This is part 3 of a 4-part series on T. Harv Eker’s “Never Work Again” seminar held in June 2010. Opinions expressed here are my own.
- Part 1: Never Work Again Seminar: Introduction
- Part 2: Day 1 Review
- Part 3: Day 2 Review
- Part 4: Days 3 & 4 Review and Conclusion
Day 2 Overview
Here’s an overview of the topics for Day 2. Due to copyright reasons, I’ve listed down the topics of the segments but not the actual titles.
- Google Adsense*
- Investing in US Stock Markets*
- [ Lunch Break ]
- Tax Liens*
- Forex Trading*
- [ Dinner Break ]
- Real Estate Investment*
- Successful Investing
* These are sales pitch sessions. They follow this general formula: (1) A 10-minute introduction on why this particular method creates passive income, (2) 15-minute brief sharing on how they do it, followed by (3) 20-minute sales pitch for their course/program to learn this skill so you can create passive income for yourself.
Pitching Seminar vs. Content-based
After attending 2 days of “Never Work Again,” I now have a clear idea of how NWA works. It’s not a content-based seminar at all. Rather, it’s a platform that puts sellers, which are trainers/speakers with something to pitch, before a large pool of audience, who are meant to be potential buyers.
These sellers can be (1) real estate/financial companies with ready products/investments that need investors or (2) self-made millionaires who have achieved success via their own passive income strategies (assuming that they are legit) and are now building a business training others to achieve the same success using the same steps. For the latter group, the product they pitch is usually some highly expensive coaching/training on how to earn passive income via the same strategy they used.
During NWA, the trainer, who is really the seller, uses his allotted segment to share a snippet of his success strategies, which is borderline informative but insufficient for the audience to act on. He then pitches his product/service/program. So essentially NWA is a seminar of pitches and upselling people to more seminars/products.
This isn’t quite what I expected. I had expected NWA to be an actual content-filled seminar that teaches passive income strategies, not a seminar of pitches and upselling to other programs that cost several thousands of dollars each. I was also looking beyond just tactics and for timeless strategies to apply in our lives straight away. Note that this is not an open-to-public, free-for-everyone seminar, but a seminar with a listed price tag of S$1,000-3,000 (US$800-2,400), which is a fair sum of money to me.
Unfortunately, neither of my expectations have been met in Days 1 and 2. The sensational description filled with big promises (“Learn up to fifteen unique passive business opportunities and then structure them to create income without you—forever!”) didn’t help manage expectations either.
What NWA Is Good For
I suppose NWA has its own value if you have absolutely zero knowledge about finance or investment opportunities.
- It’s good if you want to get some awareness of some methods that people are earning passive income through (assuming that these are real legitimate methods that they are using to make P.I. as opposed to training about such methods) and you have a big pool of cash to invest in another course and learn from trainer X who claims to teach you to earn passive income with tactic Y.
However, the question then boils down to, “Will this program deliver on what is promised? Is this trainer really earning money from applying this tactic or is he/she earning money from teaching seminars?”
Based on what I’ve noticed as a trainer, often times such courses lead to more upselling, where you need to pay even more just to learn some X knowledge which is supposedly crucial to succeed in your goal — sort of like dangling a perpetual carrot that you can never get. It’s quite a slimy sales technique IMO. Many trainers in the “make money” circuit make the bulk of their money from the training, not from applying the tactics they are teaching.
I can’t comment on the NWA trainers since I don’t know them and I didn’t sign up for their courses, but I’d think very carefully before paying such a large sum of money to anyone, especially people I just knew about on the day itself, especially with too-good-to-be-true claims. - If you don’t have money to do #1, the seminar still provides some vague value in that it shares various passive income tactics — from internet advertising to tax liens, to real estate, to stocks — along with a very, very surface idea of how they work. Yet, these are nothing you can’t already look up on Google and learn in a matter of minutes. Also, many of these tactics are quite dangerous and risky IMO, in that they can result in big losses of money, not just losses of time and effort. I would personally stay away if you have no idea what you are doing.
