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red letter days
Aug. 16th, 2013 05:45 pmThis is a year of big deal birthdays for me. My daughter just turned twenty-one. My son will be eighteen in a few months. In between, I'll turn fifty.
Mungo was out late enough that Neal called me to ask if I knew of his whereabouts or his plans. He called back later to say that Mungo was on his way home with a money-making proposition. With a guy with a money-making proposition that Mungo needed parental permission to sign up for, since he is not yet eighteen. Neal asked Mungo to tell him what it was over the phone, but the guy wanted to be the one to make the pitch -- he asked for "just twenty minutes!" -- and Mungo said "Will you trust me?" so of course Neal said yes. Even third-hand, it sounded like an MLM, which is what it turned out to be. WorldVentures Marketing.
Now Mungo doesn't want to talk about it. I want to talk to him about how to recognize scams before you get taken, but he is embarrassed. He will listen if I talk, of course, because he is polite, but I don't want to talk at him while he's being polite. I want him to want to learn what I know.
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. It's good to learn from other people's bad judgement when you can, but in order to learn from your own experience you have to be able to put aside the veil of shame and look at it.
Mungo was out late enough that Neal called me to ask if I knew of his whereabouts or his plans. He called back later to say that Mungo was on his way home with a money-making proposition. With a guy with a money-making proposition that Mungo needed parental permission to sign up for, since he is not yet eighteen. Neal asked Mungo to tell him what it was over the phone, but the guy wanted to be the one to make the pitch -- he asked for "just twenty minutes!" -- and Mungo said "Will you trust me?" so of course Neal said yes. Even third-hand, it sounded like an MLM, which is what it turned out to be. WorldVentures Marketing.
Now Mungo doesn't want to talk about it. I want to talk to him about how to recognize scams before you get taken, but he is embarrassed. He will listen if I talk, of course, because he is polite, but I don't want to talk at him while he's being polite. I want him to want to learn what I know.
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. It's good to learn from other people's bad judgement when you can, but in order to learn from your own experience you have to be able to put aside the veil of shame and look at it.