Fear Is a Warning, Not a Decision

A few days ago, Tomeletso posted a blog here at Wealthy Affiliate called Fear Can Be Turned Into Knowledge.

One line in particular stuck with me:

“Don’t understand it? Don’t pay for it yet.”

I think that is probably one of the better rules somebody new to online business can follow.

But the more I thought about her post, the more I realized there is a larger idea behind it.

We are often told not to let fear stop us.

That is good advice sometimes.

But I do not think fear itself is always the problem.

Sometimes fear is trying to tell us:

Something here deserves a closer look.

The mistake is allowing fear to make the decision for us.

Fear Can Be Useful

There are plenty of good reasons to be cautious online.

Scams exist.

People make unrealistic income promises.

Some products are not what they claim to be.

There are hidden costs, recurring subscriptions, pressure tactics, questionable links, and people asking for information they probably do not need.

So if something makes me uncomfortable, I do not think the answer is automatically:

“Ignore the fear and do it anyway.”

Sometimes caution is exactly what we need.

But there is also a big difference between:

“Something about this concerns me.”

and:

“This concerns me, therefore it must be a scam.”

Fear can raise the question.

It should not automatically answer it.

Replace Fear With Questions

This was the part of Tomeletso’s post that really made me think.

Instead of deciding immediately that something is good or bad, we can start asking questions.

Who is making the claim?

What are they actually selling?

What am I really getting for my money?

What does it cost?

Are there additional or recurring costs?

How does the company make its money?

Are the promises realistic?

Am I being pressured to decide quickly?

What do people outside the company say about it?

Do I understand what I am paying for well enough to explain it to somebody else?

You do not have to become an expert before you buy anything.

But I think you should understand enough to know what you are agreeing to.

That is why I really like Tomeletso’s rule:

Don’t understand it? Don’t pay for it yet.

Notice that it does not say:

Don’t understand it? Never buy it.

It says yet.

Learn first.

Then decide.

Verification Is Different From Trust

A few days after her first post, Tomeletso wrote another one about links.

That brought up another part of this for me.

If somebody sends me a link that looks questionable, investigating it does not necessarily mean clicking it to see what happens.

I can look at the address.

I can search for the company separately.

I can find what appears to be the official website myself.

I can look for information from other sources.

I can investigate without immediately trusting the thing I am investigating.

That same principle applies beyond links.

Someone I trust can recommend something and still be wrong.

An affiliate can genuinely like a product and still overlook a problem with it.

A company can be perfectly legitimate and still sell something that does not make sense for me.

And somebody criticizing a company does not automatically make the company bad either.

Trust can influence where I look. Verification should influence what I decide.

We Should Apply the Same Standard to Wealthy Affiliate

One thing I liked about Tomeletso’s original post was that she used Wealthy Affiliate as an example without saying:

“We use Wealthy Affiliate, so you should trust it.”

She said people should still investigate it.

I agree.

If somebody is considering Wealthy Affiliate, I think they should understand what the membership includes, what it costs, what they are expected to do, and whether it fits what they are trying to accomplish.

They should understand that joining a platform does not guarantee that they will make money.

They should ask questions.

They should compare what they are being told with what they actually find.

I would rather somebody understand what they are joining than sign up because they were afraid of missing out.

That does not weaken a recommendation.

I think it makes the recommendation more credible.

The Other Extreme Is Not Much Better

There is another side to this.

Some people become so afraid of scams that they start treating everything online as suspicious.

I understand how that happens.

Once somebody has been burned, it is natural to become more careful.

But:

Scams exist online.

does not logically mean:

Everything online is a scam.

If blind trust can cost us money, blind suspicion can cost us opportunities.

The answer is not to trust everything.

The answer is not to reject everything either.

The answer is to investigate.

That is why I keep coming back to this:

Concern should trigger verification, not assumption.

Knowledge Does Not Guarantee We Will Never Be Wrong

There is one more distinction I think matters.

Research is not magic.

We can investigate something carefully and still make a bad decision.

Companies change.

People misrepresent things.

We misunderstand information.

Sometimes we simply get something wrong.

The goal is not to create a system where we never make another mistake.

I do not think that system exists.

The goal is to make fewer decisions based on things we do not understand.

If I am going to spend my money, give someone my information, join a program, buy a tool, or invest my time into something, I want to know why I am doing it.

That does not eliminate risk.

But it gives me a better chance of recognizing a problem before I commit to it.

Fear Gets a Warning Light, Not the Steering Wheel

I think that may be the way I look at fear now.

Fear is not always something that needs to be defeated.

Sometimes it is a warning light.

It tells me:

Stop for a minute. Look at this. Something may not be right.

Fine.

I can listen to that warning.

Then I want to start asking questions.

I want to learn.

I want to research.

I want to verify what I can.

And then I want to make the decision.

Not fear.

Not excitement.

Not somebody selling me something.

Not somebody telling me everything is a scam.

Me.

Tomeletso ended her post with a sequence I think is worth remembering:

Learn. Research. Verify. Then decide.

I think that is a pretty good way to approach a lot more than online business.

What do you check before you spend money on something online?

JD