The Miracle Morning asked you to wake up at 5 AM, so you do.
The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People made you follow a routine from 9 AM to 7 PM, so you did.
The Secret History advised a goodnight sleep by 10:30 PM, so you follow.
The Western world’s “self-help craze, the imperative to perform and optimize yourself all the time” has become pathological — professional psychologist, Svend Brinkmann said in an interview. You’re always ready to copy experiences — even those that are merely written on paper.
“Get rich quick”, “Double your income” books that claim to give you the mantra of victory.
These books help you find your way to success. Yes, a 351-page book is offering you the sweet potion of triumph. Look at the other side, it’s a 156-page book boiling down your life choices into a strategy of victory. But do you wish to make a life out of these guidelines? A life with no experiences?
I remember growing up free of all these formulas for success.
But over the years I have been asked to read books like the ‘Monk who sold his Ferrari’ and ‘100 ways to achieve financial freedom’. These books follow a pattern. A pattern of toxic productivity. We all have our fears, don’t we? “Am I doing what it takes?” “Where is my life headed?” Constant insecurities dominate us. The last thing we need is a book trapping us in them. Yet, that’s exactly what happens to us.
When we find ourselves not measuring up to the pointers of those who succeed, it makes us feel inadequate. But, the thing is, a technique that works for one person might not work for another.
Listen, folks, it’s very clear. There is no 2+2 to success. There exists no 10/5 formula to reach your goal. It’s all trial and error.
Did any inventor read a self-help book into discovery? Obviously, not. They explored. They experimented. They learned to see the world differently. They honed their inventions based on the skill sets they possessed. Not preached or written by someone else.
As a 1:1 growth and business mentor, I believe this to be a crucial stage. I teach mentees to see the world differently and create their path. Why did they choose to develop something? What was their vision for it? What did they plan? The answer to these questions helps them get a develop a clearer path for their idea.
According to Market Research, the self-improvement market was worth $9.9 billion in 2016 and is estimated to grow to $13.2 billion by 2022 with 5.6% average yearly gains. Out of this, the self-improvement books have a market of $800 million.
But why though?
Simple, The need to be better. The need to be more insightful.
Hustlers of the world believe, that to be successful you have to be perfect in all aspects. Honestly, I don’t blame you. The world is competitive than ever. Everyone needs to be one step ahead of the other. On seeing a promising blog like — 5 steps to get there, 9 formulas to spice up your relationships, 7 things not to do if you don’t want to fail, you are bound to buy. But maybe we are just asking the wrong questions. Tell me, did the 5 steps get you there? Did the 7 things save you from failure?
According to a study by the University of Montreal in Canada readers of self-help books secrete higher levels of cortisol (a stress hormone). Meaning, that the people who read self-help books are more sensitive to stress and depressive symptoms. Ironic, Isn’t it? The book that you buy to make yourself a better version, does the exact opposite.
It’s all just gimmicks. You can NEVER strategize your success. There are no pointers to life.
Everything boils down to your greatness. Remember, success and happiness if measured with financial gain alone is a recipe for disaster!
Do you know how to sustain your achievements for the rest of your life? Almost 90% don’t. Because there lies no key to sustenance.
Success is subjective. Its sustainability is arbitrary.
No self-help book can ever promise you an unending triumph. What you can root for, is the longevity of your success. Luckily, there’s a formula for that. Mentorship. Imagine already knowing the problems that your business model might face. Yeah, self-help books cannot do
that. But mentors can.
How? Experience.
Most successful entrepreneurs quit following self-help books and pursue being under mentorship. A mentor can show you how to sustain and survive in the long run. They can train you to understand the complexities of your business and the problems that arise on the path. Contrasting to them are self-help books that follow a set guideline and can offer solutions from only a single perspective.
No two journeys can ever be the same — right? Thus, self-improvement books cannot have the answer to every journey.
Personally, thinking from every aspect allows me to help my mentees in building a startup that promises success. Unlike self-help books, I let YOU live out your own experiences. My guidance lets you break the barriers of a “fixed-established routine”. I steer my mentees beliefs by their ideals rather than pushing my own. There’s no better way for a novice to win than seeing the world from their own eyes while being ready for future challenges with my experience.
Listen, You got this! It’s your time to shine. And I can guide you to the path where your shine is the brightest.
Throughout my career, I have seen young entrepreneurs follow pages of self-help books. From mimicking the morning routine to copying the bedtime drill. It’s as if they are living by the book. But what they often forget is the experiences they miss out while imitating pages that were written 10 years ago.
I believe, at the end of the day, if you have a positive mindset to succeed, you’re already 10 steps ahead. See the world differently. Find a solution to a problem. Understand the ‘WHYs of the world’ and hustle — you will always get what you want.
Implement YOUR idealistic thinking into your startup. Talk to your audience. Listen. Fill a need.
Focus and start working on your business idea. Build a startup with your skillset, knowledge and experience. A monk who sold his Ferrari is not your story. YOU create your own story. Never believe that without following their recipe for success you cannot make it big.
To succeed as a startup, you do not need the preachings of a book that was printed in 2013. What you need is mindfulness. Take the time to reflect and go within yourself. Find the soul that drives your mind, your life and your business. Sit idle for a few days and reflect.
In the last few years of mentoring, I have helped newcomers in adopting a mindful lifestyle. Under my mentorship, they build business models based on their vision and ideals. My skill of understanding their qualities and using them for their benefit allowed them to achieve their versions of successes. Being my mentees, their imagination was never limited to my capacity. The sky was their limit! And that’s exactly how they succeeded.
I often asked them to write down what makes them tick. What were their victory moments in life? What were the 10 business ideas that resonated with them? All these activities helped them ideate better and look at newer angles.
Word of advice, find ideas that you believe in. Study the competition. Find a mentor and dwell deep into what’s possible. Build a community. Start the business. Get funded and hustle.
Life is full of opportunities. Don’t miss out on any. Using a self-help book for mere advice is okay. Taking a path that might seem promising is okay. Using a book to figure out some stuff that clogs your mind is okay. But don’t let a book dictate your life. Take the paths untaken and you never know where you end up. Use the guidance of a mentor and kill it with your dreams! All the best!
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over. Theory is splendid but until put into practice, it is valueless.”
