Dangers of Following the Crowd – A Lesson From Jonestown!
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Last week i watched on TV about the incredibly sad Jonestown massacre. This was an American cult led by Jim Jones and it became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 909 “members” died in Jonestown, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in an event termed “revolutionary suicide” by Jones and some members on an audio tape of the event and in prior discussions.
To the extent the actions in Jonestown were viewed as a mass suicide, it is the largest such event in modern history and resulted in the largest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001.
This really made me think about how we as humans often NEED someone or something to grab onto.
This is by no means bad… I really believe that it is a perfectly normal human nature to want to believe in something and belong to something bigger then ourselves.
In my legendary (in my mind anyway) way of thinking and explaining things out, I ask that you just please bear with me here and yes this is eventually getting to a big point of running your business.
- Were people fools for wanting something “bigger” to have hope in?
- Were people fools for wanting to see what this “Jim Jones” was talking about?
ABSOLUTELY NOT… in my opinion anyway.
What i personally think was foolish however was blindly giving up on everything else, without proving it to yourself
When i listened to the interviews with the followers, I had to ask myself…
“Did this really fit into what they knew was right… or were they just blindly following someone else?”
In any of my membership sites, I always make a couple things clear…
1. “Do NOT listen to theory mongers”.
If you are giving them money and they are not willing to show you real life proof that is recent, well then how can you trust them? I always do real life live examples in my training to show people exactly what i am doing, that i am actually doing it and that it works. I know 100% for certain of a couple very popular products that did well on clickbank and were 100% theory and not from actual results the supposed authors claimed. One of them even tried to claim traffic results from the product itself but was actually based off of a former product launch that got a massive spike in traffic from his buddies emailing their list. Do not worry i have never and never will recommend or promote their products!
2. “Make it YOUR plan”.
What i mean by that is use what I teach you as a launching pad… do not just solely rely on what i teach as the end all be all. Figure out what works for you and fit it into your business model… if it all fits, that is GREAT… but if only parts of it fit or even none of it fits… well that’s great too… as long as you are basing it on your own proven results.
Did you catch that last point there… “as long as you are basing it on your own proven results.”
I remember last year, a member of one of my sites arguing with me about a strategy I recommended and how he did not want to implement it because he read an email from someone. First of all the email he referenced was 100% bullcrap (in my opinion) totally just trying to scare the person so they would buy their product. This however was not what bothered me so much as to the reason he gave for making the decision. It was because someone he trusted, recommended he check out a free report… from someone else who he never listened to before or has seen results from before.
So… what this came down to was even though I was openly showing real life proof of what i was recommending the person do and that it really worked… the person still went blindly in a different direction because (without proof) someone told him something that convinced him to give up on everything else and invest in him instead… without any real life proof!
So back to the two questions…
- Was he a fool for wanting something “bigger” to have hope in?
- Was he a fool for wanting to see what this “Supposed Expert” was talking about?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
But ABSOLUTELY YES for blindly giving up on what he could see with his own eyes was working!
If you can get one single thing from this post… i hope it is this.
BE CAREFUL! If someone is telling you something and is not willing to show you real life proof (that is their own and not someone else’s) but still wants you to risk giving them money… are they really trustworthy?
Do not just follow the pack…
LEARN + IMPLEMENT + TEST –> then if it works, do not just give up on everything else… fit it into your business model and move forward!
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I saw a movie on Jonestown as a teen, and I have never forgotten it. As a result I have been careful to teach my own kids to never ever blindly follow anyone, but they need to think for themselves and evaluate what they are taught.
Of course, the first ‘expert’ your kids will get to know, will be you, the parent. We need to be prepared to let our kids be ‘critical’ of what we tell them. We need to let them form their own opinions and be prepared to debate with them. Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting we let your kids always follow through on the conclusions they come to (you are still the parent!) but we do need to let them question you without us blowing a gasket.
And we need the humility and honesty to back down, if our kids convince you that not all of our ‘expert’ opinions are correct.
And hopefully, if we do this, our kids will never make the same mistakes those people in Jonestown made.
@ Meryl
Kids of today’s world is too smart. They have the brain of mature people of 70s. So you do not have to worry about that.
Excellent advice… parenting is a hard job… I am raising two young girls. They need to have confidence in tier ability to make decisions and part of that is sometimes allowing them to make bad choices and being there to help them learn from it and understand why it was bad… and also be there to reward them if the choice we thought was bad.. actually turns out good.
If you will show your trust on them than believe me your work will be more easy. My father always shows confidence on us. Even when we out for whole night one phone call was enough to tell father that we wont come tonight.
Because of his confidence I think we never involved in any bad habit.