But if you are looking for actual, actionable step-by-step information that will help you generate passive income, then sorry, no, you will not find this in Never Work Again. The information shared on the methods are insufficient for you to act on your own.
Day 3 and Day 4
I’m still waiting to see if they will be covering any real passive-income principles and strategies vs. tactics, especially for businesses. Let’s see how it goes. :)
As I’m running my own workshop tomorrow on Day 3 (I’ll be training a group of students at a community center), I’ll be not be around for the morning and afternoon segments. I’ll connect with Tatt and O to check what I missed. I’m looking forward to my workshop tomorrow — it’ll be fun to coach students for a change since most of my workshop participants and clients are usually adults! :D
Continue on to Part 4: Never Work Again Seminar – Days 3 & 4 Review and Conclusion
This is part 3 of a 4-part series on T. Harv Eker’s “Never Work Again” seminar held in June 2010. Opinions expressed here are my own.
- Part 1: Never Work Again Seminar: Introduction
- Part 2: Day 1 Review
- Part 3: Day 2 Review
- Part 4: Days 3 & 4 Review and Conclusion
I think the very term “passive income” is misleading because it implies that no additional effort is required after the initial set-up.
But all these examples I see require long-term dedication and effort. It is not truly passive, at least not in the way people imagine it to be.
An internet-based business is still a business.
I’m really enjoying your honest and insightful reviews of this seminar. Well done for keeing it real.
Thanks Topi, I’m glad the review useful for you :) I’ll continue sharing over the next few days of how the seminar goes.
Thanks so much Celes for taking the time to write when you have a gazillion other things to do. :)
I have attended the MMI a couple of years back here in Vancouver. The seminar was good overall and worth the time and effort (if you learn to tune out the extra stuff). It was offered for free but was packed with all sorts of promotional and sales plugs. I thought it was fair since the course was free.
It seems this is the standard from what I read so far of Day 1 and Day 2 review and what a friend who paid a few thousand dollars for a marketing seminar in the states told me.
I’m sure there is value in some of the content but … I find it fascinating that they use extremely long hours for days. I personally didn’t buy any other courses but I think a lot of people signed up for a lot of courses when they were tired and high on emotion. Good or not so good… I don’t know. It’s something to think about though :)
Dear Celestine,
I love your clarity and objectivity. Thanks for sharing this interesting information.
All the best,
Boris
I attended the seminar last year and i totally agreed with your comments. Anyway you are much smarter than i am when analysing about setting up a business and not working again. I mean I set up a business last year (partly because of what i learned from the class). It was supposed to bring in passive income but not until now. I have been experiencing a lot of problems on it. I know that no business is really a ‘passive’ income vehicle, especially at the start. But the amount of problems I face just make me feel really bad.
That’s why i really think you are much smarter than i am to correctly think through it that we should not create a business that we don’t really really love.
My business is making some profit for me now, but i still regret ever creating it. I want my time back to do what i really love.
Thanks for sharing and good luck to you and all.
Hi Celes,
I agree with your opinions on how they run the seminars. I personally attended the MMI (free) and Guerilla Business Intensive (not free) seminar there in Singapore. I had to go there from the Philippines so I am really expecting to learn a lot so I could apply them to my life. No offense meant to the organizers since I learned a lot but somehow it does not commensurate the expenses I incurred. There are so many promotional intervals and they will make you feel guilty that you are depriving yourself of something if you do not buy their future seminars or if you do not sign up for their Quantum Leap membership thing. Luckily I did not sign up of NWA since it will conflict with my monthly work schedule and I can’t really take a leave, but I am really tempted during the time they are saying about it on the stage.
Keep up the good work.
Mnemosyne
Hey Mnemosyne, thanks. I’m going to MMI this November (end of mth), special thanks to one of my readers who gave me a free VIP ticket. Already I’m having a good idea of how the seminar will be like, based on your sharing and other readers’ comments in the NWA posts. Still, I’ll be attending and will write my reviews on them after that.
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