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The most recent episode of The Profit is a sidewalker's symphony

RHL

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Edit: Mods, I saw RK just bumped The Profit thread, didn't remember that there was one. I'll repost this there and you can go head and nuke this.

Two caveats. First, I don't want to seem creepy or invasive with this post, but it was like a train wreck, where once I started looking, I couldn't look away. I hope it proves educational anyway, if it seems like too much snooping, sorry. Everything I've mentioned here was found on a single 1st page Google search with everything in public access. Names/locations omitted, but if it needs to be deleted, that's fine.

Second, I'm not sure if this should go where the Shark Tank master thread went, or in the sidewalk section.

Anyway, The Profit is one of two TV shows we watch anymore. It's not as good as Shark Tank, and has a more cheesy reality-TV feel, but it's still good for some solid business insights. Pizza and The Profit is one of my wife and my weekly rituals.

Anyway, this week's show was a disaster, as the people involved ultimately concealed their true financial situation, leading to the deal collapsing. They claimed to have gotten millions in insurance payouts when two mysterious fires broke out at their building and warehouse. They claimed to have revenue that was about 4 times expenses. But they could not pay the bills.

As Marcus dug deeper, he finds out that the wife drives a 5-Series, and the dad has a large boat (that was also wrecked, leading to a huge insurance payout), and that they're re-modeling their house while their business is tanking and they're hitting up the workers to buy inventory. You can see all that on the show.

What blew my mind was after the show, my wife was googling the business to see how things turned out for them after the show and if Marcus got his money back, and along with the company website and (mostly negative) YELP reviews, up pops the then public (but now private) Facebook profile of the daughter who works at the business. The profile included the most sidewalkian tale of woe ever. That all the drama was fake, that the financials weren't accurate on the show, that Marcus was trying to steal their building, that the fires were totally explainable because they had a former employee who stole from them (causing some of the debt) who wanted to kill them but the police refused to investigate, that the family had had 3-4 deaths that were close that year and depressed everyone, that the dad had made bad investments, man, I can't even begin to scratch the surface of the litany of nonsense that was in that rant. Anyway, as my wife calls me over and as we're reading this, we look at the girl's profile picture. The profile picture was at Club XS in Vegas. And others in Miami clubs. And LA. And Italy. And Southern France. And TONS in NYC at apartments that must have cost north of $10M. Bottle service everywhere. Every one, a new dress, every picture from a different party. This girl was beautiful and young, and she was basically faking her way through the NYC millionaire socialite life. Truckloads of designer clothes, tanker ships of alcohol, and in the background... utter financial ruin. Phones shut off. Banks nailing signs to the door.

Marcus ripped this girl's mom a new one for driving a 5 series while the workers went unpaid, but unbeknownst to him this girl (who showed up to the business in a very modest car) also had, at various points, a CLK 63 AMG Black Series and an Audi R8 Spyder. Her parent's house was palatial, and featured a beautiful raised, heated stone hot tub in the back where she seemed to have a lot of parties, and on and on. Their parents had boats and cars and this giant house, and were probably helping this girl live her lifestyle in NYC. Meanwhile, their business, that their dad built, is in foreclosure, and they can't pay their employees. Her "great" job she left was as at a department store. I know lots of people who work at department stores who can afford R8 Spyders, don't you? All this, we found after looking for a few minutes, then closed the browser. It's all deleted/private now, probably because other show-watchers looked up the company and found this insanity too.

These things define the sidewalk: Pretending to be successful when you are not, blaming absolutely anyone and everyone else when your pretensions are seen through, and refusing to alter your pattern of behavior until destitution takes everything you have and no one is left to listen to the cries of "woe is me!"

It was powerful to see it all laid bare like this in a real world example.
 
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Mattie

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Hmm...I suppose people do what they feel they need to do to get attention even if it's negative. People do all kinds of stuff. There's a lot of scams and fake people online. Reality T.V. also likes to pick victim mentality families to get high ratings. I watched a woman in Michigan, her baby is still missing, and she got money, and even was on the Doctor Phil show. Watched people tear he up and down, and neither the father or her will say what happen to the baby. She's got nice clothes, and nice things from donations. People are upset because she was partying and having a good time instead of looking for her baby off their money to help her. Baby still missing.
 

Waisec

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I was unaware there were any new episodes out past S02E08. Too bad there's none on torrents yet
 

Phones

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I was unaware there were any new episodes out past S02E08. Too bad there's none on torrents yet

You can watch it on Hulu. If you're outside of US use a proxy or an extension (Hola)
 
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theag

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Watching it right now.. Its really hard to watch. I keep thinking to myself "how F*cking stupid are those people". That Marcus character too. Ever heard of due dilligence dude?
 

RogueInnovation

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They are often sidewalker on that show, but what I've noticed is that Marcus now takes much less sh#t than he did at the start (where virtually every deal backstabbed him).

The great thing about the profit is they show all the cr#p and failures, and don't tie a neat little bow on the end of the episode, as if its happily ever after. You see Marcus feeling burnt and pissed off, and acting like a human being, while they scheme and fake, and manuever.

Plus Marcus has some great ideas on all his businesses, and lowers his risk nicely.


I liked the episode, I think getting angry at them is a bit much, BUT that is because we all know how common a##holery is (and its not just sidewalkers), and I don't think its healthy to scapegoat people on a show when you walk around town and find 50 examples just as bad.

I can't believe she wouldn't give up her bmw though.
They are terrible bosses, and I'm glad Marcus left.
 
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Iammelissamoore

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...and I believe that particular episode, and similar to it, are what the parties miss the whole point on wealth about. You are all correct that it is filled with typical sidewalkian attitudes, buy up all the things that cannot be afforded that allows you to look rich. Where's the fun in that? While putting on a "Jealous Me" show for everyone else, they're simply drowning in a grave filled with debt. How does one even begin to get out of such debt creation? Surely, it cannot feel good knowing you're looking good, while figuring out where to get money to buy bread. Sure, people may paint a picture of "looking and feeling good," but do they really?

Sure as heck, I'd choose looking and feeling good, because I can quadriple afford it! No better feeling than that, knowing you're positively contributing to the world.
 

LOYD

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The main thing I've learned from The Profit and even Shark Tank is owning a business doesn't make you a business person anymore than owning a rifle makes you a hunter. In the wrong hands, it's a disaster and nothing but trouble.

And what OP reported about the daughter doesn't surprise me. She may have started out with great intentions of helping the family business. But the whole situation and how her parents behaved probably made her say "Screw it. If they don't care, why should I?"
 

Draven Grey

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I've been requiring students to watch Shark Tank for years, I don't know why I never even thought about what they would get out of watching The Profit.

Also, on a more business oriented note: I've been sitting on a gold mine TV Show for quite a while now, which has had a hard time selling because of the down-scalability of it. Essentially, it would be paying 50 contestants + crew + celebrity guests. This thread just gave me a great idea for a similar show, which would have a MUCH lower budget. I really love this forum because things like that seem to happen all the time, not to mention everyone here is incredibly supportive. Many thanks to ΕΝΔΕΚΑ for this post. Please don't erase it.
 
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