The Self Help Industry: Reality or Ruse?

We’re all oblivious consumers of self-help content. As a matter of fact, this very article you have your eyes glued on at the moment is also marshaled under the ‘Self Help’ category of things. Self-help is a multi-billion dollar industry and it only continues to grow bigger as you proceed through this article.

If the self-help industry is so commercialized and we are all its
consumers in one way or the other, why then do our daily affairs not resemble utopia? Ever spared a thought on it? Let’s get to the bottom of this.

How Is Self-Help Content Disbursed?

Before we cognize why a gigantic business that claims to mend all our dilemmas isn’t delivering profound results, we need to understand the means by which this industry tries to execute what it claims. Self-help content in the form of self-help books, videos, podcasts,
novels, games and webinars is distributed in shopping aisles, on the internet, in public and all of it is being done at a rapid speed by the so-called ‘Self-Help Gurus’. What has made them a Self-Guru? The answer is: ‘A Story’. A unique and personal story that all the self-gurus have
woven to feed their target audience. This is when the trouble begins and you need to watch out.

Reality Or Ruse?

1.) Self-Help Industry is a Business, a profit-oriented one: It is unequivocal that the self-help industry is profit-oriented by the multi-billion dollars it generates and the tremendous
rapport it has been building with the customers. It involves techniques like Email-marketing, personal selling and sales promotions to get their product out to the consumers. No wonder why you keep receiving e-mails from self-help gurus in your
inbox every other day claiming you have been doing a certain thing wrong all your life and they know how to fix it (by the way of e-books, online courses, coaching programs, webinars, and masterclasses). CONGRATULATIONS, it’s a ruse.

2.) Self-Help is sharing a story, not creating one: A self-help guide or guru will share his/her story with you and provide valuable insights and advice along the lines of their own story. This creates a placebo mechanism that tells your subconscious brain that if things have got better with them, eventually they will get better you too without any hard and fast substance. No wonder why your procrastination habit is still alive and kicking even after paid-consultations with self-help content or self-help gurus who claim to have beaten the habit of procrastination. CONGRATULATIONS, it’s a ‘delusional’ reality.

3.) Self-Help is the trend: You come across your friends touting about the latest self-help book they read which did wonders in their life. What’s the most likely next step you take? A virtual run to Amazon to add the same book in your cart and proceed to checkout. You read, or permit me to say ‘consume’ it in the quickest time frame possible and go back dejected to that very friend. Why did this happen and why does this always happen? It’s because human minds are wired in such a way to follow what’s trendy. No wonder why we don’t have to search for what’s the hottest trend around. Is it the Samsung Smartphone or the Apple Smartwatch, or hey.. how about the smart self-help gurus? CONGRATULATIONS, it’s a ruse.

Synopsis

The aforementioned bulletins are not exhaustive. Even though the industry offers potential ruses and swindlers, it’s an enormously valuable industry that can mend your personality in a positive direction and have a great positive impact on your life given that you consume the
right content from the right-guru. What’s right and what’s not is debatable but the next time you go to the self-help aisle in a store or have a virtual run to Amazon, remember that someone masquerading as a self-help guru is waiting to make bucks off your dilemmas.