I was listening to a podcast yesterday about con men, and I heard the following interesting titbit:
Bernie Madoff, the hedge fund manager/operator of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, would threaten to kick out investors from his funds if they expressed doubts or asked too many questions.
(Podcasts are in general a trash source of information, so I did a bit of due diligence myself. I found a WSJ article from 2008 that corroborates this exact statement.)
Perhaps the significance of this titbit is not really clear to you. So consider for contrast how most people would handle that same situation.
Imagine that you have, say, a club or a membership or some kind of in-or-out thing that people have to pay to be on the inside of.
If a member asked you questions or expressed doubts about the value of what they are getting, what would be your natural reaction?
Think about it for a moment.
I can’t speak for you might do, but I can tell you what I might do.
I imagine my natural reaction would be answer those questions or address those doubts to the best of my ability, and maybe even to ask the member how I could make my thing better and more valuable. In effect, my reaction would be to do the best job I could selling and reselling my offer to that doubting or questioning member.
That is clearly not what Madoff did.
In fact he did the exact opposite. His approach was to appear to want to break up the sale, and kick the doubting investor out of the fund.
The result of this, as the WSJ article put it, was that “Mr. Madoff shifted investors’ fears from the risk that they might lose money to the risk they might lose out on making money.”
That’s something to ponder on, even if you are not a con man, and even if everything you do is completely ethical and above board.
In fact, I found this bit of Bernie Madoff trivia interesting because it is yet another illustration of the apocryphal 11th Commandment of con men, pick up artists, magicians, door-to-door salesmen, etc.
I give that 11th Commandment away via a link at the end of my new 10 Commandments book. In that bonus 11th Commandment, I summarize much of the book, including the underlying principle of what Madoff was doing above, in just three words of powerful influence strategy.
And like Madoff’s strategy above, my new 10 Commandments book, including that apocryphal 11th Commandment, is not only relevant to you if you have criminal tendencies. Here’s a very nice review I got about that from a new reader by the name of Joe Vigliano:
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Life changing?
Yeah, it is. Despite its unfortunate title 🙂 I almost passed on it since I don’t consider myself a con man, pick up artist, magician, etc. Can’t tell you how glad I am that I clicked Buy Now. The information John shares is invaluable for both your personal life and your professional life…especially if that professional life involves influencing others. I’m a kinesthetic reader–i do a lot of highlighting. This book is almost an entire highlight, it’s that good. The information is solid gold and it’s written in an absolutely engaging, entertaining way. If you have the paperback, the pages will be dog-eared from use. Not sure what that looks like on my Kindle. Either way, this is a book to spend time with. Lots of time.
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But you know what?
I’ve been promoting this book for a long while. I’ve been giving you testimonials and curious stories from the book. I’ve been linking to it on Amazon, over and over in my emails, for months now.
If you still haven’t gotten my book, then there’s no sense in me trying to persuade you any more. I officially throw up my hands. This book, life changing or not, is not for you.
So don’t get it. It’s too late. And if I catch you getting it, say, if I catch you signing up for that bonus 11th Commandment, then you’re OUT, off my list, for good.