In the face of truth

I was recently approached to join a real-estate investment group/education program.

After doing some research, I was able to find that the Founder’s last company was shut down for defrauding investors and was forced to pay $5 million in damages. The company he built before that was a MLM scam that was also intentionally built to defraud investors.

I presented the evidence to my friend who asked me to join.

To my surprise, he said the skills he would learn were a proven method to make money and that he was not stupid and would not shell out tens of thousands of dollars to buy in.

It was an overreaction.

The thing that stood out most was my friend’s story. His internal narrative about money overpowered him to see the facts presented. He did not attempt to acknowledge that the Founder had ripped off people in the past and that this was his third attempt at building such a company.

The bottom line: We cannot underestimate our biases, prejudices, and stories we tell.

If we are wrong, we would have to admit that the path we are on is wrong. And if we have been going in the wrong direction, we have to acknowledge we have been wasting resources (time, energy, capital).

It is natural to defend our actions in the face of truth, evidence, and facts. We don’t want to deal with the shame. But it is much better to admit we are wrong often and early before we get in over our heads.

[How you play the game is just as important as winning.]