What do you recommend...part I

People often ask me "what business opportunity do I recommend" and they're surprised, disappointed or even offended when I reply that I don't usually make specific recommendations.

There is no way I am going to shoulder the responsibility of recommending a business opportunity to someone for two very good reasons:

• The business may fold or flop for any number of reasons
• I have no idea what the asker will do to make the business work

And if they invest months or even years into something that fails, even if it's their own fault, who will get the blame? So many people that fail to make something work blame it on external effects. What is it they say - if you point at someone, 3 fingers are pointing back at you!

They might ask me, "well how the heck do you get referrals if you will never promote anything?"

Simple. I will tell anyone what I do if they ask but make it clear that there's a risk to everything and therefore they need to take responsibility for any decision to join. I don't want to go so far as to recommend anything that is likely to become that person's sole endeavour, something they pour their heart and soul into and rely on as 'the one'.

What I will happily do is show them my strategy for success - and in my eyes, guaranteed success. Many of them won't like it because it's not the quick, instant riches they were looking for and off they go to join the other serial bizopp'ers.

I personally guarantee what I consider myself to be good at and I take full responsibility for what I show and teach. But I won't take responsibility for something I have no control over - that's a recipe for disaster.

However, I take a less reserved attitude to saying what I wouldn't touch with a 12 foot pole. And I may be wrong about a program but there's a lot less potential relationship damage. Besides, I always preface everything with 'in my opinion...'. Yes I have Teflon shoulders; but why give me the responsibility - I don't want it.

What I want reponsibility for is having a strong relationship with anyone I come into contact with and that means never compromising that by recommending anything I am less than 99.9% confident about - and to a lesser extent, taking responsibility for their online 'safety' by trying to steer them away from 'if it walks like a duck' type bizops.

In part II I'll share what I think should be a red flag when considering 'bizops' and my strategy for a safe, log-term income. In the meantime, a good strategy is don't recommend or promote anything you wouldn't hand-on-heart promote offline, face to face to your best friend.