“The desire of gold is not for gold.
It is for the means
of freedom and benefit.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let’s talk about Leprechauns and Unicorns. We’ll start with Leprechauns. Why? Because this article is being written in March 2010 – you know St. Patrick’s day. .
Speaking of which – a big Happy Birthday to my Uncle John Kimbrell on March 17th! In his mid 80’s and still has a wonderful sense of humor and a quick wit.
Have you been seeking out that pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow? Have you found it yet?
Maybe you have and you just haven’t told anyone yet. It seems like
there’s not a day go by that we’re not bombarded with yet another “get rich
quick scheme” or scam. If I were to take advantage of all those letters from
Nigeria telling me I’ve been selected to help someone get their inheritance out
of the country and I would get a big percentage of it – I would have at least a
BILLION dollars in the bank by now.
Guess what! It doesn’t work that way.
You know why? The answer is the word in the middle of that last
sentence – WORK!
Too many people want to get the pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow, but they don’t want to have to put up with the rain, or walk to the
end of the rainbow to get it. And then there are those people who say they want
to make more money!
Who “makes” money? The government and counterfeiters. So to “make”
more money, you either have to get a job at the Treasury Department or run the
risk of being arrested and going to prison. Instead of “making” money, the
right term to use is “earn” money.
“Everything has its limit -
iron ore cannot be educated into gold.”
Mark Twain
Here’s the problem with most people – they want more money, but
they don’t want to “Work” to earn it. I wonder how much money the senders of
those email scams would earn, if they spent as much time putting forth the
effort at a legitimate business or job, as they did trying to steal from
someone else?
Several years ago, I received an email from someone who claimed to
be coming to town on business and wanted to set up a series of appointments
with me while they were in town. Although I was suspicious – don’t know why, I
just was – they sounded sincere. We agreed upon my professional fees for a
number of sessions.
They agreed to send an advanced down payment of $500 for me to
hold the time for them. I was very surprised when the check actually came. But
there was a problem – the check was for $5000 instead of $500! The day it
arrived, I also got an email from them telling me a new employee in their
business department had made a mistake. Of course they suggested a very simple
solution -- they wanted me to deposit the check and send them a check for $3500
– keeping $1000 for myself for the inconvenience, as soon as possible so they
could get the mistake corrected before anyone found out about the mistake and
so as not to get the new employee fired.
Being the upstanding, honest person I am, of course I immediately
went to the bank and deposited it and got a cashier’s check into the mail to
them that afternoon. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for getting that poor
new employee out of a job. They probably have a family with a spouse, four
kids, and a dog to support.
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Coach William C. Smith