“The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it” –King Solomon (Proverbs 10:22)

The word ‘secret’ is one of the most used words in online marketing. “The secret to explosive sex”, screams one headline. “The secret to becoming a millionaire instantly”, beckons another. “The secret to having many followers”, another title would offer. No doubt these headlines and titles work.

What can we do to safeguard against this generation’s host of tricksters? The following are proven and tested methods.

1.Are you in Control?

At the core of a success story, the main character is fully involved and fully engaged. He is in total control of all his resources that he is channeling towards success. If somebody is prescribing to you a formula for success in which your involvement and control does not matter, you ought to shun it. It is especially more dangerous if you will bear all the consequences of failure per chance the prescription of success does not work. It simply means you are being used.

2.Is it all about Benjis?

If anything or anyone prescribes to you a formula for success that is purely monetary, you need to think twice. As it turns out, the greatest need for your life is not money! Do you know how I found out? It is when you did not have any financial pressure, you still had that feeling of ‘there being more to life than this’. If someone’s solution is set to ‘guarantee’ you only financial success, please test it against other things before you grab it.

3.Does it fulfill your wildest dreams in record time?

Thirdly, a shortcut is anything that promises you your wildest dreams ever over a record time! True, there are things that we can do that can shorten the process of acquiring our desires. However, these things have already passed test number two above. For example, Goal Setting is not only a success principle, but also a divine strategy for making us better in addition to acquiring what we desired to become or have.

If, by the end of the process you are involving yourself in you do not get better as a human being in terms of virtues, beliefs, character and vision, eventually the tangible gains you are getting come to a halt. The tangible gains deteriorate and ultimately grow wings and fly away, leaving you as empty as a vacuum.

4.Do you know the Process and the People involved intimately?

God has already said that ‘my people perish for lack of knowledge’. It is instrumental to note that one of the greatest investors of the present world has said that he would never invest in anything that he does not understand. The same should apply to all of us. Knowledge does not mean mental assent. Knowledge means intimate understanding. If you do not have an intimate understanding of the process that you are undertaking, especially if it is being conducted by somebody else…and you also do not have an intimate understanding of that person, you are short-cutting.

5.Is the solution provider’s vision in alignment with yours?

Does your solution provider have a passionate vision of helping people like you in the first place? Anybody without a vision is bound to fail. Vision is extremely critical. Vision should serve others more than it serves self. Vision is able to sustain something through thick and thin because it has already anticipated the tough and tumble.

If you are joining a process just to sort you out on one aspect, and that project lacks vision, you might be short-cutting. <span class=”pullquote”>One thing about shortcuts is that they serve the present moment so accurately sufficient that they give an illusion of perfection over the coming age of the future</span> .So you might be basing your decision on the bells and whistles of the now…and forget to check the firmness of the project over a long period of time. Vision is not for tomorrow. Vision is for generations. If they do not have a vision, they are short-cutting.

6.Does the existing government know about this?

Many people shun the advice of the legal bodies around. People are so desperate to make a kill in the shortest time possible that they will do everything but check with the local authorities. If the project you are involving yourself with does not have any legislation from the government of the day, it means that you have no security in case anything goes wrong. You cannot afford to do that.

A simple inquiry would help unearth the answer. Let me say that lawyers are not necessarily the people to ask. Lawyers can defend anything on the face of the earth. That is why there will always be defense lawyers no matter how obvious a case is. In fact as this is being written, a case in the United States in which a white man who was armed killed ‘in self defense’ a black young man has raised a tumult. That white man was set free! If you want to find out about legislation of a project, a process or a business, you ask a governmental body and not a lawyer.

7.Where is your sweat and accountability?

Lastly, a shortcut can be seen from miles ahead if it offers to cover all your costs and losses. Only God Almighty has the capacity to do that. This is life and in the dance of life, it takes two to tango. When you enter into a relationship of any kind and the other party promises to cover all the negatives that the relationship will suffer…you are being enticed. Many people love to have a normal heart beat. We do not want our hearts to race because we are afraid to fail, or because we are incurring losses. That is why when someone or a company promises to bear all the losses, many people welcome the idea.

What are your thoughts about lawyers? I thought that point sounded controversial.