The Prospector

He woke early after staying up late the night before, watching TV and had come to the conclusion from watching an hour informational show of how he could become rich from being a prospector, now, he would become a prospector.  He had watched how he could become a prospector without having a license or spending a lot of money.  As of matter of fact, he didn’t need any money to get started, just come to the free seminar and find out everything he needed to know to get started.  He made a telephone call as soon as the lines were open, to register for the seminar that afternoon, because he knew seating was limited and he wanted to be able to learn how to become a prospector. He was nervous as he walked into the hotel lobby and saw the signs pointing him in the direction of the prospector seminar.  He was amazed at the number of people who signing in to the seminar and wondered if he would qualify to become a prospector.  The friendly staff checked him in and handed him the information packet and directed him to the assembly area where many others were selecting their seats and a low mumble of voices echoed throughout the room.  Shortly after he took his seat, an attractive man in an expensive suit welcomed everyone and introduced himself as a prospector.  He told the crowd how he had been down on his luck and was wandering around the city where he lived, sleeping on friends couches and tried not to overstay his welcome of his host.  He remembered watching the same hour presentation of how to become a prospector and attended a seminar, just like the one everyone was attending today and it changed his life.  Shortly after attending the seminar, he had hit it rich being a prospector and now traveled the country to let people know how they could hit it rich as well. The speaker went on to advise the group; this was just an introductory seminar and there would be a full weekend course in just two weeks in the same auditorium they were currently seated in. The training would be demanding and only for those people who felt they wanted to be in the top twenty percentile income group should attend.  He went on to say; if you feel you can’t meet this demand, if you have no idea how to handle making an income that will put you in the top twenty percentile income category, I ask you to leave now because this training is not for you.  For a brief moment, there was silence and then several people stood up and walked out of the auditorium, followed by a few more and the speaker thanked them for being honest with themselves and waited till the last person had exited.  He raised his hand up to the middle of his chest with his palms upward and said: here is the top twenty percentile income producers of the future and then proceeded to ask members of the audience what they would do with their soon to be fortune.  Several spoke of buying a nice home, others spoke of vacations and sports cars.  The speaker announced everyone to watch a video of previous seminar attendees.  The video started out with a sports car driving down a palm tree lined street in an exclusive neighborhood, tuning on to a cobble stone driveway, parking alongside a Hummer.  As the narrator walks towards the front door, the camera pitches to the right, overlooking a fine manicured lawn and shrubbery and an attractive woman, who appeared to be in her early thirties, sitting in a lounge chair with a frosted cocktail glass, raising it as in a toast to her guest.  The narrator sits alongside the attractive woman in an adjoining lounge chair and asks the woman to describe what she did to gain such wealth as a prospector.  She explained to the camera how she had attended college and the only job she could find was being a server in a fine restaurant.  She admired the people she served and they tipped her well but she wanted more, she wanted to live the same life as her customers were living.  She recalled attending her first free seminar, then the weekend seminar and within a week after the second seminar, she hit it big.  She showed a picture of her with a seventy thousand dollar check and from that point on, she never looked back.  She quit her server job and was a full time prospector, only working a few hours a day and living the life of the customers she once served.  The woman stood up and walked toward the front door, with the camera in tow, giving a grand tour of her home which overlooked a golf course.  This was the life the young want-to-be prospector wanted and he would do whatever he had to, to live that lifestyle.  The video ended and the man in the suit stood in front of the crowd, holding his palms up, towards the audience and asked; who here wants to live that lifestyle?  The entire audience raised their hands and the man asked; who is willing to put forth the effort in the next workshop to learn how to gain that kind of lifestyle?  Everyone in the audience raised their hand, some even raised both hands.  The speaker explained there would only be limited seating and there were only a few seats remaining and the hotel was very strict on the occupancy of the auditorium because of fire regulations.  The current seminar was the last one of the three day seminar, so if we planned to attend, we needed to sign up now and the fee for the seminar was only one hundred ninety dollars and they would accept all credit cards.  Upon hearing the cost, several people walked out but many of the attendees lined up, with their credit card in hand as well as the want-to-be prospector.

