THUNDER BAY – Tech – (Special to NNL) – Here’s an example of the Internet telling people who you truly are, that will be a lesson for everyone. A friend of mine who is renting out his house, asked me to help him look over the Internet to background check a potential renter for his property (my friend isnt that great with computers). He really wanted to rent to an impressive young lady. She said she avoided drugs and had plenty of money in unemployment, school loans and savings. She had a bad boyfriend to get away from. After getting permission to check her background, we simply Googled her name on my iPad. In pictures and in person she looked like the clean nice simple mid-western girl she claimed to be.
Google search: Twitter, Facebook, personal blog and 4th entry: A money begging help site. Days before, she had posted on a site where people post a painful story and their Paypal in hopes of getting money. Now theres nothing wrong with that, but one of the problems was she said the opposite of what my friend had been told in the post. She was broke, the school loans weren’t enough to pay her bills, boyfriend stealing her money and pills, yada yada yada.
Her blog got more interesting as it openly discussed the “reasoning” for abusing some extremely heavy dosages of a variety of pain pills that she was taking on a regular basis morning to night. To make matters worse many of her Twitter reposts were articles about pills and getting off of Oxycontin, which is essentially “over the counter” heroin. Some of her Tweets also displayed someone with a mental “not all there” psychology. In the end he denied her application.
If you’re a landlord, employer, insurance company etc. its amazing how free people are on the Internet. You can even break down patterns of their mental psychologies based on their displayed communicative behavior. I’m surprised the police when they bust people for drugs, dont just check peoples Foursquare to see if they are “checking in” at their drug dealers house! Worse off for you if you’re the Foursquare Mayor there!
Being an entrepreneur for over 20 years, some people used to lie on their resumes or applications. They would lie and seem normal through multiple interviews. Then a few weeks after hiring them occasionally we found we had a psycho or mess on our hands. Things have changed. The world has become more transparent through social media and its mostly volunteered information like never before.
All my life I’ve had to be public, owning corporations as a registered agent, highly regulated public service commissions, mortgage banking, real estate, several times a year I had my background checked with the FBI and Interpol.
In Vegas, in 2000 they checked our company for mob ties and the Nevada Black Book for us and all our relatives. Imagine filling out an application where you had to list all your relatives, in-laws, where they worked and any mob ties and anyone you know who had them or owned a safe deposit box. With Interpol, if I’d committed a felony anywhere in the world I could lose the ability to do business.
Personally, I think all this stuff is good if its volunteered. Its puts an onus on people to be honest, smart and good. Hopefully for goodness sake. Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.” Maybe he should have said “Who you are on the internet speaks……”
Lead an honest life, the future is coming and everyone will see everything about you.
Chris Voss
Chris Voss has been a CEO, built, managed and invested in over 22 Corporations in differing fields of industry for over 20 years.
His experience of Business Ownership and Controlling Interest Investments range from: Mortgage, Real Estate, Stock Markets, Investing, Mall Retailing, Computers, Clothing Lines, Talent Agencies, Courier Companies, Personnel Companies, Telemarketing Call Centers, Construction, Pay Per Call Industry, Club Promotions, Social Media, etc.
At 18, he started his first company. In 1992, with a mere $2000, he started his first Multi-Million Dollar producing company, that ran for over 13 years. A year later, with $4000, he started his second Multi-Million Dollar company that still operates today. After that he oversaw 3 Companies simultaneously, while building and investing in over 22 different companies.
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