Why Smart People do Stupid Things
Over the many years I have counselled business opportunities distributors, I have been struck by the number of smart and successful people who were ripped off by a biz op scammer. How could smart people do stupid things? One of the things that smart and successful people don't have plenty of is time.
Typically, they are rushed and harried. But does this lead them into a hasty decision?
No.
Are they too smart not to check up throughly on the distributorship?
No.
Are they greedy?
No.
Was the opportunity too good to be true?
No.
Well, then what was the reason for their error?
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It is a combination of two psychological factors: framing and confirmation bias. When we make decisions it is against a background frame,of which we are not generally aware of. We seek to resolve certain problems without being clear what the problem is. In the cases I have been familiar with the individuals' frame was something like: work part time, work for less hours, work for yourself.
Having adopted this frame, the typical business opportunity scam jumps out as a solution to the problem as it was framed - just a few hours picking up the money from the payphones, atms, or internet kiosks. Once you find the solution to your problem of being overworked, then no amount of information that shows that the business opportunity is a scam will resonate with you. Committed to the project, you will sell yourself more throughly than any scam salesman could.
Due diligence involves a through examination of the way you framed the problem and why this distributorship is a solution to the problem.
Technorati Tags: smart people, successful people, confirmation bias, biz op, part time work, scammer, distributorship, hasty, greedy, ripped, framing, business opportunities, resolve, stupid, aware
