Yeah. I know. It’s a terrible pun. But bear with me.
Over the past year or so, I’ve had the occasional contact with women with *ahem* obvious assets who, when questioned, say something about dealing in cryptocurrency. Just the other day, a woman tried to get me into a conversation about Crypto. Funny how the conversation came to an abrupt halt when I said no. No Crypto. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nyet! Considering last year’s dramatic drop in the value (?) of Crypto, I wonder about the wisdom of even considering it as an investment, being somewhere between a Ponzi scheme and outright robbery. This latest exchange brought to mind “Tulipmania” as happened in Holland at the first part of the seventeenth century.
To recap: Between 1634 and February 3, 1637, someone had the bright idea that Tulips had value beyond just a couple of stray Guilders hanging around the windmill. The value of Tulips skyrocketed toward the end of the year 1636 and February 1637. On February third, the value of Tulips dropped like a rock, eventually hitting pre-Tulipmania levels in a few short weeks.
Although I can’t put a date on it, the same thing happened to Crypto sometime last year. It was floating high, then all of a sudden, the value dropped like a rock. Recent attempts to interest me in Crypto are likely from people who may have been burned.
I told the latest person who attempted to get me interested that whatever she did with crypto was her choice – I wasn’t going to discourage her. (Well, this may be construed as discouragement to her and others, but since I suspect that I won’t be hearing from her again, I’m not losing any sleep.)
Crypto is not the first time nor is it the last time I’ve brushed up against a shady investment. I mentioned the term “Ponzi Scheme.” Other variations are referred to as “Pyramid Schemes” or the more sophisticated (and somewhat more legitimate) “Multi-Level Marketing.”
I recall being out shooting pictures for my high school yearbook when I was approached by someone not much older than I was driving a top-of-the-line Cadillac. There was a short pitch, followed by an invitation to a presentation held at the local YMCA the next evening. I was one of a room filled with people who were invited to participate in something called “Dare To Be Great!” Someone named Glen Turner had been selling cosmetics to a large degree of success. We were invited to take his course, “Dare To Be Great” so that we could sell others on the course to be able to sell others on the course ad-infinitum. It only cost $400 (this was 50 years ago) I didn’t have, and I saw little or no reason to even find the money to invest. Mr. Tolliver (the person who invited me to the course) was disappointed, I’m sure. I wondered for a while how long he was going to be able to afford his Cadillac.
There were several points in time where I encountered Amway. One was when I answered an ad and was invited to a house in an eastern suburb of Columbus Ohio where I was pitched by a man whose wife was running a daycare business with boxes of soap and evidence of several other MLM deals the couple had going. One thing I will say – Amway had some decent products. For some time I was a regular purchaser of their laundry detergent – at first from my then, Father-in-Law, and later from a friend I used to work with. Neither made a career of the business but managed to make a few bucks on the side.
Most of us are looking for ways of making a few bucks on the side.
A woman I know in Japan is out-earning her day job by a side hustle involving something called “Bey Blades.” There’s a site where another woman I am acquainted with bares her body for “tips” on a site called “Only Fans.” Another former co-worker drives an Uber (or is that Lyft) part-time. Or there was the operator of a local pizza buffet who maintained a room full of machines vending cheap trinkets and gumballs in his son’s name. For that matter, I can monetize my little blurbs on this site for tips, or coffee, or to sell my books.
But not now.
Spring is around the corner and the better half is making noises about planting tulips.
Be Seeing You!
bdharrellauthor 