Why Are So Many Business Books Awful?
The Economist: “The formula seems to be: keep the sentences short, the wisdom homespun and the typography aggressive; offer lots of anecdotes, relevant or not; and put an animal in the title — gorillas, fish and purple cows are in vogue this year. Or copy Stephen Covey (author of the hugely successful Seven Habits of Highly Effective People‘) and include a number. Here, though, inflation is setting in: this autumn sees the publication of The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation by Ronald Alsop. And Michael Feiner has written a book offering the 50 basic laws that will make people want to perform better for you.”
Chuck on September 7th, 2004 7:07 am
Actually, the titles referenced reflect basic marketing 101 – “18 Laws” reflects proof and uniqueness… Animals help clients visualize something that’s concrete instead of abstract. I guess only an “Economist” would confuse something that works with being awful.
But who ever said anyone who could teach Economics 101 could teach Marketing 101?
So the titles don’t make something awful.
What bothers me about most business books is that they are so useless to real world folks who are individual entrepreneurs.
That’s why I liked, for example, Robert Kiyosaki’s SUCCESS STORIES about people who’d applied what they learned from him.
Most business people who have a system working like a charm aren’t going to spill their guts about it for $19.95.
Maybe $99.95 or $495.
(But even some of these “insider courses” can be worth little more than $19.95).
The best course I ever went to that really did in my estimation “spill the beans” was a $300 course in Houston TX put on by a friend Tom Schreiter – “Big Al” of MLM Fame.
By the end of the weekend, I think anyone serious about learning “business secrets” had a splitting headache. I had one, that’s for sure.
I’ve heard that Jay Abraham seminars are similar and I’ve always been helped when I heard his tapes. They tended to be for people WITH a functioning business, not people trying to find one though.
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