4 ms·
Success books aren't so much wrong as self-referential. People with unconditional ambition-- they don't care what the world looks like, so long as they're on t
by michaelochurch 14y ago
Success books aren't so much wrong as self-referential.
People with unconditional ambition-- they don't care what the world looks like, so long as they're on top-- are a plague. Even worse are the dishonest ones who use the word "success" to (thinly) conceal their less socially acceptable desires: money and power. For such people, though, there is a route to what they want: degenerate social climbing. At the top of society, there really is no there there. The bad of this is that it reinforces what we've suspected for a long time: the world really is run by idiots. The good is that anyone who is sufficiently dishonest can get up there (with a bit of luck, some extortion, and a habit of self-reinvention).
People who peddle "success crack" have shown a capacity for taking their "fake it till you make it" campaigns and making them public and, thus, far more lucrative. The seed is a knack for telling people what they want to hear. This spins into a speaking tour or a book deal, which makes them legitimately "successful", which accelerates peoples' interest in hearing what they have to say.
The problem with success crack is that it comes from people whose successes are non-repeatable. Motivational speakers lecture on how to be successful, but the number of people who can be successful in that small, peculiar, niche is very small.
- orangethirty 14y agoWell put. People seem to forget that success is an event and not a lifestyle (or being rich). I prefer to read about failure due to how it tends to teach more than success.
- michaelochurch 14y agoSuccess is a result. No one can control results. In fact, the better you are, the less control you tend to have over results, because you relinquish control and reliability in favor of high-risk, high-expectancy plays. (As I get older, however, I'm starting to realize that some of that risk-seeking is pathological. I'd rather have a stable lifestyle business where I can do work that's good for the world and live, reliably, quite well... than a 10% shot at a $200m acqhire welfare check that leaves the rest of the team hosed.) I wrote about this before anyone knew who I was: http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/stop-writing-about-success-and-start-writing-about-failure/ http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/stop-writing-...
- orangethirty 14y agoPerfectly put. Bravo.
- skore 14y agoThere was an interesting discussion on "pickup artist" books quite a while ago that I found insightful[0] and was reminded of here. To reiterate the point: Success Books are part of a cargo cult, making the cargo (success) the priority, with little understanding of what usually accompanies success (work, talent, social responsibilities etc.). [0] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3217266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3217266