By Brad Brain
Recently I was confronted with disturbing situation. A successful business owner seems to be poised to lose 70 percent of her substantial net worth because she would rather believe a fairy tale then face hard, cold facts.
She has an unshakable belief that a crypto coin is about to launch in October, and when it does it will immediately become the 6th largest currency in the world. This, of course, is total bull****.
Maybe it launches, maybe it doesn’t. But one thing I know for sure is she just exchanged her real money for imaginary money. That’s a really stupid thing to do.
This situation is painful for me. A close colleague once told me what makes me unique is my strong protective instinct to keep people safe from harm, so when I see people about to get ripped off it really bothers me.
I feel compelled to try to get these future victims to see the light. Alas, my efforts are usually in vain. And the big reason for that is not because I don’t have the facts and reason and logic. It is because emotions are involved.
The real issue at hand is that facing reality would necessarily include the admission that they did something really, really stupid. This is where cognitive dissonance kicks in. Nobody wants to admit they did something stupid, so they hang on to the fantasy that the big con is legit. Because otherwise would be a confession of their own gullibility.
Except the con ain’t legit. It just ain’t.