So, it is time to vent. One thing that annoys me to no end is Group Think. Why is it that people have a penchant for acting like lemmings? Is the concept of individual, and dare I say, prospective thought, a thing of the past?
You see examples of this all around you, but what has brought it to my attention yet again was a seminar I recently attended. Noting an advertisement and happening to have a free night, I elected to attend a seminar on stock trading by Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame. Having read the book and concluding that he had some valid, albeit not overly complex, points, I figured attending couldn’t hurt.
For those of you considering attending such a seminar, don’t. I will give you the entire message in the following bullets:
Successful trading is achieved by:
a) Using fundamental analysis to pick your companies
b) Using technical analysis to time your buying and selling points (they are big fans of the Moving Average Convergence / Divergence, the Stochastic, and the Moving Average itself).
c) Using software to facilitate both a) and b)
Fair enough, nothing really alarming about the messaging here, all pretty solid. But, then the pitch follows. Pay $500 for a course to learn how to use the Rich Dad, Poor Dad proprietary software tools (can’t imagine you get an education on anything but how to click here, then there), and then pay $40 per month to get market data from eSignal that fuels the software.
Maybe it is a good deal for some, I suppose that is a matter of perspective. But what amazes me about the situation was the tricks incorporated into the presentation that seemed to successfully up the urgency for the call to action (i.e buy).
Firstly, they put out insufficient seats for the number of people registered. Then, of course, they have to add seats during the presentation, thereby conveying the idea of an intense demand. Did I mention that despite having registered online, my name was NOT on the list? Maybe an innocent mistake, then again, maybe not.
The speaker then builds rapport with audience by eliciting from them via the use of inane questions such as “who wouldn’t like a return of 1000% in these tough economic times”, to which the audience coos “yes, yes”. Honestly, what is that? I swear he could of asked if $10 more valuable than $5 and people would have chimmed in just as enthusiastically.
He also leveraged the public’s familiarity with Warren Buffets wealth to make points in favour of his pitch (i.e. use Fundamental Analysis), but then proceed to slam the Buy and Hold philosophy that gave Warren his riches. Amazingly, nobody challenged this notable inconsistency.
He throws out random technical terms to the audience as a means of connecting with them and demonstrating his knowledge of the topic at hand. “Candlesticks”, “Shoulders”, “RSI”, etc. Uhmmm, did anyone notice that he kept saying “I don’t have time to go into this tonight due to time constraints”? People, please, are you mere puppets?
Near the end of the session he suggests that anyone interested in signing up for the 3-day course can move to the back of the room and sign up, as space is limited. Apparently, there was nothing the speaker could do in terms of adding additional sessions to the city’s calendar. Are you kidding me, Rich Dad, Poor Dad has a business model that has no flexibility to adjust course offerings to meet the demand? Come on people, give me a break!!! In fairness, this was a brilliant use of social proof! He prefaced the call to sign up by saying “for those of you convinced that this is right for you; if you know you need this in your life”. In so doing, he subtly suggests that these people are more together than those who opt not to sign up for the course. How many people wanna bet that a good number of those people signing up for the course were plants?
In the end then, what is my beef? Am I upset with Rich Dad, Poor Dad? Not really. They are a business and have a sales system that effectively uses weapons of influence to get people to buy their services. While they are certainly manipulating people that aren’t aware of it, I sadly don’t expect much more from a business. At the end of the day, business is about taking a product or service to a market and getting them to purchase. We would all like to think that our decisions are free of external influence, but in reality, is not the whole focus of business schools to get people to par their money in exchange for a product or service? If you concede that, you will hopefully also concede that there are few limits as to what they will do to make that happen, manipulation included.
Truthfully, my disappointment lies with the human race, and in particular, with the fact that so many of us are susceptible to these types of games. True, we do concede to a house advantage whenever we attend such a seminar, but nonetheless, I would hope for better for us. Perhaps, my message really boils down to the following:
·Remain objective in your thinking and do not assume that everything presented to you is factual and accurate
·Believe in yourself, and do not assume that the people who are acting around you are somehow more intelligent, or have figured something out.
·Realize that it is rare in life that you have to buy or do something right this minute and that no other opportunity such as this will come along again in your life. Leave that type of thinking for matters of love, not for transaction based decisions.
