WHY SELF HELP DOESN’T HELP?(The Fatal Flaw Of All Self-Help Books And Gurus)

Until and unless you are a positive-thinking ostrich, you would have asked this question to yourself.

Why self-help doesn’t help?
Reality is that, most of the time, it doesn’t. What’s the problem? What’s the fatal flaw that makes some people claim that most of self-help is bullshit?
(And they are right in a way).

Let’s examine the fatal flaw:
So you’ve read the latest success story about someone who made it big. You’ve just heard that YouTube video of that personality development trainer telling you about how some XYZ guy succeeded in life and what you can “learn from them” (I just hate this term).

You’re all motivated to make it big in life, of course, just like Mr. XYZ did. It…

Could be anyone from Lincoln to Bill Gates to Michael Dell to… anyone.

I’m sure that you’ve heard examples like the ones below soooooooo many times:

1. Inspirational Story 1: XYZ was very poor, but he became a billionaire by sheer willpower and determination (Warren Buffett is often cited as an example).
2. Inspirational Story 2: ABC had a disability but later became an athlete by sheer willpower and determination (OJ Simpson is a poster boy of this one).
3. Inspirational Story 3: HE/SHE dropped out of school (my favorite one) and created a billion-dollar empire by sheer willpower and determination (Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, and Thomas Edison are favorite examples of this genre).

Here is my reply to all the charlatans who are preaching this and, above all, to those who are swallowing this rubbish:

They are exceptions.

hey are exceptions.
THEY ARE EXCEPTIONS.

AND EXCEPTIONS ARE EXCEPTIONS BECAUSE THEY HAPPEN EXCEPTIONALLY.

I repeat:
AND EXCEPTIONS ARE EXCEPTIONS BECAUSE THEY HAPPEN EXCEPTIONALLY.
EXCEPTION IS NOT A RULE…!

Now, I am not saying that these examples are not inspiring, but they are misleading.

I don’t have a problem with a poor person getting inspired and trying to get rich, but I do have a problem with that well-off teenager wanting to drop out of school because Jobs or Gates did.

I do have a problem with the fool sitting at home with his “million dollar mindset” and earning nothing because he is waiting for his million-dollar opportunity that he would “mentally attract.”

..tract” by his “Positive thinking.”
BULLSHIT…!

I have news: most of these clowns will never make even 100 dollars, let alone millions of them.

For every Sylvester Stallone, you have millions of wannabe future film stars starving in the attics. For one Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, there are thousands of bankrupt entrepreneurs. However, they are too many and too boring for people to write books about them.
But they are the reality, and they are the rule…!

A rule is something that happens 99% of the time.

• Reality of Inspirational Story 1:
  99% of the time, you find that a poor person did not become a millionaire, let alone a billionaire.

Rule:
99% of poor people would not become a billionaire. In fact, they would have a harder life.

Real Learning: Save for your kids.

• Reality of Inspirational Story 2:
  99% of the time, that person with a disability won’t become an athlete.

Rule:
99% of athletes are healthy.

Real Learning: Focus on being healthy if you want to become an athlete.

• Reality of Inspirational Story 3:
  99% of the time, you would find that school dropouts struggle to find a good job.

Rule:
99% of CEOs have MBAs, and many of them are engineers. In addition, 99% of people with MBAs from good B-Schools are rich.

Real Learning: Don’t drop out of school…!

HERE IS MY MANTRA:
Don’t base your life on an exception. BASE IT ON THE RULE.

Let me ask you a simple question, what would you want the chances of your success to be: 1% of exception or 99% of rule?

Right… I thought so.

So, keep focusing on rules instead of exceptions, and for Steve’s sake don’t drop out of school…!

love,

GVK