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To: Vanders9

I think it’s a great list... and does make a lot of sense.


3 posted on 01/04/2013 12:25:06 AM PST by Cementjungle
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To: Cementjungle; 9YearLurker
It's a pretty standard list for a motivational speaker, and sure, superficially it does make a lot of sense. However, there is an awful lot it does not say.

First and foremost - what do you mean by "success"? Lots of money? A big house? Freedom to do whatever you want? Mother Theresa had none of those things, yet no one would say she was not a "success". What counts as success to me might not be success to you. Not everyone wants to be a CEO or have millions in their bank account. I have a friend who's clever, highly qualified and assertive, but she has never progressed in her profession. She barely has two cents to rub together, but she's happy in her work because she's a paramedic who regularly saves people's lives. Is she a "success"? Not according to this guy.

And who is he anyway? According to the blurb he speaks and writes books about business and marketing. In other words, he's a salesman. Pure and simple. And what he sells is primarily himself, and a particular very materialistic worldview. But hold on. He makes nothing. He produces nothing. He just manipulates what everyone else does (which is how to become rich incidentally - there's no money at all in manufacturing these days. The profit is all in "value added" activities - most of which don't add any value at all). Think on it. If aliens beamed up all the "motivational speakers" and all the janitors on Earth, who do you think would be missed first?

As for his list...#1 "I have to assume you are lazy." Do you now? It may be true that "every single successful person works their butts off to get where they are", but that doesn't necessarily mean the reverse is true. There are plenty of people who slog away day after day and never get anywhere. Artists are the classic example. Most of them only become "successful" after they're dead, which is scant comfort for them here and now.

#1, #4 & #5 are all effective subsets of the big lie in #7, namely "The truth is you, and you alone, control your success in life/business/everything." Garbage! Of course I would never deny that you do have a strong influence over your success. If you don't try and don't work hard you will certainly never succeed, but the horrid fact is that there are an enormous number of factors influencing "success" that are completely beyond your control. Hard work and effort are only a starting point.

#3 Negativity. You don't get to choose your family. If they are "negative" is he advocating ditching them? What happens if the wife suddenly becomes a liability, economically speaking. If she develops some chronic illness do you think your vows become null and void?

#13 Society didn't teach me that only a few “exceptional” people get what they want. Experience teaches me that. Logically, there can only ever be a few people who are the "best" in any field. The last sentence gives the author's ideology away. He thinks the way to get ahead is to push everyone else down, metaphorically speaking. He thinks of the world as consisting of losers (people who do not share his values) and "the rest of us". The guy is an elitist, as bad as any liberal. Well let me tell you, you can get all the "success" you like in the world, and then you die and none of it counts for squat. He won't be at the front of the queue at the end of time.

13 posted on 01/04/2013 5:41:58 AM PST by Vanders9
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