Two weeks passed and the want-to-be prospector found a seat near the front as the auditorium filled up with several hundred people.  The young man thought to himself; how can all these people in my town possibly become prospectors and could we all gain the lifestyle we had seen in the video?  The speaker walked to the front of the auditorium in suit that must have cost a thousand dollars or more.  He wore a large diamond ring on each hand and a gold wrist chain on his right wrist.  His crisp white shirt almost glowed as the silk tie with the diamond stud sparkled from the spot light shining on him as he welcomed the audience to the seminar.  He advised everyone to reach under the chair, grab the training packet, open it and let’s get started.  The initial start of the seminar was learning how to budget and invest the large amounts of money we would all be earning, then the speaker introduced his stock broker to the audience.  The stock broker advised everyone that he would love working for all of us and would assist us in gaining additional wealth and his contact information was in the packet and if we would all fill out the information card in the packet that says “Stock investor contact”, fill that out and hand it to the center aisle.  The room was quiet except for the sounds of writing for several minutes and then the forms were passed towards the center aisle of the room where several ushers collected the forms and returned to the rear of the auditorium.  The speaker retuned and introduced an accountant who went on to deliver a forty-five minute overview of how we should keep good records and how he would work with us to keep the government from taking all our money.  The next speaker was an attorney who talked about why we would need to incorporate to protect our assets and if we would just fill out the forms and pass them to the center aisle.  There was paper suppliers, computer suppliers, software suppliers and realtors pitching their wares and having the audience fill out the forms and handing them towards the center aisle. The final presenter of the day was the local luxury car dealer who presented the audience with a video presentation of his fine automobiles and if we would fill out the forms and pass them towards the center aisle. The speaker advised us at the first seminar, we would have a grueling seminar and he wasn’t wrong.  The young want-to-be prospector didn’t know how tough it was going to be making all that money and how he had to prepare for the future and the future began the next day for the second part of the seminar.  On the drive home, the young man could only think of all the riches he was going to gain from being a prospector.  He had difficulty falling asleep and the alarm went off, he readied himself for another day of seminar training.  The seminar started off with videos of the successful prospectors, the prospector parties around pools in glowing sunshine, evening parties with live bands in mansions, elegant dinners, luxury cars and vacations on cruise ships and prospectors riding double decker busses in London.  This was going to be the prospector want-to-be lifestyle and he couldn’t wait to get started.  The air felt like electricity, rock music started pounding through speakers and the main speaker was clapping to the beat of the music and asked the audience to join him and suddenly the entire crowd was frenzied with excitement.  The speaker kept ask the audience; is this the lifestyle you want, is this the lifestyle you want?  The people replied yes, yes, yes and now it’s time to get serious.  The next training seminar is in two weeks in Orlando, Florida.  For those who plan to attend, this will be your final training to get you to the top twenty percentile income; are you ready?  Most of the audience screamed yes, yes, yes!  The speaker announced there would only be a handful who would attend and the cost of the seminar is fifteen thousand dollars and those who planned to attend could register in the back and the convention center personnel would be giving a ten percent discount to all attendees who planned to stay at the resort.  He also suggested we make flight arrangements with his travel agency who could save us over twenty five percent on the flights.  There was no way the prospector want-to-be was paying fifteen thousand dollars plus travel expenses to go to another seminar.  He felt like he had just been ripped off paying one hundred ninety dollars for a wasted weekend, he had learned absolutely nothing about prospecting.  What he did learn over the next few weeks was all the forms he filled out at the seminar was sales leads for the salespeople who had addressed the attendees.  They were all pleasant and wondered when I was going to be making all that easy money and buy their products.  They asked if they could call him in the future because they were sure the prospector want-to-be would be making a fortune very soon. 

Soon after the seminar episode, the prospector want-to-be decided to get his prospectors license.  He signed up for a prospector school and applied to the state for the state examination for prospectors.  Several weeks later, he took the state examination and got his prospectors license.  The problem was, the prospector want-to-be didn’t learn how to prospect, he had only learned how the laws affected prospecting.  The prospector want-to-be needed to find a mentor or a prospector brokerage firm where he could get training.  He talked with several firms and decided on a large firm where he was assigned to mirror a top producer prospector.  For the next few weeks, all the now licensed prospector want-to-be was doing was making copies, filing forms, sitting in on some deals the top producing prospector had negotiated but was learning nothing about prospecting.  The money he was making from mirroring the top producer wasn’t enough to make ends meet, so the licensed prospector want-to-be went to the broker to ask for advice.  The broker listened and told the licensed prospector want-to-be to read the manual, hit the streets and learn the same way the top producer prospector had done it.  The licensed prospector want-to-be read the manual and tried to follow the step by step instructions.  He joined the chamber of commerce, networking groups, the association of prospectors and spent a lot of money joining all the organizations.  When he attended the meetings, all he ever heard was how great the prospecting business was and how busy everyone was and the few people he got to know attended the same meetings and it was all the same.  Most of the meetings were sponsored by vendors selling their wares to the prospectors and the food and alcohol was wonderful but, the licensed prospector want-to-be was no closer to learning how to prospect than the day he started and was becoming discouraged day by day.  He knew there was a lot of money in prospecting.  He went to the back to the office and tried to ask for help and all the other prospectors, as they just waved him off while they were on the phone.  He decided to change prospector brokerages and go to a smaller company where he could get some personal training in prospecting. The small prospecting brokerage welcomed the licensed prospector want-to-be with open arms. The broker asked him for a copy of his business plan and his sphere of influence list for evaluation and the licensed prospector want-to-be didn’t have a clue of what he was asking for.  Didn’t you just come from that large prospecting firm, the broker asked?  The only reason we hired you, we assumed you had a solid business plan and a good sphere of influence list, there is no place for you here, and you might as well leave now because we don’t have time to train another prospector.  The licensed prospector want-to-be didn’t understand why he success wasn’t coming to him.  He bought all the right clothes for prospecting, he attended all the meetings and networking events.  He walked around town and told people he was a prospector and yet nothing was working.  He called one of his prospector friends to meet him at a café for coffee, but the other prospector couldn’t make it because he was prospecting.  The licensed prospector needed to clear his head, he couldn’t figure out what he was doing wrong, so he took a drive into the mountains.  He found a nice scenic drive that wound around the mountains, saw a sign for a state park and decided he needed to go for a walk along the trails and figure out what he needed to do.  He parked his car in a small lot and walked towards a sign that described the trails.  The licensed prospector want-to-be decided to walk along a stream to see some of the waterfalls the sign described and started his journey down the trail.  He had walked for about an hour when came upon and old man, squatted alongside the stream, with a pan that he kept dipping down into the water.  The licensed prospector want-to-be watched the old man dip the pan into the stream over and over and was curious about what he was doing so he walked over to the old man to ask.

