Down
With Self Help
Growth of the self-help industry
has been huge and continues to grow. It is successful to
a great degree because it plays on the fears and desires
of the general population. The main reason people buy anything
is to absolve fear and discomfort. Oftentimes wealth is
seen as the main cure; therefore, the self-help gurus focus
on providing hope that wealth is attainable: Tony Robbins,
Marc Joyner, T Harv Ecker, Mark Victor Hansen, Mark Flournoy,
Robert Kiyosaki.
But does self-help work? Or better
yet, do the consumers of all this self-help do the work
necessary to achieve success? In addition, we would have
to define success for each person to be even more accurate
in our appraisal. Let's leave that alone, for obvious reasons,
and focus on how many not only buy the books and CDs, attend
the workshops and seminars, but actually do the work.
To begin, we need to see some
statistics that verify effectiveness of self-help philosophies
and methodologies. According to Forbes Magazine, no research
has been done. Well, if we don't have any research on how
successful self-help consumers have been over the years,
we can get a feel from some examples.
Mark Joyner, a successful self-help
guru, spoke of a meeting attended by hundreds of people,
and during that meeting, he asked how many had read Napoleon
Hills Think and Grow Rich. Most raised their hands. He next
asked the group of hundreds how many had applied a particular
principle that Hill states needs to be done every day to
insure success. Only a few raised their hands. I have heard
of other cases where work shop and seminar attendees have
been asked if they've obtained success and few if any raised
their hands. On PBS I have watched T Harv Ecker, author
of Secrets of The Millionare Mind, and Robert Kiyosaki,
Rich Dad Poor Dad author, speak before crowds of mostly
octogenarians, people who lack the time and energy to pursue
wealth. How many attend these workshop merely to get a success
high?
I was reading a sales and marketing
book by Dan Kennedy the other day, one of the top information
experts in his niche, and he stated that he had attended
all the seminars, read all the books, listened to all the
tapes, did the exercises, listened to the subliminal messages,
spoke the daily mantra . . . and he was still broke. How
did he eventually solve his problem? He applied the method
of supply and demand to his availability, making himself
scarce so that others perceived him to have greater value
than he actually had--at least in the beginning--then he
became successful.
The message? Maybe it's time
to get doing and stop reading, listening, attending, and
complaining. I personally know several seminar junkies who
merely attend to get that success high, for over the years
they have done nothing to increase their wealth. But if
we look closer, how many people are actually geared for
success? Meaning, if they get their hands on the success
material, how many will be persistent enough to read, re-read
and re-read, and put forth the sustained, concerted effort
month after month, year after year, required to even have
a chance at success? There are a lot of variables involved
in being successful: racial, socioeconomic, gender, cultural,
physical disadvantages and so on. For now, let's look at
who has a greater chance at success in more general terms.
According to Hippocrates, there
are four personality types: choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic,
melancholy. Over the years others have come up with their
own labels and modified definitions of these four types
over thirty different equivalents. Nevertheless, they describe
a division of types that describe most people. To define
Hippocrates four types, the sanguine is optimistic, melancholic
depressed, phlegmatic calm, and the choleric irritable.
Keep in mind that very rarely does any single person fit
just one personality type. Of course, there is overlap.
But most motivators, or those who feel that they have the
answer to getting you going, are generally choleric. And
most of those who go it alone and are successful" are
of this personality type. Of course, the melancholic and
phlegmatic have much less of a chance at success, but let's
take a closer look at Cholerics.
Cholerics are strong willed,
independent, decisive, and opinionated, meaning that cholerics
not only make decisions for themselves but others. "My
opinion is that I should be goal and success oriented; therefore,
everyone should be goal and success oriented. And of course,
my method is the best way, pretty much the only way, even
though I may qualify by not saying so, but I do that just
to keep you coming back for more."
Few self-help gurus ever entertain
the fact that not everyone is goal oriented, wants to be
goal oriented, has ever thought about being goal oriented,
or doesn't care about being goal oriented. Then again, the
gurus may know this fact, but they aren't telling because
it just may cut into the profits. Honesty is not the best
fiscal policy.
As I alluded to above, an important
question may arise from the consumer, which method is best
for me? How do I know? No one's done a comparative analysis,
letting us know according to, maybe, personality type, that
tony Robbins is best for me, Mark Joyner for you, Marc Victor
Hansen for Bill, and Robert Kiyosaki for Suzy. But I don't
know. Maybe we're supposed to buy the stuff of every guru,
pull out the bits and pieces that work best for us, and
patch together our own system. But that would be too much
work. And an important point to consider is that according
to marketing experts, people are three things: lazy, selfish,
and they're right, meaning, that since they have "our
money," what they say goes. So my question for self-help
gurus is how do you get the lazy, selfish people motivated
to even pick up your book or listen to your CD's? Well,
thats another book, CD, seminar to make some money off of,
isn't it?
About
the Author
Jeff has worked as a computer programmer, standup comic,
college professor, and entrepreneur. He has been writing
for over 25 years: novels, poetry, essays, humor.
He
reads anything that isn't moving or tied down: history,
science, math, theology, philosophy, marketing, sales, etc.
His current novel
Black Body Radiation and the Ultraviolet Catastrophe
is available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com
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