Such a Deal
The phone rang around eight in the evening. There are only a couple of people who would call us at that hour, and this wasn't one of them. It was a public relations person I had connected with when we'd first moved to Monterey, but I hadn't spoken with her in at least several years. So her bright "Hi, Tony" opening was something of a surprise. Her reason for calling was even more a surprise.
She was actually staging a conference call with a fellow who wanted me to get in on the ground floor of some sort of sales scheme. I got no further than the front page of his site which was something to the effect of Look-Younger-Make-Money-dot-com. From the school of you-can't-be-too-thin-or-too-rich...except without the subtlety.
I don't know why she had the temerity to call me. I would guess that she was probably feeling the economic pressures and was trying to pull in anyone she could. Most likely she was trying to hook me into some sort of pyramid scheme. Oops, I mean, multi-level marketing venture.
It was the second time in ten days that I'd been invited to participate in a simply incredible opportunity, one that couldn't fail. The other deal required that I put up only $350. How could I pass it up? Well, even if I had the money I could have, would have, said no. I can do a number of different things, but cold calling isn't one of them. As good as the deal could possibly be, it was not for me.
One has to expect that there are going to be more and more of these opportunities you can't afford to turn down. There are going to be increasing numbers of desperate people who will be tempted to put down their last bit of cash on a last chance to make ends meet, to bail out of the crisis.
Of course it won’t work. It never does.
As ugly as it sometimes is, reality is always a better choice.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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