Excuse me sir; what are you doing?  The old man stopped, looked over at him, stood up, wiped his hand on his pants and walked over to the licensed prospector want-to-be, stuck out his hand to shake hands with him and answered his question.  Why I’m a prospector son, haven’t you ever seen a prospector?  The licensed prospector want-to-be shook his head and said that couldn’t be, because he was a prospector.  The old man looked at him with a confused look on his face and asked him what he prospected for? The licensed prospector was now confused because he really couldn’t answer the question as he shrugged his shoulders and then starred down at his shoes.  The old man said, young man, come over here and let me show you how to prospect.  The licensed prospector want-to-be perked up and was excited, finally, someone was going to teach him how to prospect.  The old man grabbed his pan, stuck it down into the water with some of the stream bottom in the pan and the old man swirled the contents around and around and hen the old man dumped the pan out and repeated the process several times.  What are you doing, he asked?  I’m prospecting he answered.  Just exactly what are you prospecting for?  The old man looked up at the licensed prospector want-to-be and answered; gold.  No, that can’t be true, show me where the gold is.  The old man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pouch, opened the pouch up to show the gold he had found.  That’s it?  I’m looking for riches, you can’t get rich doing this, there has to be another way.  The old man pulled the strings on his pouch of gold, shoved the pouch back into his pocket and asked the licensed prospector want-to-be how he expected to find riches if he wasn’t will to work for the gold?  Prospecting isn’t supposed to be that hard, you work and work and all you come up with is that small amount of gold.  The old man looked at him and let him know; there are riches in prospecting and you have to keep going back and digging into the bottom and finding pieces of gold.  Someday, the bottom will release a nugget that is worth more than a month of prospecting and you try to figure out what you did to find that nugget and go back and do it over and over.  There will be many days you won’t find any gold in your pan and then some days, every pan has gold in it, let me show you.  The old man knelt down by the stream, stuck his pan into the water, recovered it and swirled the water around in the pan and then his eyes widened, a smile come across his face as he looked up at the licensed prospector want-to-be, just like this.  He raised the pan towards him and there were the nuggets the old man was talking about.  They glistened among the sand and gravel in the bottom of the pan and the licensed prospector want-to-be now understood what prospecting was all about.  Sir, this was the lesson I have been looking for; what do I owe you?  The old man looked at him and shook his head, you don’t owe me nothing son, and you just go back and keep dipping your pan in the water and look for the gold.  It won’t be there every time but you just keep dipping.  Just make sure you know where the gold is supposed to be and go find it.

 The licensed prospector want-to-be headed back to his car and during the walk back, he planned where he was going to prospect.  When he got to his car, he reached into his briefcase sitting in the front seat, and wrote down his plan of where and when he would prospect but he had to find a brokerage who would accept him with his plan.  All along the way back to the city, the licensed prospector want-to-be kept pulling off the road as his plan became larger and larger.  He compiled all his contacts into a list with all the contact information and couldn’t wait to get back home and start calling them and asking for their help with his prospecting.  The next morning he went through the list of brokerages and called to set an appointment to speak with the brokers.  He asked questions, presented his plan and advised the brokers of his sphere of influence list and had appointments set up but needed to know what the commission split would be. He figured out, which brokerage fit and how he would create his lifestyle, being a prospector.