The books that may not work
Self-help or Business Standard (BS), I wonder do they work to help you grow or earn money. Do they provide what you are expecting? Or are they just part of a marketing stunt to sell more?
Self-help books focus mostly on psychology to enhance mental health, personal behavior, relationships, or financial growth. Do they work on the respective growth one want or need? Just between 1972 and 2000, the self-help books have seen sales growth from 1.1% to 2.4% of total books. How many could have read and how many could have changed their financial and personality growth?
There’s a crisis in every stage of life and that crisis is a big deal at that point and we have dealt those situations without any motivation from the books. And eventually we can deal that crisis now too.
Some books advise to have a peaceful life and the other guides to earn money by 30 and retire and another suggests to not give a f*ck about anything and the same says to give the sh*t about things around you. One advises to have healthy relationships and the other in contrast suggests to travel alone and try to live alone. Every book is just written from the perspective of the author, just like fiction.
In some self-help books, the author narrates the success stories to motivate to work towards the goal and his formula to win. Life isn’t a race to win, it’s to live not to compete, writes the other. Someone’s success formula might not work, but the failures will work and so learn from his failures advises the other. Everyone is true, but what does the reader looking for? The reader is here to find the solution for his dilemma and boost his motivation but with every selection he gets more confused and frustrated instead of finding a solution. The book works if and only if the reader is in sync with the author. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time running around those books. Save that money and time, both are useful during hard times.
I hate the Business Standard books (BS) even more. Their main motto is to make money work for you, the reader, instead you follow the money. They talk just about money and the guys who made money before 30 and retired and their success stories and recommend you to implement them in your life. They just repeat their motto on and on until the end of the book. The chapters change but not the story. For example, Rich Dad Poor Dad. The author thinks that only the entrepreneur lives life without any horrors and the employee, who works for a monthly salary, will always end up with loans and debts without any joy in life. There are failed entrepreneurs and steady employees in their respective lifetimes.
These books make you jealous, I know I do too, of the guys who succeeded with some formula and that motivation lasts for like two days or maybe a week with deteriorating determination. Then what, jealous gets along with frustration. Jealous, I mean not take away the success of the guy.
The books that start with “Secret” are even worse, if it’s a secret why the hell is printed in a book and sold to millions around the world. Work hard and love what you do is not a secret, it’s a legend that is going on since the evolution of human life. They make you feel bad about your life and make you desperate for happiness and earning money as soon as possible.
All the self-help books come to one conclusion: nothing helps you, you have to pack your sh*t and work on your own to clean that i.e., work for your happiness. Nobody else can take that success away. See, it’s not a secret or tip, it’s been going around for centuries.
Yeah, sure, there exists some good self-improvement and BS books too like Business Adventures by John Brooks, there isn’t any advice in the book, it’s just failures and missed opportunities of some businesses in his time. One can learn more from someone’s failure than success. Because in a business, all success stories are different but the failures are mostly identical at one point. With every failure story at least you have one less way to solve your problem or choose a path.
The books don’t work for anyone, we have to make them work for us, even though you get the right book for your problem. To workout one has to be motivated and must have the determination to try until you successfully solve your problem. Don’t just read if you want to make more out of the book, make that book your life. And then only one can succeed and that book will work.
These books authors want you to buy the books and make them happy and wealthy while you are chasing happiness and money by trying every idea, every perspective of an unknown person. Not everyone wants to be a millionaire by 30, not everyone wants to make money out of every opportunity and don’t view everything around you is to get you money or happiness. Some are there to hurt you and hold you back to give you the reason or change your perspective. It’s your life, you go for anything you want to do, live for it not because some book or a taped video advised you. It’s your life and your rules. Break them or stand by them.
P.S.: This is my opinion and it may contradict yours. Thanks for understanding.