VB Out……
You see examples of this all around you, but what has brought it to my attention yet again was a seminar I recently attended. Noting an advertisement and happening to have a free night, I elected to attend a seminar on stock trading by Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame. Having read the book and concluding that he had some valid, albeit not overly complex, points, I figured attending couldn’t hurt.
For those of you considering attending such a seminar, don’t. I will give you the entire message in the following bullets:
Successful trading is achieved by:
a) Using fundamental analysis to pick your companies
b) Using technical analysis to time your buying and selling points (they are big fans of the Moving Average Convergence / Divergence, the Stochastic, and the Moving Average itself).
c) Using software to facilitate both a) and b)
Fair enough, nothing really alarming about the messaging here, all pretty solid. But, then the pitch follows. Pay $500 for a course to learn how to use the Rich Dad, Poor Dad proprietary software tools (can’t imagine you get an education on anything but how to click here, then there), and then pay $40 per month to get market data from eSignal that fuels the software.
Maybe it is a good deal for some, I suppose that is a matter of perspective. But what amazes me about the situation was the tricks incorporated into the presentation that seemed to successfully up the urgency for the call to action (i.e buy).
Firstly, they put out insufficient seats for the number of people registered. Then, of course, they have to add seats during the presentation, thereby conveying the idea of an intense demand. Did I mention that despite having registered online, my name was NOT on the list? Maybe an innocent mistake, then again, maybe not.
The speaker then builds rapport with audience by eliciting from them via the use of inane questions such as “who wouldn’t like a return of 1000% in these tough economic times”, to which the audience coos “yes, yes”. Honestly, what is that? I swear he could of asked if $10 more valuable than $5 and people would have chimmed in just as enthusiastically.
He also leveraged the public’s familiarity with Warren Buffets wealth to make points in favour of his pitch (i.e. use Fundamental Analysis), but then proceed to slam the Buy and Hold philosophy that gave Warren his riches. Amazingly, nobody challenged this notable inconsistency.
He throws out random technical terms to the audience as a means of connecting with them and demonstrating his knowledge of the topic at hand. “Candlesticks”, “Shoulders”, “RSI”, etc. Uhmmm, did anyone notice that he kept saying “I don’t have time to go into this tonight due to time constraints”? People, please, are you mere puppets?
Near the end of the session he suggests that anyone interested in signing up for the 3-day course can move to the back of the room and sign up, as space is limited. Apparently, there was nothing the speaker could do in terms of adding additional sessions to the city’s calendar. Are you kidding me, Rich Dad, Poor Dad has a business model that has no flexibility to adjust course offerings to meet the demand? Come on people, give me a break!!! In fairness, this was a brilliant use of social proof! He prefaced the call to sign up by saying “for those of you convinced that this is right for you; if you know you need this in your life”. In so doing, he subtly suggests that these people are more together than those who opt not to sign up for the course. How many people wanna bet that a good number of those people signing up for the course were plants?
In the end then, what is my beef? Am I upset with Rich Dad, Poor Dad? Not really. They are a business and have a sales system that effectively uses weapons of influence to get people to buy their services. While they are certainly manipulating people that aren’t aware of it, I sadly don’t expect much more from a business. At the end of the day, business is about taking a product or service to a market and getting them to purchase. We would all like to think that our decisions are free of external influence, but in reality, is not the whole focus of business schools to get people to par their money in exchange for a product or service? If you concede that, you will hopefully also concede that there are few limits as to what they will do to make that happen, manipulation included.
Truthfully, my disappointment lies with the human race, and in particular, with the fact that so many of us are susceptible to these types of games. True, we do concede to a house advantage whenever we attend such a seminar, but nonetheless, I would hope for better for us. Perhaps, my message really boils down to the following:
·Remain objective in your thinking and do not assume that everything presented to you is factual and accurate
·Believe in yourself, and do not assume that the people who are acting around you are somehow more intelligent, or have figured something out.
·Realize that it is rare in life that you have to buy or do something right this minute and that no other opportunity such as this will come along again in your life. Leave that type of thinking for matters of love, not for transaction based decisions.
VB Out……
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment