Dealing with the Tricks of Billionaires on Event Platforms

What will you do with your Platform?

Last week, someone in my family informed me that an extremely well-known billionaire (who will not be named) was going to be in town at a speaking event, and my family member had tickets. I remember thinking: “How cool is this? I always see them on TV! It will be amazing to see them speak in person!” The event was marketed towards people seeking success, and it seemed like it was going to be a motivational/uplifting occasion.

The day of the event came and it was a full house. We were lucky and got there early⁠—we were sitting in the second row! The energy was palpable and I kept thinking to myself, “This is going to be great.” The time finally came. The host came out, introduced himself, gave some background on his success, and tied in how he works with the billionaire who will not be named. I will say this host was the epitome of what a speaker should be: high-energy, and intriguing. It made me even more excited.

The grand moment arrived, the billionaire stepped out onto the stage and I could not believe it. He was right there. He spoke of his rags to riches story, which I will say is truly inspiring. He told stories, made us laugh, and exited the stage after about 10 minutes.

I quickly began to grow disappointed, realizing most of this event will be with other keynote speakers⁠—none of which I (or my family member) was familiar with. However, I wanted to give these speakers a fair chance. Maybe they’d say something that was of value. Maybe there was at least one golden nugget they could give me. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Most of this event came to be a real estate seminar, to put it simply. No disrespect to anyone in real estate, but I have zero interest in making a career of it. Sparing you all the frustrating and boring details, this seminar came off as an awful pitch for a (pricey) 3-day course on real estate. I thought to myself: “You have got to be kidding me.”

My family member and I ended up walking out of the event, as we realized this was not going to be what we expected. It did make for an interesting conversation on the ride back home.

This person is a billionaire. They are highly-respected and yes, famous. Why would they feel the need to prey on people by selling them this perfect image? That if they attend this 3-day course, they WILL be able to purchase real estate and they WILL make lots of money from it. This billionaire has money—why feel the need to continue feeding his wallet in such a seedy manner?

I felt like a fool. The event had been marketed in such a way that was 100% misleading. It led me to wonder why people who reach billionaire level come to this? If I was someone with success of that magnitude and had the platform to reach such a large number of people, I wouldn’t want to sell fake dreams. I’d use it to truly, genuinely inspire people. Give them that small push they may just need. No fluff, no nonsense. No “classes” or seminars. Just a straight-forward, real conversation. Maybe a story I share or something I say could inspire someone to go out and do it.

I don’t know if I will ever have that kind of reach, but I’d like to think that if I did, I wouldn’t lose myself or my integrity.