Self help books: If there’s one fad of our generation that riles me up no end, it’s the fad of Self
Help books on success and happiness. Its also one that's utterly hollow and
total BS. When I was a kid, I used to read up on quite a few of them to fuel my
“ambition” and “dreams”. But it was not very long before I could see right
through the generic garbage that each of these books regurgitated with
unwavering accuracy. It always followed same pattern "Think
Positive", "Set Goals", "Follow some XYZ framework",
"Be assertive", "Be confidence", "Have the right
attitude" and a bevy of other stereotypical "formulae" and bland,
cliched instructions sold as surefire keys guaranteed to open the elusive locks
of success. And they package and market all this verbal diarrhoea in such a way
that they appear like pearls of wisdom. And just take a cursory look at the
content. It’s the same, reused and recycled pile of balderdash. Most of it is
made on sweeping generalizations on what "success" is, without ever
taking into account the intricate, personal and the very subjective meanings that
each one of us attach to success and happiness. One person's success may be
another person's just another one night stand. So to typecast happiness and
success and dumbing it down to some magical formula is absurd and extremely misleading.
“Success” is such a loaded term. But the way these books commoditize and
sermonize their formulae as absolute truths without taking into account the
"context" of each individual is laughable. Success is a very personal
experience that is very different for different people. This crass
commercialization of a noble human experience is one big sham and it is imperative
that we see through it and not buy into this fad.. quite literally.
So, if it is such a huge sham, why are these books so
successful? That has a simple answer. Just one look around us and the world we
inhabit, makes it quite clear that most of us live very unhappy and unsatisfied
lives. The grass is always greener on the other side, the neighbor is always
better off, friends are going places, relatives are piling on the promotions
etc etc. Social Media and Internet, unwittingly or otherwise, further fuel our
insecurities and generate distorted, fallacious perceptions on what "success" is
and should be and it repeatedly thrusts this very surface level definition of
"success" down our throats and each one of us buy into this narrow
perception almost blindly and embark upon finding that pot of gold at the end
of the rainbow. These books just prey upon our collective fears, insecurities
and discontentment and make a killing out of it. The authors of these so called
books know very well that we are an instant coffee generation who are ALWAYS
looking for shortcuts to anything and everything. And hey if success and
happiness can be distilled into a simple, ready-to-consume generic
"formulae" who wouldn't pay for it, right? They give us what we want and desire, not what we need. For the audience, it seems
like solid investment. They are able to shell out a few bucks to buy what they
think is an elixir, a magic potion that will make them instantly successful and
eternally happy. Such simpletons, we humans are. From the author's point of
view it's as perfect a product-market fit, as any. There are tons and tons of
unhappy people, looking for a short cut, looking to read their way out of
unhappiness, looking for that one magic formulae that will transform their
sorry lives. So what do these authors do? They promise their readers a
"foolproof(The irony, sigh) formula" for attaining happiness. It’s simple,
but its brilliant and also very sad that the most exhilarating of human
experiences(happiness and success) must hinge upon some supposed self help book
that spouts out generic garbage which you already are well aware of. But the
disclaimer is, while 90% of such books that profess to change your life are
absolute garden variety tosh, there is indeed that 10% which does alter our
perception in a way and help us look at world in a different way and present a
more realistic picture of the meanings we attach to happiness and success as
opposed to the formulaic trash that most books come up with. These books are
few and far, but they do indeed resonate with your inner self. Eckhart Tolle's
"Power of Now" is one such fine example. It is upon us to really wake
up, single out these cancerous self help books and destroy this disgusting fad, which
do nothing but prey on human desperation and insecurity, which in my view, is vile
and pathetic. So let’s take a pledge to throw one useless book out of the
window everyday. My quota for the day is “You can win” by Shiv Khera. The book
just has success jargon thrown about all over the place. It tries to say a lot
of things without saying anything really.
It’s some of the biggest crock of trash I ever had the misfortune of
reading. Anyway, rant over.
