalised, the Office of Fair Trading warned.
“Ask yourself how likely it is that you can make money. Thousands of other people will probably have received the same offer to part with money and not made a penny from it, no matter how great others make it sound.
“Finally, think about how much money you could lose from replying to a potential scam. It’s not a gamble worth taking.”
My first thought was to suggest he report the company to the Office of Fair Trading – I think it’s a great idea. I’d love to see what happens.
But then they decided to send me on a public speaking course. As one of the company trainers, I have to get up and speak in public on a regular basis and this workshop with Lorna Sheldon comes highly recommended.
She’s sent me some homework to do: I have to write a two-page script to be delivered during the course. It can be about anything I like – but I would like nothing better than to have the sceptical distributor in the audience and tell him what I think (or rather what I believe to be a fundamental truth).
So this is it:
“Here’s the law of nature: There are two types of people in the world – the special people and the ordinary people.
There will always be more ordinary people than special people – which the way it’s supposed to be. The special people need lots of ordinary people to do the ordinary things they don’t want to do.
The special people need ordinary people to service their cars, wait on their tables, design and build their houses, look after their health, mind their money…
Let me explain: The special people have big dreams and they achieve them because they control their own lives.
The ordinary people allow others to dictate how their lives will turn out. This is because they work for other people and that means someone else decides what hours they will work and how much they will get paid. And out of that pay cheque – before it even reaches them – have to come their taxes and their pension contributions.
Special people don’t need pension contributions – special people pay very little tax.
But the ordinary people don’t know that. They are conditioned to accept their lot. They think it’s the only way to live. They suspect there is another way because their magazines are filled with people who somehow manage to live lives of abundance. This makes them feel envious.
And they say: “That person was born into wealth – they were in the right place at the right time – they knew the right people…”
This shows the ordinary people that their predicament is not of their making. The way their life turned out is not their fault. Or, as they say: “Some people get all the luck.”
But logic dictates that this cannot be true. Luck – or to use another word for it “opportunity” – is not presented to a select few. The same opportunity is available to all. There may be an element of luck about whether it comes sooner or later but that is rarely the issue. What counts is whether a person takes that opportunity when it does present itself.
And this is where the population gets divided. The special people see their opportunity and say: “This is just what I’ve been looking for. This will make all the difference. This I can do!”
The ordinary people look at the same opportunity but they say: “These things never work. If something looks too good to be true it usually is.” They say: “ I could never do that…”
They decide that the opportunity is some sort of trick. They convince themselves they’re not worthy. Maybe they try it out and wait for the first chance to prove that it won’t work for them – not with the people they know – not in the town where they live….
And guess what? They prove themselves right!
Meanwhile the special people who think only of success find exactly that. It’s the law of nature.
Now I don’t know who in the room today are the special people. Nobody knows. But what I can tell you is that when your opportunity presents itself, if you can seize it immediately. If you can act on it with certainty and vigour – and if you can persist in doing that for as long as it may take then you will be special – and you will hold in your hand the golden prize.
And you will have everything your heart desires.”
Brilliant John, What I find interesting though is the ordinary people will ‘try’ a new thing not have commitment or conviction and be looking for things to go wrong, which inevitably they will find something to go wrong because they are ‘looking’. The really interesting part though is that they will pat themselves on the back because they ‘tried’and blame everything or everyone but themselves for it ‘not working for them’.