So most of my stories up until now have been about how I make an online mistake and lose some money.  This post will be about how I lost money offline and how that applies to losing money online.

It happened easily enough.  As I was out and about running some errands, I found myself at location where I could either a) go straight and maybe find a “shortcut” or b) turn right and take the highway to my destination.  (“Two roads diverged in a woods and I decided to take the one less traveled by”).

I am a visual kind of guy (aren’t we all) so I thought I would draw you a really crude map to help visualize my point (I used to make maps for a living…can’t you tell):

So I of course decided to take the blue line hoping to find a shortcut.  It didn’t work.  Just about the time I was thinking, “Wow, I am making great time.  I might have found a shortcut”, I see a police car going the opposite direction on the other side of the road.  My first reaction is to look down at my speedometer, followed closely by me hitting the brakes and looking in the rear view mirror.  When I look, I see the police car making a hard 180 degree turn and suddenly I know that I am done for.  “Crap” I say.  I start pulling out my insurance card and auto registration almost immediately.  Even before I had pulled off the road or the police car had it’s lights on, that is how sure I was of getting a ticket.  I, of course, did get a ticket from a very nice police officer who says they had just set up a speed trap to catch people cutting through this road (my shortcut).

Lesson:

Just as “shortcuts” on the road don’t save you time or money well similarly, there are no shortcuts to wealth on the internet. Trust me on that one.  Anyone who says they have a faster better way to making wealth online is flat out lying to you.  The only person who is shortcutting their way to wealth is the person selling you that “shortcut”.  And even what you think will be a shortcut will end up costing you time and money long term while you otherwise could have been on an established proven path lessening the distance to your destination (internet riches I assume).