You'll Never Admit to Committing This Common Error that Costs You MONEY and Hurts Your Business

A couple weeks ago, I came across an offering that was something I wanted for my business--something I needed for my business.

It came at a high cost, and I bookmarked it as I tried to justify spending the money on it.

I would come back to it frequently to look it over, and hover over that "buy" button.

I must have looked over that page a half dozen times. I read the description. I looked at the pictures. I knew this was something I had to have.

But, just before I made the purchase, I happened across one line. One line.

That line had been there all along and I had not seen it all those times I looked at the description.

And that single line saved me a bunch of money.

You see, that one line informed me that, despite what I thought, that offering was completely unsuitable and unusable for my business.

Had I gone ahead with the purchase, I would have been out that money and have had no recourse. The seller had not misrepresented a thing. He had not even tried to conceal that line or make it hard to find. It had been there all along.

But, I wanted, I needed that offer so much that I had apparently overlooked it each and every time I looked at it. Right until the final moment when, by some stroke of luck, I happened to notice it.

My only option would likely have been to try to resell it, and it might not have recouped the costs or, if it did, it may have taken a long time to find the right buyer.

And it was just one line.

One very important, very critical line that made the difference. One bit of information that I needed to make the right decision.

And, that's why it is important to read things thoroughly. Even when people are not in any way trying to mislead you, you could overlook something very important and, in some cases, that can be a very costly mistake.

We have a habit of seeing what we want to see and not necessarily what is really there. Occasionally, we all fall victim to our own mental blinders that prevent us from seeing what is right in front of us. Sometimes, we may even think we are looking at things carefully and are completely unaware that those mental blinders are keeping us from seeing something.

Of course, we can try to blame it on the seller or writer. We can try to pretend it is all their fault, that they should have put the key things we needed to know in bold print or bright red letters or whatnot so that we wouldn't miss it. We can make excuses. "I had to answer the phone." "I was too busy to read the whole thing." "The puppy piddled on my laptop keyboard and I needed to hit the 'BUY' button before the computer shorted out."

But, the thing is that, if the information was there, it was our own fault for missing it.

"But he tricked us by 'hiding' it in a bunch of other text!"

But, the information was still there, so, ultimately, whose fault is it really for not seeing it?

"But he was a big name so I didn't think he'd mislead me!"

But, what if he was wrong? What if he provided you information he thought was correct, but he was wrong? Trust, but verify.

The bottom line is that the one responsible for your comments, for your purchases, for your business is you. Why would you take action on information you've not thoroughly read? If something is important to you or your business, why would you not read it more carefully to make sure you didn't miss an important detail?

Over the past week, we've had a few clever threads on here that have illustrated this point:

2010: The Year Internet Marketing Died

URGENT: Matt Cutts is Rumored to be Talking About a New Google Penalty...

New FTC Rules Take Effect January 1st: Are Your Websites Ready?

Note that in the "2010" post, I clearly stated: "You just can't believe everything you read. (Of course, part of that is that people don't actually read everything they respond to. Just you watch how many people will leave comments on this post arguing that Internet marketing isn't dead when I have essentially just pointed that out.)" Yet, there were people that basically responded to what was expressed in the title and not what was written in the post.

And, in the "FTC" post, I clearly stated: "Of course, you can understand why the FTC is doing this. This post, for example, I largely made up. Yes, there are new rules and regulations, as most people are already aware, but the "guidelines" I've listed here are ones I just fabricated. But, watch the responses to this thread. You will see people that will not have read to this point and will complain about these new things that they have to start doing. If you've read to this point, you might be a little upset (sorry), but you'll soon see the point I am making when you read the replies. People don't read things all the way through; they largely read what they want to see, not necessarily what's there."

Bill, being Bill, was more subtle than I was.

Many people appreciated these threads and appreciated the point that was being made.

Others were upset at being "tricked" and complained we shouldn't make our points on things that are important like that and so on.

But, the larger problem is that many people simply don't read what is put in front of them. And they make excuses as to why they didn't or couldn't.

If something is important to you or your business, you should read it. If you don't have time at the moment, set it aside until you do have time. You're not doing yourself any favors by partially digesting information, especially if you act on information you've only partially understood or read.

People may complain about "trickery" or whatnot, but the sad thing is that this happens every day on things where no trickery is involved. People reply to posts they haven't completely read. And, this can prove to be embarrassing for them. Or, if not embarrassing, it may cost them potential business because other people may see their comments and think the person is a fool.

Likewise, people buy things without fully reading the sales copy. For heaven's sake, if you're spending your hard-earned money, you ought to read the copy thoroughly. Don't buy first and ask questions later! Better to ask a stupid question then to spend money stupidly.

We're all probably going to overlook important things in our lives. To err is human, as they say. But, we owe it to ourselves to reduce those oversights. We owe it to ourselves to spend the time necessary to actually read and comprehend the words in front of us.

So, read. Don't just look at the pretty words. Read them. And don't make excuses for missing important information that was right there in plain sight. Words don't typically hide behind other words, except maybe in 3D pictures.