As I write and think about this it seems quite obvious to me that I am and slightly embarrassed I didn't catch it sooner
I'm going to keep this very short as I'm on my mobile phone.

Basically I started randomly talking with a guy at a shopping center in a big city not too far about a 4 hour drive from where I live. Let it be noted that I was the one who actually approached him and started chatting. He started a mobile oil change business about 4 months ago that I found to be extremely interesting.. looked him up on facebook and his story seems very legit. We chatted about business for a while and he asked for my phone number and we started texting back and forth a bit.

After a couple he says he started telling me how much he likes my perspectives on things and thinks I must be very ambitious and a hard worker. He started talking about a mentor he has and that they look for "like-minded individuals" to be a part of their online e-commerce business. He threw out some definite buzzwords and phrases like "passive income" , "working on a positive cashflow" "early retirement" , "are you willing to drop everything you know about business and take on a method that has been proven to be profitable" etc.

By another bizarre coincidence, his mentor happened to be IN the city I live in 4 hours away from the city both of these guys live in the day after person A started talking about setting up a meeting between me and his mentor. I thought it was strange but the mentors wife happens to have grown up in my city which turned out to be another legit story after doing a little research.

I met with the mentor for about an hour at a coffee shop this morning. He was well dressed, very sharp, and extremely well spoken and a great talker. We clicked and shared some somewhat personal stories. The main basis of the meeting was not really talking about the business itself, but more so his story and the story of his mentors and all about creating passive income and financial freedom etc.

He asked me a few questions including:

Are you goal oriented or process oriented?
What have you heard about MLM or network marketing companies?
Would you describe yourself as a free thinker or someone who makes decisions worrying about the viewpoints of their peers?

There was another one about describing my reasons for developing businesses on a 1 to 10 scale that I cant quite remember.

Money investment was not discussed at all. The meeting ended with him setting up a conference call with me and another person 3 days from now. He have me a copy of "The Business of the 21rst Century" by Robert Kiyosaki and asked if I could have it read by our scheduled conference call.

Am I being groomed to be scammed by this MLM business?

You're probably being groomed to work hard for very little payoff. Is this something you are actually interested in doing? Did you ever find out what company it was with? The constant mention of a mentor just sounds weird but it's the way these MLM people (like members of Amway) speak.

yes

MLM should be a red flag, but it isn't an automatic dismissal. If the business is centered around the product then it could be a great deal for you. If the business is focused on recruiting more people then it is a disguised pyramid scheme. If you have to pay money up front in order to be "enrolled" in the program then I would walk away.

If the product is good you could make great money as a salesman and on occasion recruit people. Chances are though you probably are wasting your time, because most of these opportunities probably aren't worth it since the product usually isn't all that great.

think of it like this... if it IS a scam, by the time you figure it out, you’ll have been scammed.

Life rule: if someone pitches "passive income" you walk away.

In summary, he is looking for a candidate that will piss off his friends, family and everyone he meets to relentlessly push an opportunity (that usually sounds a lot like a pyramid scheme) regardless of their discomfort and negative perception of what he is doing, because thats what a successful goal oriented free thinker does.

I had an old friend that got into this stuff. old friend. Only so much I could take being pitched conferences and workshops so I could check it out. which I had to pay for of course

Thanks for the feedback.

After doing some google research I found someone else who had posted on reddit that described the same meeting I had... almost word for word. It was creepy. They also gave him the same book to read.

I'm going to finish reading the book and then tell them that I do not believe this opportunity is right for me at this time.

Better finish the book though, like they told ya.

Well, I'm locked in and committed to hearing how this whole story shakes out now so please share updates regularly OP.

Also, it is nearly a certainty they are setting you up for something. all the telltale signs of either scammery or scummery.

LOL, I read a lot. I'm halfway through it, might as well finish it.

My brother told me I should **** with them for a bit and try and scam them back.

I doubt you can scam them back, just waste their time. at the next meeting they'll be asking you for 300-500 to get started, and that will be to attend a seminar / buy product / marketing materials.

Petty, but I endorse it. These guys are cancer to society and the economy, preying on the gullible and unintelligent (no offense, OP). If you have the time and would enjoy it, dick them around. Also, read the Wikipedia entry on Kiyosaki—the guy is a total fraud and vulture. It would be like if they were grooming you to join their poker syndicate and gave you a book by Jerry Yang.

Haha, that's great. I love that analogy.

Curious on how/why this happened? What exactly caught your eye about a random guy in a shopping center that you'd walk up and start chatting to them?

My girlfriend was taking forever trying on clothes and I was very bored. The guy was dressed really sharp (no ****) and was looking at shoes by the change rooms I was standing at so I just walked over and started talking to him. I get a kick out of starting conversations with strangers I guess.

Thanks for this, I'm wondering how to get gullible people to approach me and talk business (not that you're gullible, you know what I mean), so it seems that dressing very sharp is the key.

You should definitely find yourself a sales job and then immediately start kicking some ass my dude.


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I am a bit gullible, apparently. I fell for this because over the last couple months I've been getting up at like 7AM every day and spending time bettering myself with mindset focusing and meditation and exercise and getting **** done and really working at eliminating things in my life that are hindering my production and efficiency.

I think I felt like the universe was doing its universe thing

I am in sales, I'm a partner at a mattress/furniture store.

Hey I loved that thread! I'm so happy it worked out for you. With your cash stream you just need to invest the money and forget about it imo. And stay away from sharks.

Thanks! We just finished year 4. Almost 1.7 mil this year in sales. We expanded the showroom a bit and our products and have 5 employees on payroll now

No one ever asks about how you feel about MLM unless they're actually buttering you up to be a part of their MLM.

And most people who are in a position to be real mentors rarely have to search out for random people to mentor.

+100 to the person that said you should be in sales if you have the knack to cold approach people and build rapport.

Basically, you should be mentoring them. Maybe you can get these guys to do something that helps your business in some way.

A+ reference.

OP, please tell us what MLM this is.

EDIT: Pretty easy to figure out what they are going to try to sell you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kiyosaki

He gave you the book for two reasons:

1. You will subconsciously feel that you "owe" them something.
2. You will feel more committed towards following their pitch because you've invested so much time in reading the book already.

Next they'll ask you for a few hundred bucks, then send you on your way to do the exact same thing they just did to you.