Not Doing Due Diligence on my First MLM Company - 4/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

In late 2015 I joined my first MLM company- Multi Level Marketing.This sounded amazing and after going to one of their seminars I decided to join. Now, at first I was amazed by it and the prospect, but around 1-2 months into the business I started to doubt the system and think about how it worked. I wanted to see balance sheets when I went to the seminar, but because I never did saw any empirical evidence, then that was the source of my doubt.I started to be more distant from the community, deciphering how the system worked within my mind and listening to the "negative people"- the vocal opposition to the company.During one of the seminars, the host showed us a photoshopped picture of a shark with a machine gun and said "you cannot always believe what you see on the internet".After the talked I asked him whether that comment was a bit of a straw man fallacy, which is to present your opponent's argument and then attack and debunk that misrepresentation as opposed to their actual argument. He never replied.In hindsight, after seeing similar businesses get into trouble with the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) in the USA, the business was an obvious Ponzi scheme.I managed to get my capital back before they had issues, I'm just awaiting interest payments of around $5000, once they sort themselves out.I did not do enough research and investigation into the system. It has made me a better and smarter person and I did meet a good business friend through it. So it is not all that bad.One of the lessons that I learnt from this business is that you need to be able to argue against yourself better than your opposition can argue against you.Because when you know your standpoint better than you opposition, then there is no argument that they can bring up that you do not already know how to handle and debunk.Read more about the mistake I madehere