No You‘re Not An Entrepreneur, You’re Part of a Pyramid Scheme

You’re not an entrepreneur, you’re a part of a pyramid scheme

At an an event the other day, a high school student was giving a presentation about a business he ran himself. It sounded good to start with, “A high school student running a business! Woohooo!” But as his presentation progressed, it became obvious he was never actually going to talk about the company he’d started. As he finished I was confused. Why didn’t he talk about the company? You’d think giving a presentation on entrepreneurship, he would talk about the company he himself was running. I had to ask him about it.

When you’re part of a pyramid scheme you don’t want to tell people about it

Even when confronted, he barely wanted to tell me anything. But I did manage to coax out enough information on the scheme he had been roped into to know exactly the brand of bullshit he’d been recruited for. He mentioned working on making “passive income” where he’s going to be making money while he sleeps. Apparently, an ex-Roughrider football player was involved (like that was a big selling point). That’s when I knew for sure the wool had been pulled right over his eyes. He was part of a pyramid scheme.

I was heart broken. I couldn’t believe this well spoken high school kid had been lied to so maliciously. He had been suckered into a multi level marketing company where he sold products and recruited people to sell products under him, for a cut of the sales. Classic inverted funnel strategy.

Multi level marketing schemes take advantage of vulnerable people 

Young people are vulnerable, the lower income population are more vulnerable. Really, everyone who wants to make lots of money with little effort is vulnerable. You can learn all about who is attracted to multi level marketing schemes from the documentary Betting On Zero, the Herbalife story.