Business Authors - Which ones are the real deal?
When I first started to do business online and through software development, I wondered who to trust with regards to my business education. Should I trust the popular business authors or should I get a degree in business or just learn on my own from experience?
Going to College for a Business Degree
At first, I thought this route would likely be the best route. What was interesting, though, was around the time I started my business, I recall one of my engineer colleagues, Troy, was studying towards a business degree. I thought this would be a good opportunity to see if he was really learning anything beneficial for real world business.
I remember one instance, when I was talking with Troy, that is etched in my mind. I recall talking with Brian, my boss at the time, about the structure of various business entities. I remember Brian asking Troy about a certain business structure and Troy just shrugged his shoulders, as if he had no clue what we were talking about. I then asked Troy, "Didn't you just complete your business degree", for which he replied yes. I ask Troy a few other questions and it seemed as if he had no understanding of how a business worked. To say the least, I was quite amazed someone could get through business school without actually learning/remembering such simple business principles.
From this, I realized that book knowledge is just a stepping stone for business. If you do not take it upon yourself to learn from experience and those directly in your business field, you essentially have learned nothing. So, all a business degree will get you is a good stepping stone of basic knowledge on which to take the first step into the real world of business.
Learning from the Best Selling Business Authors
I have to admit, I was already skeptical of many business authors before actually checking out their materials. Many of them, though, give a very convincing sales pitch, don't they?
Well, the secret, I discovered, is that most of these best selling business authors are in fact skilled professional businessmen with a nac for selling. BUT, the important thing I learned is that most of them will NOT tell you how to really make good profit or get rich. They claim their package will tell you in a few easy steps out to get rich, but the fact is, most of them just have exaggerated information with some basic business concepts.
The trick to learning from these people is twofold: First, you need to assume that half of what they teach is bullcrap, while the other half is valuable information that you can use. I took this approach with a few of these business authors and late night sales gurus and discovered, you can in fact learn from them, if you have a good eye for truth and bull. Second, you can learn, more importantly, by watching what they are doing, business wise, rather than following their packages and books they sell. So, noticing their sale's pitch patterns, the color pyschology they use on their books, in their ads, the one liners and themes they come up with, etc.. This is where you learn the most from them is by simply analyzing their sales style and reverse engineering or deducing what makes them successful, etc.
Well, Are Any of the TV Gurus or Best Selling Authors Legit?
Well, in fact, there are a few who "tell you like it is" and also have the experience and history to back up their claims. But, they are few and far between.
But, over the years, I have found a few who I have found to be credible and have found their techniques to work.
Robert Kiyosaki:
- Checks out good on Bad Business Bureau.com. Most of the fake business gurus have several complaints against them on this website.
- Robert Kiyosaki does not promise you that you will become rich through some step by step process. Rather, he teaches you the philosophy of money and business and how to approach it and what the next step is after reading his materials. Far more realistic and one of the best places to start for most people. So, he does not promise you some simple steps to become a millionaire, as many of the other gurus do.
- From my 5 years of experience doing business full time, I have found his concepts and philosophy on money and business to be a more accurate model and depiction of the real world than what is taught by most anyone else.
- His father was part of the educational system in the state of Hawaii and I believe that some of his father's love for teaching rubbed off on him. From my perception, he seems more interested in teaching you about business and money than getting the money in your wallet.
- Although Kiyosaki has had his share of critics, no one has really come up with any real dirt on the guy and Robert has not been indited into any financial scandals or tax evasion as most of the fake gurus usually end up being mired in.
You might be wondering. Well, can you name any of the gurus and popular authors who seem to have a lot of complaints? Yes, I can name a few. Here is a list below of some of the known gurus who are scandal ridden or atleast making unhappy customers:
- John Beck (Free and Clear)
(Just look at the reports here. I am in awe.)
- Don Lapre
(Classic exaggeration style with his advertising. Very good marketer, but not the best products in the world.)
- John Reed
(More of a disgruntled guru with a conspiracy theory for every guru in existence.)
- Jeff Paul
(Another one you should really watch out on.)
A rebuttal I wrote to John Reed's critique of Robert Kiyosaki: click here
Experience Combined with Study
One of the best teachers you will find is through trial and error. Putting your money on the line, with a good game plan, will produce a great deal of data from which you can logically discover through deduction the right path to take next. So it is trial and error with a little brainstorming. Of course, if you can find someone who has already followed down that exact same path you are on, you can cut out a lot of the trial and error just by learning from them. That is where coaching, like I offer, can come in quite handy.
Of course, there are going to be some situations where few have traveled and maybe no one is willing to offer any advice. In this situation, it is up to you to go through the trial and error and figure it out for yourself. Consider it like it is a lab experiment. You are trying to take a certain product to the market and you have to figure out through deduction what is relevant to your ad, what might need to be improved/changed, etc. The good news is that over time, it becomes easier and easier, as you gain more experience selling online.
Another way to learn that is similar to trial and error is reverse engineering. This is where you take data already available to you, such as eBay's history of sales, and you deduce through analysis what is say a valuable product to sell, what is the profit margin of such a product, how much competition you will have, what parts of their ad make their sales so successful, what ebay promotion strategy they used to get so many sales, etc.. If you get good at reverse engineering, you can skip a lot of the trial and error, by deducing the best qualities of your competitor's ad and marketing style and mimicking it or even improving on it.
Related Resources
- Is Rich Dad Real?
- Commentary on Robert Kiyosaki Intro
- Commentary on Robert Kiyosaki eBook
