The glut [ain’t glut a great word?] of Leadership Articles, Self Help Books, Success Formulas……..Can anyone say ‘Yawn-fest’? Hackneyed cliches or what? Mercy.
Most are poorly written, slothful rehashes of some else’s actual achievement. Oh, and the ‘upsell’.
I pick this stuff up when I am having trouble sleeping. Works every time. In seconds.
I can hear the screaming now.
Everyone’s got their favorite:
Quote
Writer
CD
DVD
The one person who inspired them.
Goals and leaderhip articles won’t build my business, it won’t build yours either.
I know that and deep down inside you know it to. We quote these ‘never-done-nothing-but-rehash-resell’ gurus to our leaders, to our groups …..why?
Are we trying to impress? Motivate? Inspire?
……most of my networker friends who have grown past the point of ‘motivation’ look back on those days and quickly confess they only ‘read and said’ those things because they didn’t know what else to do……..me too.
The most stunning document that will propel achievement [why don’t people say ‘achievement’ instead of success?], is Think and Grow Rich. It’s probably the most misunderstood.
THE STORY
I was fortunate to be trained by W.Clement Stone in 1971. Stone was Napoleon Hill’s best friend, they started success magazine together.
The Think and Grow Rich Document is actually a synopsis of a 33 volume encyclopedia about success. Hill interviewed mega-successful people for 25+ years. Obviously way too much material to put in the book but people were not going to the library to read about success. So Think and Grow Rich was written to lead people to the full work, as needed.
What does that mean?
Well, the thinking was folks would read the book, get inspired and go get more detail…lots of it……about things that germain to their venture. Being smart and having a burning desire to inspire others they realized this was not going to reach as many people so they book the 33 volume set into several books. The rest, as they say is history.
See, the difference between these guys and the CD/seminar peddling self-appointed experts is this…..Hill, Stone, etc…..started with nothing and built authentic businesses from scratch that had substance and provided value…..they did not make their fortunes by pretending to be experts and re-formating the thoughts and ideas [copying] of others.
The self-help industry………..kinda funny when you think about it ……if it’s self help why am I being asked to pay someone to help me? 🙂 How is that self-help?
Anyway….the self help industry uses this massive work for their ‘brilliant ideas’……what’s that old saying???? Originality is concealing the source.
I guess that is why it puts me to sleep.
Oh, yeah…..there are 2 more pretty big reasons it bores me.
1. THE BIG LIE
Every self help pitchman I ever heard …..including MOST very famous ones, quote the study from Yale done from 1953 – 1978. In that study it shows that 3% of the people had written goals and the other 97% did not. The 3% they claim had a collective wealth that dwarfed the other 97%. Their marriages were better….kids did better etc…..They base their entire presentations [A.K.A. setting the hook for the big upsell] on this study……pretty well known study…..quoted all the time, referred to constantly, even in MLM training manuals from companies.
Houston, we have a problem.
….the study NEVER took place. These guys and gals are lying. One of the top 5 CD-self help peddlers stated when confronted about the study being false….said. “Well, it should have“…..huh?…..and business as usual. Gurus with ‘situational ethics’ …..gee, there’s a stunner.
Goals will not build our businesses. Don’t take my word for it. Read Think and Grow Rich. Each link to it above is a free online copy……
2. THE BIG TRUTH
Network marketing is a skill based business. And all the pep talks and warm fuzzy thoughts do nothing to help a person who does not know what to say.
Prospects ask questions. Your new reps get beat up. Pep talk….quoting Robbins…..Tracey…..Maxwell…..
They talk to some more people. More questions.
More getting beat up….more pep talks…..cycle repeats…..
You tell them they ‘just gotta find the right people’ …..it false but you tell them anyway…..the believe you….cycle repeats….
The truth is we have to teach them what to say …..not how to think. Positive results is the best damn motivator on the planet.
Let’s face it…..motvaitional speeches are like warm baths……they feel great for a while but in short amount of time we’re sitting in COLD DIRTY water….hmmmm
If we are going to make money, we are going to need to learn some skills…
I learned a simple skill…..and teach it ….that gets better than 94% of the people who ask questions to INSTANTLY take the information………you can get lots of skills free here This simple skill took every question a prospect had and turned it into an instant “yes” to taking my information. Anyone can learn just 6 words.
Skills, not dead animal body parts….[eye-of-the-tiger, heart-of-a-lion] ….will build our businesses.
I am not alone in my wish that people would spend as much time calling as they do reading re-hashed dribble based on a lie and, basically, poorly plagerized from someone else…..aaaaaah, the stunning age of mirco-wave mindsets….
Just view and learn this …..and teach it and the pay off is kinda cool. Great results and NO MORE PEP talks 🙂
believe
mark januszewski
world’s laziest networker
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Thanks Mathew…..been to your stuff…..outstanding content
Hi Mark,
Thanks for this blog…finally someone teaching the right stuff! Outside of Think and Grow Rich I have to say Jim Rohn ranks at the top of my list for training material.
Thanks for stopping by
Obviously you’ve done the work and know how to distinguish between the ’60 second gurus’ and authentic information.
Hill AND Rohn are clear that work is involved and Jim’s crystal clear message about work ethic instead of magic short cuts dominates his teachings. I love that
Hi Mark. Just read your blog post about ‘Leadership Articles and…’ and watched this post. I enjoyed it very much. As you say, keep growin’! 🙂
Carolyn J
Great article . . . I hold the self-help/success industry in similar disdain, and wrote a somewhat thematically related article about that here: http://jericsmith.com/2011/07/25/on-success-and-how-it-is-defined/
Well done!