I was at a friend’s house the other day when I overheard a commercial playing on the TV in the next room. The voice I heard discussed how to make money selling off things in your attic on ebay. Much of the talk centered on how easy it was to make money by following the steps he outlines. This reminded me of a workout program I saw an infomercial for discussing how you could purchase their plan and achieve a ripped body in 60 days on their program. I’m actually a sucker for the workout ones, as I find them highly entertaining. I do feel that these commercials were deceptive in a way, as they made it appear that their schemes were easy and/or fast; however, I don’t feel that they were necessarily deceptive in a bad way and were definitely a step above a lot of the magic bullet advertising that I see.
In fact, I’d be willing to bet that both of the plans worked if you followed them as advertised. However, one thing not mentioned in either is the amount of work required. In the ebay example, you would need to take the time to clean your storage space, find items to sell, list them on ebay, ship them out, and so on. For the exercise program, if you followed a rigorous workout and diet schedule, you would probably see massive changes in 60 days (in fact, the fine print on the workout infomercial mentioned the program worked in conjunction with their diet plan). Really, what both of them are selling is knowledge and helping you work smarter. You still have to be accountable and provide the “work” portion of the equation.
If there’s a lesson to take from all this, it is that if you watch less TV you will see less advertising of this or any other type, which can only be a good thing. If there’s a second lesson, it is that the programs out there do not have a magic bullet. Either it’s a gimmick that will only cost you money or they’re selling knowledge and that’s it; you’re providing the labor.
If you are accountable to your goals and thus willing to put in the effort, you won’t need a magic bullet. You’ll have already found it.
Tags: Personal accountability