What Makes A Self Help Guru Really Successful?
Unfortunately, most of these guys and their marketing firms have this backward.
You only have to study my Scam-Free Book and the Preamble to Covey’s 7 Habits to find out why:
Most guru’s and “success coaches” are out there to sell benefits.
They can and will give you a dozen solutions to any want or need you think you have. But Covey found in his study of a couple hundred years of success material in the U.S. – that the last 50 years were devoted to just attitude adjustment instead of actually working out the underlying causation and eradicating it.
Of course, I did my own study and completed most of it before I found Covey’s work as a side-check on that research. I only took dead authors whose works were still being widely circulated, then looked for commonalities (crossovers) in them.
This wound up in my “Go Thunk Yourself” series.
But as I knew in follow-up research that something was missing. And only found that recently.
And in reviewing all this for my last book in this area then brought up the fact that I pull my own success from a wide-range of material – but only four main subject areas.
The point today is to cover how you can tell a real deal from a fake.
I mention (probably too much) that you need to be familiar with Maslow, Cialdini, and Levenson to know that you are scam-free (see the book on this, as well as the scam-free checklist).
While a scammer and an honest practitioner can be separated by finding their actual intentions (but you still can’t separate them from their money, different than the fools they ply) – even the people having great financial success in their marketing may not understand what they actually need to do to be the “real deal.”
1. Real guru’s aren’t concerned with themselves as an example. The best will actually try not to bring their own successes up, since this then builds resistance by giving you a “hidden standard” to measure your own progress against.
2. Real guru’s are interested more in your self-actualization than anything they say or do – or even in the materials they offer. (“…ye shall do even greater things than these…”) They aren’t just offering to help you cure physical ailments, get rich quick, have an incredible sex life, or “attract” that luxury car/huge house/expensive trinket you’ve “always” wanted?
3. There is no dogma or hyper-compartmented teachings to swallow wholesale. Real teachers will insist that you work this out for yourself and only accept something if and when you’ve proved it for yourself.
4. And while it’s necessary to “make money” to survive in this culture, it’s more to the point that people won’t value something unless they have to contribute something first or as a result. Money, especially hard-earned income, is one way to do this. CEO Space requires people to go out and learn by getting people to get investors contributing to their success.
And so this really gives you a four-point checklist to see if you have a fake or the real deal in front of you:
- Look up their website and see if it’s personality and approval-driven. Does it have a lot of pictures of the principles with other celebrities?
- Do you have to buy extensive packages of materials which can only be used under certain conditions and agreements? Are you forbidden from improving on these materials or teaching your own version?
- Are these guru’s and their staffs only really interested in how you are progressing with these materials? Do they give you a testimonial form to fill out? Or are they simply giving you solutions to insatiable desires – how rich is rich?
- Are you constantly being asked for more money every time you turn around. This can also be insidious, as they are putting pop-ups on their site to get you to sign up for their email course – then claiming they have XXX,XXX subscribers or “millions of satisfied customers worldwide!”
Now, take it as a given that since the vast majority of people on this planet are running on 95% subconscious habits, you are going to attract people into a real self-help study which can let them achieve enlightenment only by first telling them that “your lumbosis can be simply alleviated with high-powered and unique methods we have.” As well, that they can “live more abundant and prosperous lives” if they start doing such-and-so at such-and-such price per hour. Only when you tell them that the reason they want all these things also has to be addressed – that is the first time you are bringing up the point that self-actualization is the higher goal to really shoot for. Because only when they’ve had success in dealing with these relatively minor problems of having abundance or happiness or good health in their lives (which are actually native to everyone anyway) will they be able to see that there is something higher that they can and should be reaching for.
The final point – do they deliver the goods? Scientology (not to beat a dead horse that doesn’t know it) has the problem of having promised their people that they can attain super-high personal states, but not having those actual courses and processes ever written up by Hubbard before he passed on. Zen Buddhism says at least that while many people have become bodhi/achieved satori, others might take several lifetimes before they do – while some can get there in minutes, per Alan Watts. When you study up on a self-help guru, look to see if they are delivering a finite set of goods that is here right now.
If they are just selling you the “next great thing” with no end in site – realize you are their income source. And little else. Move on. Find yourself another guru, or become your own.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for visiting my blog and reading this entry.
If you’ve found it valuable, please consider donating via PayPal to enable my continuing research.