Get rich quick – but not really

In my younger days, I had a penchant for making a lot of money quickly. Because of this attitude, I was a sucker for some of the get-rich-quick schemes and many of the multi-level marketing companies that came across my path. 

I have “invested” in at least seven different companies of this nature – all of which had legitimate products to sell, and several that remain as viable and legitimate companies still today. But the allure for me was always to make a bunch of money without a bunch of effort on my part.

In one of the multi-level marketing companies I was a part of, we sold training materials that taught you the various strategies for investing your money. The training materials were actually packed with good information.

Selling these training programs made some people a lot of money and those who followed the concepts made some big bucks too – for a while, anyway. I never made much money selling the course, but I did start investing after I went through the course.

After following the principles that were taught for a month or so – and seeing some impressive, immediate results – I decided to take a gamble in the futures or commodities market. On a whim, I bought some futures contracts in coffee. 

I won’t go into the details, but trading in futures markets as opposed to the farmers and producers using these vehicles to protect a return on their crops and herds, is about as high-risk as any legal investment available.

Anyway, my risky investment of about a month’s salary netted me more than my annual salary in less than a month. A financial “genius” was fixing to make his mark on the world…

Good results are not always an indicator of wise plans. My somewhat instant success instilled in me a certain pride and arrogance. I thought this investing thing was a piece of cake. I would join the ranks of millionaires within the year. 

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