How to Pass Up the Opportunity of a Lifetime

Sometimes I feel like its every day that someone comes to me with the opportunity of a lifetime. It will require no capital investment, just a little tiny bit of my time, and will have enormous returns. I (almost) always pass. But how do you know when to pass up these great chances to become a gazillionaire? I think I'm lucky in that I was jaded against these fantastic opportunities when I was younger. One time in elementary school a kid promised me that he had the other red property on McDonalds monopoly. Since I had the matching red one, it was a shoe-in to win the Dodge Viper. I was already explaining to my mom how I was going to get the Viper and sell it and then invest the money in the stock market. Guess who never produced the final red property? In college a friend approached me with a GREAT business idea. He had everything planned out, and all I needed to do was build the web site. He offered me a slice of what was going to be this huge pie. I thought it seemed pretty solid so I told him I'd be happy to be involved but I wanted to just be paid for my time instead of taking a percentage. He decided to find someone else to build the site. This weekend I found out they went completely bankrupt. So whats the point? How do you know? 1) If it's too good to be true, it is. No one is going to offer you 45% return on your money with ZERO RISK. Unless they're pushing blow. Maybe you're ok with that, but assess the risk. 2) How much of your time is it really going to take? If someone offers you 10% of their company for something that will take you 10 minutes, GO FOR IT. Or email me and I will. If on the other hand you size it up and realize it may take 110% of your valuable time, its probably not worth the risk. 3) Use your experience and trust your gut. Maybe you'll pass up a great opportunity, but the statistics are in your favor for making a good decision. You've probably been burned before, put everything you know together and really analyze it. 4) Be skeptical as hell. About everything. 5) Protect your interests. If you're investing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, what is a couple grand to pay a good lawyer to protect you with a iron-clad contract? Same goes with your precious time. GET IT IN WRITING. Now excuse me while I go buy some stock in this company I just got an email about.