Greetings to one an all,
I was recently reminded of the 1849 California Gold rush. It wasn’t prospectors or miners who got rich. Most of them went broke. The one’s who got rich were the merchants selling picks and shovels.
When presented with newest ‘opportunity for Notaries’, stop for a moment and ask your self two questions.
- Who benefits the most, the prospector or the merchant?
- Who carries the loss risk, the prospector or merchant?
Keep these questions in mind when you hear about a new certification for Notaries, Master Mind classes, personal coaching, or expensive out of town conferences. If your prospecting efforts fail to show gold, the merchant has lost nothing. Always do your market research before starting a new product or service.
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Great insight! But isn’t that the risk of acquiring knowledge, you have to pay for the coach or instructor’s experience and knowledge. Most of the time a notary can find the information on their own, but there’s a difference between acquired knowledge and applied knowledge. I am willing to pay an mentor for their mentorship, because they can shorten the learning curve. Heard the story about R.U. Darby: “Three Feet from Gold”? It’s a good read about a gold miner in the United States, that gave up to soon.
He lack the specialized knowledge needed to succeed (https://fastlanefreedom.com/the-story-of-r-u-darby-three-feet-from-gold/}. This story was told in a book called “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill is a classic self-help book that explores the blueprint of success and wealth.
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There’s always a risk to just about everything we decide upon in business. There’s foolish/blind risk, then there’s calculated risk. How many individuals jumped into this business without doing any risk analysis or market due diligence before becoming an NSA? How many of our colleagues have left, when the market shifted downwards?
Hill made his money selling his philosophy on how to get rich. He was the merchant not the prospector. Latter analysis of what Hill wrote about, has since been discredited. For example, “…Hill’s claim to a secret formula for success, allegedly revealed to him by Andrew Carnegie, was never substantiated, and many of his other claims, such as aiding Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt, have been widely discredited.” Some analyst have accused Hill of fraud, something some of our fellow NSAs have accused a certain NSA Guru who’s been selling the concept that this is a prosperous business to launch. At his core Hill was a salesman, the only thing that Hill got rich doing was selling books and lectures (aka training) on how to get rich. [The story of Napoleon Hill, controversial creator of the personal success genre]
As the NSA business has slowed, the training experts have shifted focus towards other avenues that Notaries can make a living. As a test, place a few calls to the attorneys in your region asking if they’ve ever heard about a “Trust Delivery Agent”.
I’m reminded of the those who were filled with hope and positive thinking, whose frozen corpses now rest around the peak of Mount Everest. Meanwhile the outfitters and merchants who sell mountain climbing gear are still getting rich.
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