I basically spent the day reading emails. Honestly, I really appreciated your thoughtful and articulate messages. I really enjoyed hearing all of the different perspectives. I tried responding to as many of you guys as possible, but there just wasn’t enough time in the day.
Before I get to my decision about yesterday’s post, I thought it would be fun to give you a summary of what my experience was like. So here’s a very small portion of some of the messages I received throughout the day. A little glimpse into my world…
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“This is a major decision to make! I’m going to be honest.. I want to be one of those that are selected and I’ll be happy to pay. But how will you chose those people?”
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“Don’t stress too much No wrong answers here. You’ll do the right thing.”
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“He is right, you have the reputation to put forth something like this and have people believe it. But sounds like it’s your reputation he’s staking, not his own.”
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“You should definitely offer it to people.”
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“This talented individual should sell through his own blog, rather than use your good name.”
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“Over the last 5 years you have helped my family of three travel like I have never thought possible for two people in the field of education. The reason for the email is I think you should offer the select few to make some money and points for the $100 buy in. Of course, I would Love to be a part of that, but you will have tons of people asking you. And how and why would you trust me? I wish you the best with your decision. I cannot thank you enough for the opportunity you have provided for me and my family. We travel very well thanks to you.”
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“Probably you’ve heard it already — but why does a millionaire who’s “set for life” want to charge $100 for advice given to what sounds like maybe 100 people anyway?”
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“My advice: walk away. I feel like somehow you would be compromising. But that’s not what you do. And that’s why I read your stuff and follow your advice and information. And I don’t really follow anything else. Not worth it.”
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“As I have grown more serious in this game, I found a lot of the fun is sharing the knowledge with friends. Not because it benefits me, but because if an opportunity exists, why wouldn’t you want the people you like to benefit as well? That’s called being a good friend, I guess. Rather simple. And its obvious that’s why you keep this blog the way it is. You don’t sell crap to n00bs and we love you for it!”
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“Don’t do it.”
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“Obviously, I’d say share it. 100 people seems good. and $100 seems fair.”
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“Difficult choice for you but rest assures your readers will support whatever decision you make because we trust you. I do believe in “gut feelings” so follow your gut amigo.”
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“I would climb mountains and dodge bullets to learn how your reader scaled deals as big as he did so please take my advice seriously: Don’t publish it.
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“I would pay $100 for the “intelligence” of which you spoke today; of course I would pay with a $ order . . . just kidding.”
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“If he/she did rack up millions of points/miles, enough so that he or she would never have to work again, wouldn’t they want to ride off into the sunset instead of trying to continue to profit off of their success? I truly believe that if someone was that successful at the game, they would want to keep their legacy intact and not reveal their secret to the highest bidder. My ass would be on the Big Island snorkeling the captain cook monument with my wife and I’d be sending you on a free trip too to thank you for the years of advice. Just my two cents.”
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“In response to today’s post, I would say go for it. I would be willing to pay the $100 for the info. I understand it may be a gamble, and that’s fine.”
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“I can sense the amount of stress and the weight on your shoulders right now. Best of luck in making the decision and please do not hesitate to ask me if I can be of more assistance.”
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“TBH I’m not sure I see your dilemma. If you’re really worried that people will think you’re compromising the ideals that make us love MileNerd, you’re downplaying the cred we give you for holding the line for so long. My only concern, truly, is trying to figure out why this guy who’s made a million bucks and 10 million miles in 5 years needs to collect 100 dollar bills. It’s got to be a tool to keep out scammers and grifters, and I appreciate that. I read your post to my wife — who grudgingly stands in line at WalMart to trade VGCs for MOs — and her reaction shocked me: How does that guy do that? If he can do it, why don’t we??? So that’s my answer — go for it. Do it for us, your readers, and despite my non-communicativeness please please let me Venmo my $100 to this guy.”
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“I say go for it. I would buy the advice too!”
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“I hope your inventive friend didn’t simply want to ride on your reputation, plus have you doing the 100 dollar details for him”
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“I’d pay 100 bucks in a heartbeat to get a glimpse of the past. Would be pretty awesome. I’d probably pay 200.”
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“I look forward to reading your decision, and applaud you in neither dismissing not accepting the offer without such serious thought.”
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Again, thank you so much. The responses were way more helpful than I expected.
I talked to our friend a couple of hours ago and I realize I didn’t do him any favors with my writing yesterday. Let me try to make up for that…
First of all, I have zero concern about him lying. He’s an honest guy and I do know other people (not many) who have scaled deals to that degree. He’s a real deal heavy hitter. There’s no doubt about that.
Second, as suspected, his charging money is an attempt to weed people out rather than maximizing profits. There’s no question he could make a ton more if he wanted to. In fact, he even offered me the money (obviously I turned it down). The guy is essentially retired from this game and genuinely wants to try and help a few motivated people learn how to think differently. He says he didn’t have that kind of help when he started and it would have benefited him. His goal really is to find the right people.
Third, he never threatened to go to a commercial blog in any way, shape, or form. I haven’t looked at yesterday’s post again, but I think I probably mischaracterized that completely. His point was that there’s a reason he came to me. Meaning, MileNerd readers tend to be a different bunch and he feels there’s a better chance of him reaching out to the right people here. He believes doing it through me shows something about him.
Finally, this whole thing was confusing as hell. I think you guys would be surprised by the amount of stress it caused me. So, with all that backstory shared, here’s my decision…
I can’t do it. In short, it’s just not what I do here. And it doesn’t feel right. I told him and he understood completely.
People like this tend to be pretty quiet. He wanted me to choose for him because I have a different personality and could have helped him find the best candidates. But as you read in some of the responses above…it’s complicated.
For those who are interested in this, he’s going to set up an email address and do it himself. I can share a way to contact him (either in my year-end post or when I get back in January). But please respect the fact that I don’t want to do any more than that and have chosen not to have any further involvement in this. If my inbox today is any indication, he’ll be slammed with responses. From his personality, I can’t imagine he’ll spend his time answering questions all day. Maybe he’ll have someone else who can read emails and decide for him. I don’t know and I don’t want to know. It’s not going to have anything to do with me. I haven’t read the document but, as far as I know, the deals aren’t active. The value is in his scaling mindset and the details of how he did it.
The best part of my Tuesday was hearing from so many people. Really nice people who sound like they’re doing well and have their heads on straight with this stuff. As I told a few of you, I’m always interested in hearing how people are hustling…maybe the best thing that will come out of this is that I can bring some good people together. That’s where my head is at the moment. Again, thank you so much for your thoughts. Hopefully you guys will understand my decision to check out of this one.
