Was I ever in a shock when I got this message. Just recently, I was browsing a forum and a well known marketer was mentioning how he was able to buy Adobe software for a very cheap price online.

Now these software applications normally cost hundreds and this site was advertising that you could buy it from them for an extremely cheap price. As a result, the person in question began to publicly share this site on the forum as he felt it would benefit others as well. I get spam e-mails like these all the time too and know that it is not exactly a pure offer.

Now for myself I am very knowledgeable about this and figured that the person was duped into buying it. Essentially, the person is buying a sort of “Back Up” copy of the software which is how the company gets through the legality of it. Afterwards, the buyer must go through non legitimate means to actually activate it which the company states they are not responsible for if the buyer chooses to do so.

So, I politely sent him a private message informing him about it and even semi joked that I was a techy who knew a lot about these types of charades. By golly, and this was the response he sent me initially:

I said a valid copy. All I care is that the suite Authroized and is working. WTF do I care whether it is so called legal? Maybe you pay retail for technology over and over. Good for you idiot.

Techie geek that you asshole.

I was so shocked not only based on the fact that I was genuinely trying to help him, but the fact that the person was no doubt very successful financially which seemed so out of character based on the image he portrayed. I then responded with the following:

Why are you attacking me so rudely? What I wrote was to genuinely help you as that is an illegal copy, so to speak, and it is posted on a forum where I’m sure many ppl would think this is a valid licensed item they are purchasing. It will be almost as if (snip name of company) is condoning this practice and thought that I would let you know personally first incase you thought that it was a “legal” copy and hence I simply informed you that I am a very knowledgeable person when it comes to technology.

But if you are fully aware that it is illegal, which makes it not “valid”, and still choose to use it then please disregard what I wrote. It’s almost like saying counterfeit clothing might be wearable and all but that product is not legitimate. Similarly, if you linked to something telling me I can buy this brand name clothing for $2 I would probably assume you meant legitimate in every way.

Aren’t you suppose to be one of the first few (snip name of title in the company) too? I still can’t believe the response I just read……..

Sure enough, he responds with an even crazier remark:

Becasue you’re transparent. I really don’t like passive aggressive people. Like you.

Toal bullshit. You’re splitting hairs in an attempt to impugn me in some way. Don’t fuck with me buddy. I’m smart and wise.

Blah blah balh. Get a clue. Almost EVRY successful web author in the (snip name of company) uses black hat and grey hat techniques to achieve measurable success. Stop pretending you’re naive.

Shut up already you passive agressive freak.

Oh go cry to (snip name of company management) or whomever you like you worm.

I was and still am one of the founding (snip name of company). I’ve helped (snip name of company) bank TENS of MILLIONS. And I’m still adding to that. I can guarantee nobody will duplicate or surpass my work. EVER. Unless you can turn back time and compete on a playing field that will never exist again. Pionners are called pioneers for a reason.

The CS3 suite is running awesome. I’m taking course work now to learn how to use it well. I don’t care if you think it is legal or not. Or anybody else including Adobe. Get it?

You’ve wasted way too much of my time already. Leave me alone now please.

Sincerely - (snip name of person)

Holy cow. What can I say? I am speechless. This is like those situations where you are genuinely trying to help someone or are simply asking them a question. Then all of a sudden they just blow up implying on how you are trying to accuse them of something. Not only that, but he then updates his post to add this “disclaimer” stating the following:

How much more confusing can you get in terms of like a split personality? Makes me wonder if this will be a situation too where companies are afraid of doing anything at all since the person as he puts it generates “TENS of MILLIONS” of dollars. Then again, he is just an affiliate marketer I guess you can say for the company and so it is kind of a separate personal issue I suppose between him and Adobe.

What is really disturbing to me personally about all this is how someone can feel that they are so invincible, so to speak, because they are well off financially. While I am personally not like a multi-millionaire by any stretch of the imagination thus far, I’ll be sure to never let money create that type of a personality out of me.

A lot of times when it comes to trying to start something new for financial gains the biggest hurdle is actually getting started. Example, most people rightfully have a skeptical attitude such as wondering how much they can make and potentially lose. As a result, most ideas normally get placed on the shelf.

When it comes to starting something new I think for me the mindset is usually where if I had to do everything myself would I still be able to do it? Example, If I wanted to grow some kind of garden and sell the vegetables can I grow them myself without outside help?

Now ultimately I think most people would agree that time leveraging is what you should be aiming for which means you don’t want to do everything yourself in a sense, but if you are starting out and don’t have millions of disposable income, making sure that you can do all or most of the important aspects of your operations is the important factor for me personally when it comes to choosing what crazy idea to try out.

So I had a pretty tight schedule this week and a person contacted me about a potential opportunity to be involved in some ad campaign that would be fairly lucrative. The thing is, he confirmed that I would attend to the event as he assumed I would say yes anyways.

Of course I had pre-arrangements already made and so time wise it wasn’t doable. I then asked why he did that and he simply mentioned that it was potentially worth over $10,000 and so he thought there was no way anyone would turn that down.

Thing is too, this was like of those out of your hands as it was more like an audition or quick interview of some sort where you go through a process and then it is up to a panel of say “judges” who decide your fate. That wasn’t exactly a guarantee thing either as it is just an “opportunity”.

While you obviously need to take risks to a certain extent, it’s kind of silly if you had say two loyal clients that you committed to and then simply throw that away for a potential opportunity to be involved in what can be a more lucrative project.

I received a phone call today from a company that was interested in doing some kind of consumer research about people who work in or have connections with people in the IT industry involving servers during normal working hours. They mentioned that as a form of compensation they would give me $20 for my time for an hour interview.

The interesting thing is that I would probably do it for free under normal circumstances. I must admit, for some reason the $20 figure turned me off. I think the main reason was that I have done simple things like food tasting before and even for those items they offer about $30 plus a free meal. They last for like 30 min only too.

Would it of made a difference if they said $30? Not really for me personally. There’s just something about asking you to go out of your way in this case that makes me think the time is worth more.

Interesting comment I heard today where a person was saying how she worked overtime one day and then another person commented on how at least she made more money. The lady then responded by saying she wasn’t really making any money as the income goes directly to paying a bill.

Kind of a dangerous way of looking at it I thought as essentially in her view it was almost as if she was constantly working off a debt of some sort. In essence, she wasn’t really getting any money at the end as she was working to satisfy others.

In my opinion, cash flow is just like a river and it’s really your choice as to how you want to distribute it. Example, even if you only made $10 a month with two $5 bills you have to pay, there are so many ways to go at it.

You can just say it goes towards paying the bills and that’s it. At the same time, you can use tools that are available to you such as a credit card in a responsible fashion to allow you to do something with that $10 for another 30 days to make more money. Like most things though, it does come to attitude and perspective. Cause at the end of the day, it’s something that you control and not the other way around.