When the going gets tough, the tough get going. How is that working out for you?  In a New York Times op-ed, Oliver Burkeman writes about the power of negative thinking.  After discussing the feet of acolytes of positive thinking guru, Tony Robbins, who walked on burning coals and got, well, burned, he says:

Or take affirmations, those cheery slogans intended to lift the user’s mood by repeating them: “I am a lovable person!” “My life is filled with joy!” Psychologists at the University of Waterloo concluded that such statements make people with low self-esteem feel worse — not least because telling yourself you’re lovable is liable to provoke the grouchy internal counterargument that, really, you’re not.

Didn’t we learn this from that font of empirical wisdom, Saturday Night Live, about two decades ago? 

Even goal setting, the ubiquitous motivational technique of managers everywhere, isn’t an undisputed boon. Fixating too vigorously on goals can distort an organization’s overall mission in a desperate effort to meet some overly narrow target, and research by several business-school professors suggests that employees consumed with goals are likelier to cut ethical corners.

After all, if failure isn’t an option, and you can’t succeed by honest, hard work, then there aren’t too many options left. 

The internet deluges lawyers with messages of how to succeed, usually bolstered by vague concepts and glorious platitudes of becoming the head of a tribe, or a thought leader, or authentically engaging.  No one talks much about the internal inconsistency of this cheap talk, that tribes can’t be made up of all chiefs and no indians, that not everyone has thoughts that the rest of the legal world desires to hear, and those who authentically engage aren’t particularly astute or personable.  By definition most of us are part of the pack, and that’s all we ever will be.

That’s life.

But it may not be good enough. It may not be acceptable. You want more. You need more. Here you are, a lawyer, with all that time, all that money, sunk into your career, and the promise of comfortable life in return withering on the vine.  Explain it to your spouse and your kids, how the law is hard, business is rough.  It can crush your soul, so you open yourself to the power of positive thinking in the hopes of finding a better answer because the one you’ve got now isn’t working.

The problem is that as bad as things are, they can always get worse.  The  Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports that lawyers continue to get sucked into internet easy money scams.

Lawyers who warn clients against risky transactions are not supposed to get drawn in themselves.

But some are turning out to be easy prey for email swindlers using a sophisticated Internet scam that has bilked millions from law firms across North America, as the WSJ reported Monday.

Internet swindlers can reap much as $100,000 to $400,000 each time a law firm is duped, according to court records and federal law enforcement officials.

I get a few of these scam emails a day. Chances are good that you do too. Don’t we all know that these are scams, that no real client will email us out of the blue to handle their easy collection of a cool million, where we get to keep a third for doing nothing more than writing a letter?  Any idiot knows that, right?  Except the victims of Emmanuel Ekhator.

In a first here in the U.S., an alleged ringleader of one such scam is set to go on trial this fall in U.S. district court in Pennsylvania. Federal prosecutors say Emmanuel Ekhator, a Nigerian national, bilked firms of at least $32 million that way. Mr. Ekhator, who prosecutors said was living in Canada at the time of the alleged frauds, has plead not guilty. His lawyer declined to comment.

Despite the publicity surrounding the Ekhator case — and numerous warnings over the years from law enforcement and bar associations — the victims continue to pile up.

Meet the power of positive thinking. Meet the end result of the persistent claims of social media legal evangelists, who twit constantly about the fabulous wealth to be made by hopping on the tech train, and how you better jump on now or it’s leaving you behind.  You’re hungry. You’re desperate. You are ready to try anything. Even  Seth Godin says if you’re waiting for proof that it’s real, you’ve waited too long.  Do it! Take the chance! Do it NOW!

The power of negative thinking is that it keeps us skeptical.  Skepticism prevents us from getting burned.  What kind of idiot walks on burning coals? Why would any sane person do such a thing? The same could be asked of  lawyers who fall for scams on the internet.  And it’s not just rich Nigerian princes, but well-known companies like West, even bar associations, who will do anything to separate you from your money.

The desperate will respond, “so what are we supposed to do?”  Hard work, integrity and honing your skills isn’t a magic bullet. You won’t get rich overnight. You won’t become a thought leader. You won’t become a social media rockstar.  The reason is because no matter how hard you shut your eyes, click your heels, and repeat, “I’m fabulous,” it doesn’t make it so.  There is no secret to overnight success.

The best you can hope for is not to be played for a fool on the internet.  As bad as things may be, at least your feet aren’t burned.