Questioning Authority

The Conference Board Review^® Article

The sun may not come out tomorrow, says Steve Salerno.

By Vadim Liberman

Besides former athletes, there are also other gurus eager to motivate workers.

Yes. In order to sell their books, they have to dramatically oversimplify their messages. But nothing in life, or in business, is black-and-white. Much of the advice that these business gurus give is so formless. Their advice relies on fake promises of ego, self-confidence, self-esteem, and general affirmations, where you get in front of the mirror and say how wonderful, handsome, successful you are. But those things aren't going to bring about any real transformation.

But if you believe what you tell yourself, isn't that enough? After all, I'd rather be deluded than depressed.

Really? If you had a rash on your arm that wouldn't go away, but you were convinced you were getting better, is that OK? Making somebody feel better about a situation that really needs to be fixed is not the same as fixing the situation. If somebody is a pathological doormat who's always getting abused at work by a boss who's always crapping all over him, is he really any better by saying his affirmations in the morning? Instead of deluding himself, he should take real action to fix the problem.

You go on to claim that motivational gurus actually have no interest in helping people.

If the self-help guru wants to be successful, the first thing he must do is make people think that their lives are less successful than they are. So his message is: "Do this, get that." But in the end, you're left in the same station as when you bought the book or program. A guru's answer when his program fails? You need more of it. You always need more of it. The gurus are always trying to sell you their next thing. It's all fairly diabolical.

Is it the advice or the making money off of it that you object to?

I don't quibble with the money being spent as long as we know the results are there. But we don't. A lot of companies would argue that if they can pay Tommy Lasorda $50,000 or $100,000 to get sales to jump by 15 percent, it's worth the investment. But I don't see a serious attempt being made to track results.

Even the advice doesn't always make sense. Take a guy like Beck Weathers, who got stuck on Mount Everest and lost his nose and his hand. He comes down from a mountain that many people say he had no business being on in the first place, and now he's a motivational speaker? Excuse me? What am I supposed to learn from this guy? Don't get stuck on Mount Everest? And yet people queue up to hear him.

What will it take to convince companies of this?

It's tough because we are a society that wants to believe that a positive mental attitude is everything. Companies should take a more serious-minded approach. They should think a little bit more and look at the assumptions built into their programs. Are you assuming confidence in and of itself will win the day? It won't. And to individuals, I say stop buying self-help books! It's like living in a world of unending New Year's resolutions: I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. Instead of saying what you'll do, do it!

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