It's not self-help if you have to subscribe: A rant

Heads-up for Moncton-area folks:  There's another network-marketing thing going around.  If someone pitches you books/CDs/DVDs/internet-radio-syndicated content based on the "Three Cs" or "Eight Fs," that's the one.   Based on a short conversation I had with someone with whom I'd done business once, I was under the impression that they were trying to recruit a local leadership group.  Bad me for not asking enough questions up front.

Oh, well--having company over was a good excuse to jump-start spring cleaning.  And bake banana bread.  So there's that.

I might probably have said this before, but I can only boggle at the perpetual cash-cow that is the self-help market.  Honestly, I'd love to see the trade put out of business, because human time and talent and hustle could be put to more pragmatic uses--i.e. solving tangible problems, rather than soothing the angst of adult professionals.

Why, in the cold, slimy name of Cthulu won't folks just deal with a reality that can't be neatly packaged?

Yeeeeesh.

Your parents were making it up as they went along.  So were their parents, probably from an even earlier age.  You are too, no matter how much "content" you consume.  Just cowboy up and acknowledge that and you'll save yourself a lot of internalised stress.  Possibly a bunch of trees and/or plastic as well.

Everybody successful you've ever heard of had at least a little bit of luck.  Not to mention somebody to do the actual, you know, work while they were being fawned over by Inc., and all that.  There is no checklist.  No paint-by-numbers outline.  No habits to slavishly cultivate.   If anybody had it figured out, the bookstore would have to find something better to stock on those shelves.  Me, I ain't holding my breath.

Introverts succeed.  So do extroverts.  Morning larks and night owls.  Left-brainers and right-brainers.  Technocrats and alpha-marketers.  Type As and Type Bs, plus the whole alphabet soup that is the Meyers-Briggs.  It's not a DNA or brain chemistry kind of thing.

Beware the narrative--most especially in the first person.  History isn't always written by the winners (as the Illiad, the Bible, the Arthurian tales, and the Chanson de Roland all aptly demonstrate).  But it is more often than not cherry-picked when there is a point to be made.

Treat mistakes as if they were copyrighted by the RIAA/MPAA and the ghost of Sonny Bono will curse you with "I Got You, Babe" as an earworm, even into your next life.  I.e., do try not to plagiarise anyone else's screw-ups; don't let anyone else cover yours if you can help it.  'Nuff said.

If you need mentors, get off your butt and recruit them instead of trying to buy them in syndicated form.  Respecting the fact that you might have something to offer a mentor is key.   Don't even think about entering into that kind of relationship if you don't already have a plan to pay it forward.

Bottom line, just get the heck out there, add value, and insist on being fairly compensated for your time and trouble.  Oh, and never trade your definition of "success" for anyone else's, m'kay?