Brainwashing innocent souls into money hungry bastards.

“Networking?” was the first thing came up in my mind the moment a friend of mine invited me to attend this certain seminar about a little something related to the aforementioned. I can’t really tell what it is due to a lack of a proper term for it but all I could say that heads did definitely roll. I may not be able to explain it very well but I hope you get the picture of the situation right.

So yesterday I went to Ortigas, following the directions given to me by my friend. I just came out from school for an org meeting held on a supposedly class-less day for me. I eventually found the venue, which is housed in a really tall building near St. Francis Square (Can’t name names and places right now, sorry!). Once the guards let me inside, I went to my friend’s meeting place at the 15th floor.

I really have no clue of what’s this seminar is all about except that hints about “opportunities”. It’s kind of obvious that it’s an invitation-only event since there also other people like me who got invited to people like my friend.

Then, a 20-something executive was introduced to me by my friend. He asked me of what I’ve heard about the meeting and what was my expectations about it. Feeling that he’s going to drag me to a business-themed conversation, I also shared to him of my goals/plans in the future: about setting up a business, hooking up a partnership with me friends, those kinds of stuff. I just don’t know what was going on his mind that time, but I have a feeling he may have misinterpreted my aspirations into something “more concrete”, thinking that I am as much of a business-oriented guy as he is.

Okay, the seminar started with a short video preview of what the seminar’s all about. Done ala-HSN style, it asked us if we want to earn more money given the economic situation and the recent boom of the health and wellness industry. Then a female speaker formally started the seminar with an overview of what the company is all about. She showed us about the general company profile, its vision-mission, its product line-up, its current target market (Baby Boomers), and the reason why we were here.

It was quite interesting though but what really surprised me was that of the second speaker. He introduced himself as a UP graduate, having worked in a well-known multinational company, having travelled to different countries and is now a top executive in this company, earning hundreds of thousand of pesos (exaggerated yes but quite almost there).

He stressed the types of working-class people: 1)Those who spend more time working for money but with less time for themselves, 2)Those who worked less but spends more time for themselves, 3)Those who don’t really work to earn money nor do they free time, and, 4)Those who spend as much time working to earn money as they have time for themselves.

He pointed out their reason for inviting us in the first place (but never exactly mentioning the reason why we were there). They are looking for people who want to earn a lot of money but with less working hours, or even days! Heck, this guy who possibly earns hundreds of thousands of pesos only works for a minimum of three hours for three days a week! He says the company that he’s in is going to train people, like me, to become “business-oriented educators’ with enough training to balance time managing our other commitments like our studies, side jobs, etc.

This speaker showed us a powerpoint presentation wherein it shows a pie graph of the money-earning populations for which 1 out of 100 people is classified as wealthy. From that percentage, is a pie graph showing the different groups of wealthy people. What quite disturbing though is how he made negative comments on traditional business ventures like franchising, he somehow made us feel scared by how he explained to us the bad side of the business corporate world.

The seminar ended at 5:30 but the day is far from over. My friend and his mentor asked me how I felt with regards to the seminar. Puzzling as I was that time, I somehow contradicted all the past statements that I’ve made prior to the seminar. I was all too afraid of what I’m gonna say to them knowing that even as legal as this company of theirs is, what they’re offering is a job in scamming and networking disguised as an innocent yet unnamed type of job.

Then came another mentor of my friend. Fast-forwarding details, I explained to him my qualms, and my thoughts about this “thing”. I said to him that even though I like the kind of idea that the company is doing, I worry that this MIGHT or IS a RISK not worth taking. I have to give him all the possible factors to convince him and my friend that I am not willing to take the risk. I even pointed out my parents as a factor, but he said that I could always bring them down here to show what the company is about, but knowing my own flesh-and-blood, it’s next to impossible.

I left Ortigas past 7pm from being there since 2:30 (it was supposed to be a 1 hour affair LOLz!). I got home at 8:30pm.

Even now, I still feel disturbed by the kind of job offering they were giving me. But after putting a lot of thought about it, I decided that it’s not worth taking. For me it’s dangerous, morally illegal, and very opportunistic.

They say that this is an opportunity for me to better my standard of living, but the thought of turning me into a “business-minded product educator” who’s job is not “persuading” client to buy the company’s products but merely “educating” them about it so they could be convinced on buying them anyway is an opportunity for me to become a greedy corporate monster in a corbata suit. Then my answer is NOT IN THIS LIFE TIME!

So guys, ingat lang talaga sa mga ganitong tao, lalo pa’t sa mga taong malapit sa’yo pero nakumbinsing sumali sa mga ganito klaseng modus operandi!