My Kindle is full of business books, marketing, sales, organizational techniques you name it. I think I own all the business best sellers that Amazon carries. What I have noticed is that once I get past the first or second chapter it seems to be the same recipe.

The rest of the book is step by step list taking, attitude adjustment and the usual life tweaks. In my opinion, of course.

There’s an old saying “Never date anyone you have met in the bookstore self help section”.
I think it’s interesting that we look outside ourselves for the answers to almost everything. Sure, there’s great advice in most of them but the surge of these types of books is overwhelming.

Most of what I get is from the title, like “How to Build a Platform” Platform? What’s a platform? Let me Google that. OK, so now I know I need a platform to be seen and heard by the world. Cool!

Very insightful, but after the first twenty pages it’s all hand holding, statistics, success stories, parables, goal setting and quotes from Seth Godin et al.

I understand you have to fill a book with something but all I get after the introduction is help with my melatonin abuse. I call this the “self help drop off rate”.

If you read and believe everything that’s escaping today’s publishers you will find it hard to cross the street let alone be a successful entrepreneur.

In my business, video production, the old guard is reaching the event horizon, in that all the equipment and access has become so easy for newbies to attain they have resorted to on line tutorials on how to succeed in what they are already failing in.

As they said to me once at Berklee College of Music, those that can’t play…. teach.

I attended a speakers bureau meeting recently where some forgettable self help speaker/writer regaled his wannabe audience on how easy his life was.

He was just basically phoning it in. An hour on his blog in the morning, (after perusing the news for ideas) a trip to the post office and off to the next speaking event.

The audience needed bibs to contain their drool.

His topic was how to make more money, be more successful, become a paid speaker and travel the world.

There’s a cottage industry out there of folks who are just dying to show you the way, to let you know what you’re doing wrong and how to write and maintain your life plan. Cause after all, everybody knows better than you.

Confused at Barnes & Noble