I think people are usually lazy and undisciplined when it comes to creating a business and they tend to listen to the person who promises the easiest “method” of getting rich. They are all looking for “get rich fast schemes”. Trusting your friends 100% is the worst thing you could ever do. I am not saying that you should ignore their advice. It’s just that you should listen and then analyze all the details and only after that you should act (measure twice, cut once). There is a saying: “frinds won’t pull you up, they just won’t let you fall”. So if you want to get rich you should stop listening to “friends” and blindly follow their advice because most of them haven’t really achieved anything major in their lives. Enstein says that you should never expect to achieve different results if your actions are the same. So whose actions do you want to follow?
interesting reply… i like the Einstein quote… thats a great one.
I actually remember Jonestown. I was 18 then and as a teenager, we thought it was a tragedy yet couldn’t believe people would follow that idiot.
The point is, you have to research ideas and believe in yourself to follow your own path, not someone else’s.
I completely agree with you, great advice.
It’s a while since I read anything about Johnstown, but my first thoughts were that it was a lot like Germany while Hitler was the top guy. Everything he preached did sound awesome to his followers.
I’ve met many theory mongers, especially in the “how to make money” niche. The only thing that should work, is live example. Even though I know that a lot of people take for granted that, if the theory seems interesting enough, it has to be just as good when you use it.
Recently, I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter, tweeting affiliate links to “get 500 new followers every single day” schemes, and when you look at their profile, they have 10 followers. Hopefully, people will discover this before they buy whatever they’re offering.
The problem I’m having is making whatever you, and everyone else is teaching, into my own plan. I have written an ebook, and I think it’s actually fairly good, but I’m not sticking to a plan regarding how to spread the word. I just keep doing it my way, keep going back and fourth when it comes to the marketing of the ebook.
- Jens -
LOL… ya twitter is actually starting to annoy me now with that.
Great advice!
I’ve always had trouble raising my children in a critic spirit,I hope they can fix every situation when I’m gone
Tomas
tienda de informatica
I completely agree that when you are buying a product that is a blueprint so to speak that you want to see results and numbers. I pay great attention to products with numbers from this year. I stay away from products that are more than 2 years old. And even newer depending on the product or niche. I think we all are looking for the “lifestyle” we just have to be smart about how we go about getting that lifestyle. People, as you know or should know there is no get rich quick scheme that works. If so, there would be more millionaires in the world. Business takes time and if you want to succeed be prepared to wait and be persistent.
If you all get a chance, listen to the audio of Jim Jones telling his followers they were all going to have to kill themselves. One woman tries to argue against it and fails. Harrowing.
ya… that audio is incredibly disturbing. There is some really good interviews with his son too… his son seems like a great guy and admits to realizing his father was psychotic a few years before this happened, but never dreamed he would do that.
Thanks for sharing this useful article and I have learned something great from here..
Thanks
Alam
When your post describes someone wandering off to an untested product or untried Internet tools. I can’t help thinking internet marketers have A.D.D.
Attention deficit disorder or
Attention defic Ohh thats shiny!
We always lose some along the way!
GREAT post, John! There are so many new shiny objects out there these days (with all walks of life), and it’s important to be cautious and ask questions before taking something at face value.
Even though you may be in some internet mastermind group, everyone has the ability to sculpt their online business shaping it into the exact entity of which they can be proud and will make them successful.
Of course, we can further interpret what each of us considers as making us ‘proud’ and ’successful’.
Develop your own business with the right products and elements that suit you. Only use the ones that you choose and not the ones forced or powerfully suggested by someone else or what is used by the rest of the group.
They don’t live at your house or wear all of your hats.
Jason,
Your post made me think. You related a great example. But when you say ‘make your own plan’ how one can be sure that the plan is right?
Best
Saikat
I totally agree. A blueprint is nothing until the work is taken on board as your own. Responsibility and ownership are most important in any business. Thanks again for a great post!
You know, people in that mind set ultimately want someone to blame other than themselves when something goes wrong. “Hey, my Life’s all mucked up!— It’s *THAT* person’s fault!”
I see this in IM and in a few of my clients- They’d prefer to have things done for them, have things explained to them, need to be led by the hand… and when things don’t go as they should according to their “plan”, they blame someone else rather than themselves.
I’m past empathy for the pathetic. If that’s the way they are, let them be- eventually they may learn… or, they’ll just drink that Kool Aid.
What’s up Fry road? I used to live close by, on Mason Rd.!
What actually work for other may not work for us but however we can learn from their experiences. We do not need to emulate every move, there’s no perfect plan on how to run or market you business. Each is unique one way or another.
Kristine, ATT Uverse Reviews