A bad risk I took.

Everyday, we go through life with no map to show us how to navigate hurdles. We live life, figuring things out on our own. This to me is what I call risk. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, yet we make plans for it, hope for it and even make promises to people on it. You cannot tell me that life isn't a risk.

Everything about living is risky. From the air we breathe, the food we eat,kinds of clothes we put on, the business deals we negotiate, plying the roads to and from work, hiring service providers and even sleeping. All is risk.

The key is in management. Being able to understand the pros and cons that certain risks entails in whatsoever decisions and steps we are to take.

A recent risk I took that I am very certain that I will never forget in a hurry happened late December last year. A colleague of mine had been pressing me to join a business she was into since September. She told me about all the juicy parts of the business and to be honest I was really tempted but I wasn't able to join her then because the business required some start-up funds.

I usually consider myself as a non-risk taker especially when it comes to financial deals. I'm not a greedy person and so I don't dabble into what is not mine. When the Ponzi scheme became a thing some years ago, I didn't even bother joining because I disliked the thought of money doubling. I believe so much in eating the fruits of my labour.

When MMM was popular in Nigeria, a lot of people I knew personally, ventured into it. When they were receiving their double payouts and flaunting it, I felt like I had made an unwise decision not to join but later when MMM crashed and they were lamenting, I was glad that I didn't take that risk.

I said all that to make a point which is that I'm not one to jump into a financial venture just because of the huge profits involved. So as my colleague kept pressing me to join, I finally agreed . The business was pretty easy as it only required me to watch five 15 second movie trailers and submit. I get daily pay but I can only withdraw on a particular day of the week and I could only withdraw a certain amount.

I took the risk and even borrowed part of the start-up funds. The first week passed and I was eligible to withdraw which I did. In about six hours, my Opay wallet was credited and I felt like wow ,this might be legit after all. Seeing my money in my wallet and using it, spurred me on. I even became an evangelist and won two new converts into the business and that increased my daily earnings.

When the next withdrawal day came, I placed my withdrawal like I did before and was waiting for my credit alert which was supposed to be in six hours time but lo and behold my dear brethren, I waited for 48 hours and the money did not drop. It was then that scales fell off my eyes that I had taken a bad risk.

I went to the business WhatsApp platform to lay my complaint concerning the delayed payment only for me to see other thousand people laying their complaints. I quickly called my colleague to ask her the way forward on how to get my money but she too was in the same boat as me.

We kept waiting and waiting until finally, we got a new message on the platform asking all of us to re-register with a particular sum of money. That was when it became loud and clear that we had fallen prey to a new form of Ponzi scheme.

Our accounts were blocked after a while and all the money we had made were frozen or should I say lost. I felt bad when I realized all that was happening and how I had lost the start-up funds without making it back. The worse part was that I borrowed part of the capital and I had to pay the person back.

That period was hellish for me but I thank God that I was able to pull through and tthis has taught me never to join any such business again. If I want to invest, there are proven investment platforms that can help my money grow.

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Thank you all for reading. This is my entry to the #hivelearners initiative wk170 e02.

Images used are mine.