Free Lunch

It is said that there is no such thing as a free lunch. This remains true in my opinion even in a world that has the Internet.

This of course does not necessarily mean money. For instance, with Open Source software, the "cost" is in research, effort and the willingness to learn (not to mention the data cost of downloading it). The software might cost nothing, but you still need to give SOMETHING to obtain it and get use out of it. Once you have done that though, you reap the benefits of excellent software without an annual license fee. There is a saving compared to traditional software certainly, but you still need to do some work.

Another example is growing your own food. Much cheaper than store-bought food (even when you include input costs), but still you need to "pay" in effort, patience, fertilizer, water and research to get the veggies planted, keep them watered and healthy, and harvest them yourself.

I am then (as you can guess) a bit opposed to the idea of making money for doing nothing. In my view, get-rich-quick schemes simply must have a flaw somewhere. The fact that I am a naturally sceptic person also reinforces this belief.

So imagine my thoughts when I was approached online with the following:

"Get rich quick!"

"Recruit others!"

"Make R15K in one month!"

"Multi-Level Marketing opportunity."

"Not a pyramid scheme!"

Exactly.

The Internet, of course, offers much info in deciding if a particular scheme is as good as it says it is.

On further investigation, I found this:

"Pay in X amount per month to join"

"Get paid X/5 per month for every person you recruit"

"Interesting", I thought.

Now multilevel marketing is nothing new. A multilevel marketing scheme can actually work if:

A) It actually MARKETS something.

B) The product being marketed can stand on its own as a product (in other words, the agent must be able to make a living JUST selling the product, without relying on more recruits).

C) There aren't too many agents around causing market saturation.

There are examples of such companies actually succeeding. Think of Tupperware for example.

So, does this "Exciting New Opportunity" offer such a product? After sniffing around the web page, I found a small section that describes the product. 

"The product you receive is coaching and training – soft skills that will help you break through your barriers."

"The coaching that you will receive is NLP Coaching. Neuro Linguistic Programming has been around for 25 years and today NLP training and coaching is used widely in business to improve management, sales, performance and interpersonal skills."

Fair enough. But I have a few issues. Queue yet another bulleted list:

. The Coaching in my view is not worth the X amount being charged.

. You are asked to become an agent BEFORE receiving any coaching. You cannot simply become a client.

. The type of coaching, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, has many many enemies in the field of professional psychology.

. There is HEAVY emphasis on getting as many agents as possible to sign up.

. You as an agent will receive NOTHING for the coaching material being sent out. You are paid ONLY for the number of agents you have under you.

. If you really want to receive this training, there is a LOT of free material available on the Internet.

All this causes me to dismiss this as just a Pyramid Scheme in disguise.

Of course, the term "free on the Internet" also has its own conditions. No free lunch remember?

For one, you must expend effort and data fees to find the free material. The site offering the coaching has hosting costs to pay, and is supported by advertisements. You need to read through the material and apply it to your life. The list goes on.

Somewhere along the line you always need to offer something back to receive something.

I, however, do not mind working in order to receive something. I work for a salary. My wife I dig and till with our own hands to grow food. I search the Internet as well as printed media in my quest for knowledge. I pay a Tertiary institution to receive training. I pay data fees to use free Google services. Etc...

...and that's all I have to say about that. I am now off to eat my lunch, made with my own hands, on bread purchased with hard earned money.