I had a bit of a sobering experience the other day.
A good mate of mine from my college days came to visit over the weekend.
We hadn’t seen each other for some years and we had a good meet up and talked about old – and new times.
He’s aware that I’m busy setting up an online business of some kind but knows next to nothing about it. He was asking some questions, so I decided to show him some short extracts from Ed Dale’s Challenge course and also an extract from one of James Schramko’s presentations.
Big mistake. His response: “that’s just to get to the top of Google” and: “this guy’s (Ed Dale) been talking now for over 5 minutes (actually according to the player it was 1.5 mins) and he’s said nothing of substance yet other than just woffle”. His objection to James was that not everyone can be their own boss etc etc.
I could sense that we were on the road to a big car crash here so to avoid things getting worse, I decided to cut the DVD show and the subject short at that point.
He was ready to pick and criticize before even hearing out what they had to say. It made me realize how many people are just opposed to any form of business – and especially selling, and there’s not much you can do about it.
It’s basically my own fault I suppose, I broke my Golden Rule. Plus he works in what you might call the “social sector”, so I guess you’re even less likely to meet with any approval…
The best response I’ve had so far from people in my circle of friends was from someone else who said (about the Challenge course): “it looks like it could be useful – but it also looks rather get rich quick”. If only.
He was also critical about it being free, like it implies there must be some catch – as if it’s an invite to a free series of talks with the Jehovah’s Witnesses or something. I said: well you can send him some money if you want.
They think online business is all about cons, “unfair advantage”, some fiddle along the line, and so on.
I think the best advice is to always keep to the Golden Rule:
Never discuss your business with friends.
And as an additional rule, don’t discuss why you don’t discuss business with friends either!
They don’t get it and there is no mileage to be made for you here, it only causes aggro – and it ends in tears.
I wonder what other people think of this. Is my experience unique or have you also had similar responses?
Image: Stop sign courtesy of picturesquire Asher Isbrucker
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Written by kevin
Topics: Kev's Diary