Try Not To Be an Opportunist

You cannot cheat an honest man or woman, it just absolutely can't be done. Yet if you watch Oprah, or any talk show; or just your local news shows, you will find daily examples of people who are "honest & hard-working" who have just been cheated or "scammed".

What's really going on here?

As I sat down to write this article (absolutely no thoughts in my head to translate to paper), I ignored everything I had learned about time management for knowledge workers and checked my email. What to my wondrous eyes should appear but the following from my dear friend "Jonathan Pente".

I realized that here, right here, was exactly what I needed to explain the whole idea of opportunism and the importance of being honest. I will dissect said email for you and show you why a 35 year old father of five who works hard for every dime he earns, can be sucked in by an email such as this.

Let's begin with a quick reading of this very sad tale, and need I remind you that you absolutely cannot cheat an honest man:

Subject: please sir we need your help...Jonathan and Abigail is our name

Dearest one,
My Name is Jonathan the eldest son of the late chief Pente, who was the then owner of Pente Diamond Corporation in my country (the war zone) Sierra Leon before he was killed. My father was a rich and traditional African who made a lot of money from the sales of crude oil. Before he died he deposited $11million with a safe company in Ghana and my name was used as the next of kin. My father kept the money in a consignment box before he made the deposit and the content in the consignment box was registered as family valuables not money as not to raise an eye brow on him. on the 22 day of nov 2004 when my father was on his way back from offshore he was attacked with his men by some pirate who took all they had and trying to fight back he was shot and one of his men who was half dead went away to the other side of the river who was later rescue by some good Samaritan fisher men who later came to tell us what had happened to them all.

But what if you could find a man or woman who is looking for something for nothing? Then you can help them to cover up their true motivation (greed) by giving them this or some other sob story. They then have the opportunity to say that it was a sad story that touched their heart, and for God's sake they just wanted to help these poor children. Just makes me want to weep for the suckers of the world.

Before the death of my late father me and my little sister had already flew our country to Abidjan because of the war and after the death of my mother and brother, my late father lawyer brought to us some vital documents stating my father kept a consignment box with a company in Ghana Africa. immediately we rush to the company in Ghana for the claim of our inheritance and we were told to provide other document proving to them that I am the next of kin and death certificate of my father which we did provide, but the company said they can't give to us the consignment box because my late father had already registered the box unexpress transfer to leave Africa before he died am of 23 years of age and my sister is 21, we do need your help to stand as a foreign partner from outside of Africa and allow company to release our consignment box, then me and my sister can use the money to have a new life somewhere else as we plan to leave Ghana also because life here is very difficult for us. Please we will happy if you write to us email please and help us in our problem and we are willing to share with you from the money, also we can show you the document so you see it if you reply us, bye and God bless you.
Thanks
Jonathan and Abigail

Couple of things:
• note that the email is addressed to "sir"; let's call this a clue, someone is fishing and they are hoping to hook you
• within the first 2 sentences we learn that Daddy owned a diamond mine and made his money in oil; please hold that thought
• the heart string tug: we've lost our Mom, Dad, our brother, our homeland, in the blink of an eye. This sounds true only because we all watch way too much TV.
• there is a ton of money waiting for us somewhere, but... now back to that thought I told you to hold: Daddy was smart enough to own a successful diamond company s well as an oil company , yet he could not figure out how to leave his money where his wife and children could get to it without any hassles?

I've already told you that:
1. You cannot cheat an honest man, because it just can't be done.
2. You can find a man who is looking to get something for nothing

Now for number 3 in our list and the number one reason that good people are conned or scammed daily:
To pull the long or short con you simply need to find a man who wants something for nothing and give him nothing for something.

This then is the goal of the Nigerian scam and any other con you run into.

If you paid hundreds or thousands for a sure fire business opportunity which reqired no work on your part but is guaranteed to make you 20K per month. If you are having trouble finishing the things that you start (jobs, businesses, relationships). Then you just may be an opportunist, that guy or gal who is looking for lots of return with little or no investment of time, energy, emotion, or dollars.

You can't cheat an honest man, it just can't be done. But you can find the man who wants something for nothing, and give him nothing for something. - Mickey Foster "Hustle"