Youtube Charlatans

Read time - 2 min.

Contemporary personal-finance literature is rife with "pill" like solutions, blanket prescriptions and cure-all potions. These self-published, vanity-funded, "Guru's" are - more often than not - mere charlatans camouflaged in the tie-dye of prosperity and promise.Allow me a hedge, a lot of these guys know what they're talking about. Many are very successful. And their methods often work, but the point of failure is the following - it only works for a certain type of person, with a certain innate skill-set and the mental fortitude to see each step through without constraint.

As long as you brought your wallet, that is.

Be weary of free-lunches. There are deceptive salesmen (and women) out there, with a feint shadow in their heart. They've spotted a trend. A new vulnerable member of society.

The digital revolution has facilitated the sudden rise of a new breed, aptly dubbed, the "want-ropreneur".

Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur.

Condemned and criticised in the 70's and 80's - today, the "entrepreneur" has strangely achieved celebrity status among his or her white and blue-collared peers.

But here's the catch. Thanks to media sensationalism, cognitive biases and a host of logical fallacies - what many people don't see, is the extreme survivorship bias that belies the success of every "zero-to-hero" entrepreneur out there.

Not recognising this bias, most people think entrepreneurship is easy. It's glorification in the global start-up community, tech or otherwise, hasn't helped much either. Sadly, for many, it does more harm than good.

This is where the bible punching, book wielding, '7 magic steps to wealth'-"expert" comes in. The free seminars attract the perfect crowd. The cunning neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) techniques lock and maintain attention. And finally, the close, seals the deal. Normally, a pretty expensive one at that.

We've all fallen for a hoax before. Whether it was some quick fix pyramid scheme or that new miracle face cream. And that's okay, the lesson learned is usually worth the price of admission.

But what isn't okay, and particularly vexing to me, is seeing thousands of hard working family men and women fall for the lure of deceptive, overpriced "quick-fix" solutions as advertised by these dubious mountebanks.

The hard truth is this, not everyone is made to be an entrepreneur. Some are made to be workers and professionals. If you don't like criticism, if you don't thrive off of rejection, if you aren't prepared to fail and lose everything you've got, entrepreneurship probably isn't for you.

Don't get sucked into the charm of self-employment without being willing to risk it all. That includes your family.

Yes, in my opinion, an entrepreneur is a professional risk manager, not a risk taker. But that's beside the point. The market doesn't care about you or your story. The market doesn't care about you or your family. Rags + effort does not = riches. There are a host of factors you never hear about.

Don't get me wrong. I have a deep passion for entrepreneurship, start-up culture and risk management. I've been there. I've played with fire. I've been burnt. And I loved every second of it. I'm outrageously ambitious. Step into my mind and you'll likely be carried out on a stretcher.

But I can afford it. I'm only 23 years old. I can fail. I can learn from it. I can always come back from death's door more prepared than before.

Some people can't. It's that simple.

That said, I'll continue to champion the entrepreneurial spirit, just not the 'want-roproneurial' culture. And certainly not the pyramid scheme enthusiasts and wannabe financial doctors.

Be vigilant. Crooks take many forms, from your insurance broker to your personal trainer. Know a conman when you see one. And for fuck sake, please don't buy anything that starts with: "X-step plan to Y" without managing your expectations first.

Diversify not only your risk, but your scepticism too.

• Phil