Arrghh The Nosey Friends!

**zharlene** · 06-21-2008 03:36 PM

No doubt that many of us have really nosey friends because we're doing ok online, right?

Some of my friends are starting to really annoy me.

I've spent so much of my free time learning about the tips and tricks of internet marketing, I've missed a lot of "Saturday nights at the club" because of all these things I'm trying to get done, and they want me to take time off to teach them - for free!

Am I being selfish, and do I have every right not to give them the good tips?

**Jay Brass** · 06-21-2008 04:23 PM

So, you DON'T go out every Saturday and they DO to a club. You teach yourself while they party. Now they expect you to teach them what you've learned while they partied??? I wouldn't give any of my time to them.

**pboychuk** · 06-21-2008 04:36 PM

What most people don't realize is their friend that has become well off overnight, has been working at this goal for years.

Let me just say i am blessed to have a room mate who wants to be a doctor, so instead of him wanting to "partner" with me and copycat, he is just a great critic which is teaching me to "ignore the naysayer."
But, back to your concern. One word of advice i would give you is, keep your mouth shut, i know its hard. But, its crucial, your friends dont need to know how much you are bringing home, they need to see it in your confidence and assets.. But I never tell such people who i feel that they want to "steal" my ideas, guess what, i made 1000k last week doing 10 hours of work. Why? because then without a doubt they are going to want to copycat, So instead make them think, this guy works much harder then I ever could, he is smarter than me and he struck luck that I will never find.

As a result, depending on your businesses you now have 5 friends who you can manipulate into working for you, instead of giving them the idea that they can be you.

I really like to keep my business between myself, and maybe family, down the road I will hire my mom as an employee before friends.

But, if I had friend begging to get started, I would tell them this, I will work as your middleman, but I wont do the work for you.. Therefore you create a profit potential for yourself as the middleman.

Or, if your friends say, I cant learn all this crap i just want to make an extra buck, then you can create pawns, basically you tell them, hey lets found a business together, you do the work i give the ideas... and oh ya, did i mention, its a 50/50 partnership.

What this does, is allows you to sit back and let others make money for you. I am actually in a circumstance like this at the moment... So i know it works.

So now you ask me? am i taking advantage of my friends? It seems that way doesnt it. But in reality you are giving your friends whatever percentage of help they are indirectly requiring to earn whatever amount of money the percentage they are investing deserves.

**HarveyJ** · 06-21-2008 04:37 PM

Do any of them have any actual skills that you don't, and would potentially find useful?
Pragmatism would have you share knowledge with that person in exchange for their own, and not with the others.
Alternatively, you can be a real jerk, find a PLR / MLM based affiliate program for some crappy "info-product" that teaches what you know, albeit in a round about and totally unfulfilling way, and direct them to buy it. You'll make money from it indirectly, and if they're still unable to follow it, you get gloating rights.

**zharlene** · 06-21-2008 04:59 PM

Thanks for all your comments, you guys are awesome!

HarveyJ, I have some programmer/hardware friends (well, they're the one who told me that's what they're studying). One day I needed some advice on PC specs and they gave me the "I wouldn't know...sorry!".

I think they're just very greedy with knowledge, but expect me to be generous with them.

Many of my friends are the "book smart" types. They'll get As for all their exams, but they're really naive about business. They're the type who would buy a random crappy domain that dropped because it was that crap

and expect to sell it for a million dollars (starting bid). Hmm...

**pboychuk** · 06-21-2008 05:19 PM

Gotta love the "book smart" people, Im not dumb in school or anything, but i swear these people who are pre-professional studying all day long, can be soo stupid.

I have talked with my room mate several times about having money, saving money etc... And he just doesnt seem to get it, he has this idea that once he graduates from medical school, in 100 years, that he will be a millionaire overnight. But, wait he is going to have 100k id student loans, no savings and have lost 8 years just preparing for his job. Im not saying being a professional inhibits you from being rich, its obviously the opposite, but the only hope some book smarts have to becoming rich is their paycheck.

**Aletheides** · 06-23-2008 01:14 AM

You get what you give.

If one my friends truly wants to learn I will teach them, but more often than not they don't want to do the work necessary.

**entrepresooner** · 06-23-2008 11:49 AM

Personally, if they are genuine and really want to learn I would help them. Burning bridges is never a good idea, and who knows when you may need their help. More importantly though it's just the right thing to do as long as you are not hurting yourself by helping them.

You can always tell a genuinely good person because they will go out of their way to help someone from which they have absolutely nothing to gain.

**charliee** · 06-25-2008 04:40 AM

So because they are going out and having fun while you are busy learning, you wont help them? Are these guys your best friends?

Just asking because when I think about it, I know only two or three mates who I would spend time with just to help/teach, no matter what, but these guys are my best friends. If I can help them to become wealthy in any aspect of life by simply passing on my knowledge, and guiding them, then I wouldn't hesitate giving them my time.

The show 'entourage' comes to mind with a quote that goes something like; "Make a lot of money, and bring your best friends along for the ride with you". I believe very strongly that money is nothing unless you have someone else who can enjoy it with you, even if they didn't work as much as you bla bla bla... but yeah Ive gone off in a bit of a tangent there.

What I am trying to say is that if they are your closest friends then you should help them, completely altruistically, it's not their fault they were partying while you were working.

**zharlene** · 06-25-2008 08:14 AM

Nope, they're not my best friends. Come to think of it, my best friends don't even care to know about the stuff I do online.

The people I was talking about are a few people that I met during my first year here at the university. Some of them were my classmates. I would help them out if I did have the time to, but I don't (during our holidays, they've got lots of free time but it's not much of a holiday for me because I still work).

If they weren't so nasty about helping me out whenever I needed their help, I would go all the way into helping them out. I have 3 categories of friends, the "upload", "download" and the "shared folder".

These nosey ones are considered "download" friends, they just want to see what they can get out of me. They've made it clear to me that they will be forever useless...:/

**stand856** · 06-25-2008 09:24 AM

Then I would not even worry about it, just brush them off, by telling them you are too busy working on things and there's no time to spend teaching someone else, because that would set you back. Maybe a little harsh but if they are "users" better keep that in that category.