No, I mean it. Mojo is serious this time.

I've been reading this book by an economist who (among other things) has a great anecdote about what one of his profs at his Famous MBA School told the entire class if they wanted to go into business and all become stockbrokers. Because--and I've heard this from several, several people--the only way any casual investor can "make a killing" in the market aside from devoting their lives to studying it (snore) is to know a great deal about a particular industry and make your picks by how you feel professionally about the various companies you deal with every day in your industry. If indeed you know a particular industry really, really well, you will do somewhat better than the stock "experts" who are really just talking out of their butts.

I am reading this not so much because I have Giant Plans to become Fabulously Wealthy Overnight, but as an auxilliary to my amusing pasttime of reading self-help for fun (playing Spot-the-Upsell, mostly) coupled with my interest in copywriting and how the two often coincide--since, duh, if you can write persuasively and you have no conscience to speak of you can easily manipulate desperate needy crisis-laden people into giving you money. There's a whole subset, I am discovering, geared toward people who don't want to earn money but instead want to magically wake up rich one of these days. These materials are particularly shameless in manipulating people's greed, and to be honest Mojo finds it hard to feel sorry for someone being taken in because they're greedy and lazy. (If you're greedy and lazy AND unpleasant to boot, congratulations! You've just won the Mojo Trifecta! Okay, so just sit here on this little nasty hard folding chair and wait. I'll come back presently with your EXCITING PRIZE. No, no, don't get up, just sit there...I'll be right back, I promise.....(tiptoetiptoetiptoe))

Usually with self-help and New Agey sort of stuff the upsell is done very badly and ham-fisted, but once in a while you come across a real gem. Rarely, though. Most of the time they all follow a similar formula. Especially all the get-rich-quick internet schemes, for they are written and/or promoted by and/or inspired by the direct mail copywriting people, who actively brag about "conversion rates", which is what percentage of recipients they can nudge into buying the often worthless products they are flogging. You can spot them instantly--page after page of nothing but text and the occasional clip art graphic, with screaming red headlines promising ludicrous promises about instant, effortless wealth. Mojo finds it endlessly amusing.

Anyway, I've decided next week will be devoted to such scams, culminating with the start-your-own-stockbrokering-business promised above. Because Mojo finds them so very interesting and amusing. But in the meantime, as a mea culpa to the world, I will instead offer this one tiny chance for folks to use their language skills for good, via a link my Favorite Younger Sister's been touting. So all thanks and gushing red headlines to her (my, that just DOESN'T SOUND GOOD, does it? Geez, NO ONE's gonna hire Mojo as a copywriter when they see that, huh?) and hie yourself to Free Rice to use your wordsmithing skills for good.

Have a good weekend!

Mojo