I was not paid anything this week, nor did I have any contact with Adam, nor did he respond to my Skype inquiry. I am very disappointed, but not terribly surprised. Had it been resolved, I would have refrained from stirring the waters, but I can no longer lie to myself that this will ever be settled in a professional way.
I paid him $3,000 fourteen months ago for a site that he was confident would produce $1500 to $2000 monthly within a few months of his build completion. A completion that he said would take 3 to 4 weeks, but is still not near completion over a year later. I chased him over and over and over and, when finally getting him on Skype, he would be apologetic, usually telling me that his employees weren't performing, that he was restructuring (and bigger than the last time) and that he would *now* focus on my project. Only, of course, that literally *nothing* would be done weeks later and the cycle would repeat.
I can tell you that I was afraid to say anything ... Adam was "bigger than life" in the domaining world. I thought often of going to Michael Cyger (whose interviews I always thought were very well done and he seemed like a genuine guy) or a couple others, but was concerned that: (a) perhaps they were all in a big scam together and I'd be ignored or shunned; (b) perhaps they weren't in it, but as such good friends (as it seemed), they would never believe me and I'd be ignored or shunned; (c) word would get to Adam and that would absolutely close the door on getting the work done or my money back. Or, of course, option (d) which was that I was the problem -- after all, if he was so popular and in the limelight and winning awards for "domain development", he must be delivering for everyone else.
When he called for "partners" in his new businesses, I was already too concerned about him and didn't volunteer. Even so, he personally invited me to be a partner on one of our "what's going on" calls. I basically ignored the suggestion. However, he still put me on the list of people that were "in the circle". I participated mildly in some of the startup conversations, but avoided getting pulled in deeper. I wanted to reach out to a couple people that were "all in" to see if they knew about what seemed to be going on, but I was afraid that they were so tied to Adam as a savior that they would report my "attitude" to Adam and I'd be "out of his good graces" -- never get my site nor my money.
In spite of that, I did FB message Rick W tentatively to see how the "partnership" was working. I wanted to tell him of my experience as a client, but I was feeling him out an inch at a time. I asked if Adam had given him a contract so it was understood what he would get out of the partnership. His response was defensive -- no contract, but it was "all too early", "looked like it was going to be MUCH bigger returns than originally thought, so had to re-think the structure" (paraphrased), and "why did I even ask such a question"? I brushed that off with an explanation of just wanting to understand how the partnership worked, and ended the conversation. I didn't look like he would have believed anything I'd told him about Adam, anyway, and it appears that he has recently doubled-down on his relationship with Adam, damaging his own reputation in the process.
I was a classic sucker, thinking the king was altruistic, showing an interest (and doing a favor) for me, the lowly peasant. I excitedly told so many people about how great Adam was and how lucky I was to be one of the "small group" that Adam was mentoring. I told them that my super-site would be up in several weeks (how embarrassing when they still ask about how it's going), while telling my wife that the $3K we had managed to save towards a career change was in good hands. I have to say that she has been much better about this than she should be (I am blessed!), but I am ashamed for falling for all of Adam's fake reputation, lies, deception, broken promises, false humility and insincere niceness. I often think of the heart-string video he did telling us about how proud his father was of his natural business abilities -- that was a stroke of genius, showing a very human, vulnerable Adam -- one that I don't believe really exists.
If you want to see a $3K site (which he said would be more like a $5K site due to the discount that DN College folks and I, in particular, were receiving), check out SurvivalHandbook (dot) com.
Whenever I am so tempted again, I'll just review my Skype transcripts and audio recordings of his broken promises on our calls and I won't override my know-better policies of "get a contract", "pay only for a milestone at a time" and "seek legal counsel no later than the second failed promise that isn't made right".
--GR