It was the year 2016, I had just began my third year in the university and I wanted to make money so bad. I'm an independent person so I hate having to ask for money particularly from family. I thought of businesses to do in school but my class schedule was too tight for that or I just had one silly excuse or the other. After a class one hot afternoon I heard the most arrogant guy in my class talking about MMM. I have no clue what the acronym stands for till this day.
I paid no attention because he was a shitty guy with probably shitty talk. I went home for a semester break and heard about MMM again from several others. It was a 'put in money and get 30% interest in a month' kinda scheme. Basically a ponzi network scheme. Two, three months in, I was swimming in cash. I had down lines under me and the more they invested, the more I gained.
I started the scheme with NGN5000 ($12.5) and got on using my bonuses and investment rewards to reinvest in the scheme. I had at least NGN60000 ($150) in my account and living in school became easier. I was balling, some of my friends into it were balling. Fuck, even my parents were earning from this shit.
I wasn't like others though, as I earned, I pulled some profit out of the system. Others usually just kept reinvesting every single time. Then rumour had it that MMM was going to crash. As a true believer I ignored of course, besides, what did I have to lose? I had already gotten multiple my original investment and spent as I pleased.
We were coming to the end of the year and then came a promo. I don't remember exactly what the promo was about but then the idea was to get way more profit than usual. So the more you 'invested', the more profit you got. I went ahead to put in about $180, the only one time I was to put in bulk money and that was the end of MMM. I was pained. I could have done a lot with that money but I decided to be greedy and that was the end.
I was more pained because my dad became too much of a believer in this ponzi scheme and he lost about $2000 if not more on this get rich scheme.
You'd think I'd learn my lesson. Months later, I lost $50 in another one of such schemes. I ended up being a broke student for a while but I learned my lesson. There's no shortcut to making a lot of money. Do legitimate businesses only.
I nominate @dante31 @opidia and @mistakili for this challenge
Link to challenge here