Why Greedy People Never Take Shortcuts And Why They Always Get What They Want

People generally assume that the people who take shortcuts are usually greedy. The person who tries to gain an extra profit by overcharging his customers, the employee who steals from an employer, the entrepreneur who expands too fast, the establishment that tries to cut costs by reducing the quality or quantity of goods and so on. The list is endless. But all these people are not greedy. They are simply fools.

They are not greedy, because the really greedy never take shortcuts because they know that taking shortcuts is simply an easy way to get the bitter end of the deal. They are not greedy because in the end, they usually end up using far much more energy. They end up walking longer miles. They end up taking more time to get what they want.

People who are really greedy take the long route. They pay more attention to their customers, they build a better product, they treat people better and they take time to learn the hows and the whys. They never forget that the relationships and the good will that they establish, is an investment that they can cash on anytime in the future. They just don’t want what they can have now, but they want to have it all, including all there is in the future.

Let’s consider a simple case of affiliate marketers. These are the people who keep on sending you emails telling you about this great deal and that awesome product a friend just showed them. They keep on sending you these emails in the hope that you will go to check out the product and hopefully buy it. And when you do, they usually get a piece of the money you pay – more like a commission.

For the fools, once they get your email address, all they do is to send you all the emails they can and all the products they have ever heard of. They send them every day, all day. And what do you do when you see that? You mark their mails as spam, and any time you see an email from them, it sort of ruins your day. These are pure fools because they never really get what they want. They may seem greedy, but what they really are, are perfect examples of frustrated beings who want, but who never know how to get what they want.

What does a greedy affiliate marketer do? He sends you an email, probably once or twice a week. Now, that is not so threatening. And you are likely not to categorize his email as spam. Then, to endear himself to you, he sends useful information – really meaningful information that sort of helps you. This makes sure that you will read his email the next time he sends it. In between, he may even add a few freebies as an appetizer.

When he eventually sends an email telling you of a product, probably costing in excess of $5,000, you are likely not only to check it out, but to also buy it (if you can afford it). And more often than not, these products are usually useful and ones that he or she has already tested. You are now hooked, and he can get as much commissions from you as he can – probably for the rest of your life. Now that is a truly greedy person! But you won’t mind satisfying his hunger simply because it is in your best interest to give him what he wants!

And that is the difference between affiliate marketers who make millions of dollars and those who make peanuts. It is the difference between somebody as successful as Jeremy Schoemaker who makes over $130,000 by simply sending two emails; and the average affiliate who lives on the brink of bankruptcy – perpetually.

This reminds me of the story in 48 Laws of Power, about the conman who wanted to con Al Capone. If you don’t know, AlCapone was a gangster - one of the most famous and most ruthless gangsters of his time, and here was a conman wanting to pull a con. Some, far much more resourceful had tried and Al Capone had killed all of them.

So this guy goes to Al Capone and tells him that he could multiply his money for him. Capone knows that this is definitely a con, but he agrees because he could easily kill the guy later. After being given the money, this conman simply takes it to the bank, where it accumulates interest.

After expiry of the period within which he was to double the money, he simply goes to Al Capone, tells him that he failed to double the money, but to prove his honesty, he gives Capone all his money back. Al Capone was touched by the man’s honesty because he not only expected the man to con him, but also because such “honesty” was rare in the violent and rough world Capone lived in. To show his appreciation, Al Capone gave the guy half of the money – which was exactly what the conman had planned all along. He had conned Al Capone and gotten away with it!

There is always a choice. You can always choose what you want. You can always choose which role to play in the world. You can be the fool. Or you can be the smart “greedy” one who knows how to get what he or she wants. You have the right choose, but choose carefully… J

Jeremy Schoemaker (Shoemoney) Success Story: Pushing The Boundaries For The Extra Mile

He was once the high school 300 pound 14 year old that got teased for his weight, but over the course of his career as an internet marketer, Jeremy Shoemaker has not only grossed millions of dollars, but has also received accolades from across the industry. 

He has been named by Fast Company as its “Most Influential Person on The Internet”; by Business Week as the “Top Money Making Blogger on the Internet”  and currently serves as Facebook’s Board of Monetization and as an advisor to Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! This is in addition to being featured in over 50 print newspapers, 20 Magazines and television shows. He is a success and although the journey to the top was not always easy, he credits his mentality with being the major key to success.

As he tells it in his autobiography, Nothing Has Changed But My Change, he always had an entrepreneurial spirit from an early age – something which sometimes got him into trouble. His ever enduring search for “an angle” to “exploit people’s passion” and “leveraging his position” saw him engage in “insurance fraud” and also take advantage of BestBuy’s program which landed him in court.

His brushes with crossing the legal line aside, he went on to found NextPimp.com and ShoeMoney Media, companies which ended up generating millions of dollars. He however gained a lot of fame, and traffic on his Shoemoney blog when he posted a $130,000 check from Google, which was a one-month Google Adsense earnings. He also later went on to found AuctionAds, an eBay marketing affiliate service that he grew to a multimillion dollar company.

Jeremy Schoemaker mainly credits his success to his ability to do what others were unwilling to do. His success with AuctionAds came as a result of being able to deposit $5 immediately someone signed for the product and being willing to pay people monthly instead of the 60 day wait that other competing services subjected their users to.

“I started with 1 website in 2002ish that grew to be the biggest mobile community on the internet and learned how to monetize it. I shared my journey on a blog and built a pretty authoritative site in the "making money online" arena. I leveraged that into starting my own advertising network and growing it until we sold it.”

“In the case of the husker football quiz it seemed pretty simple. In Nebraska all we have is the cornhuskers and people are die hard fans always debating stupid facts about former players. So making a site where people could test their knowledge to "win" something just made sense. Most people never know they can get a free subscription (to Netflix) just by going to the site or that I get $30 if they sign up.”

His ability to walk on the brink of the grey areas is also a key to his success with other advertising programs. As he admits, most of the things he did with Facebook adverts and programs he ran on Adwords were what most of his friends considered “illegal”. He tried them out and the two companies ended up making him a consultant. The same also applies to Microsoft and many other things he has dabbled in.