Our local online newsletter told me about Lowell Christiansen’s book, The One-Minute Zillionaire: Achieve Wealth, Fame, and Success in an Instant Give or Take a Hundred Years. Christiansen is a local author and it sounded like a fun read, so I ordered it. It came right away, or so I thought. Instead Amazon sent The One-Minute Millionare: The Enlightened Way to Wealth. I didn’t notice the problem until I started reading it. What? This wasn’t funny at all. This book believes what it says! So I checked the title and sent it back.
I looked to see if anyone really liked the book, and 183 people (out of 237) gave it 5 stars. Did they really believe the book would work for them? Were some of them paid to write good reviews? One person did say we shouldn’t expect to become millionaires, but that was all right. If the book motivated the readers to change their lives, it was well worth the money. What do you think? Do you think books that over-promise are all bad?
Over promising and under delivering is a common phenomenon in all walks of life now a days CM. I have stopped buying all self help books including some of the hottest selling books. I honestly think that I cannot do any further with myself to change from what I am.
Every now and then, I think I should re-read the self help books that in abundance. I might browse at one – either in the library or bring it home – usually it goes back to the shelves pronto. I don’t see much that means anything to me now…
Cathy,
It seems to me you’re already doing a lot in your life. You don’t need external motivation.
I figure like the rest of life, we’re always changing. George Bernard Shaw had it right when he said, “My tailor is the only sane person I know. He measures me anew every time he sees me.” I enjoy reading biographies, seeing how other people have experienced life’s adventures. And some books written to help people create a life that works better for them don’t oversell. They give real examples of people who have made changes, and they don’t gloss over the hard work and hardships along the way. It’s a good way to read life stories of unfamous, creative people.
Yes
the only reason i’d ever want to be a millionaire is all the FUN i’d have in giving it away.
take today for instance. it was 94 degrees out there with high humidity. nothing new there!
the entire complex is getting new roofs. the storms from this past spring.
the roofs are being laid by a small group of hispanic men. they are the best workers i’ve ever seen in my life. they work from sun up to sun down.
when the day is over they scour the grounds for any nails they may have dropped.
they even whistle as they work. to say they’re hot is an understatement.
if i were a millionaire i would end their work week by giving them each $500 dollars.
each week. til finished. or maybe a thousand! i’d have to think bigger as a millionaire!
think what that would mean to them! oh the joy of being able to do that for them!
it would be so cool. i thought how it would be hard to do it anonymously.
still thinking on that one. but that’s only one example. there would be so many others!
and no… i don’t read too many self help books. though i have read all of doctor wayne dyer’s. and i like self healing books too. and deepak chopra’s. LOL. i guess i do read them! LOL.
I wish you were a millionaire. What fun you would have, and what good you would do!
Books that over-promise sometimes are successful — for the author.
The only self-help books I buy these days are practical: Tiling Complete and The Complete Guide to Electrical are a couple of the most recent — for some of my present and future projects, y’know. 😉
I buy a lot of practical books too — about Photoshop, WordPress, CSS, etc. There’s still a lot I don’t know about Photoshop, and someday it would be nice to know exactly what I’m doing when I modify a WordPress theme. 🙂
I’ve also bought a lot of books on art. My favorites have been art projects for children. A couple about expressive abstracts, another with projects to teach them the seven elements of art design. That’s just about my speed!
I might actually “buy” one book a year. On totally unrelated subjects usually but I feel that they are grand purchases and I savour that I have personally wanted them.
But I read/browse a huge amount of library books. I think I’ve said that our libraries expanded when our city became just one city/council and the request service is fabulous. You can check where you are on the “list” on-line and the notifications of both “pick up” and “it’s nearly due to return” and variety other services…
Then I have many more books through the University libraries! However, currently I spend a lot of time in the 200s’ numbers!
We have an interlibrary loan system here, but it’s not as user friendly as yours. It does help a lot if we’re patient and know it’s a book we don’t want to own. If Amazon has the book for $0.01 + $3.99 shipping, I’ll often buy it and recycle it when I’m done. I feel wealthy having such easy access to so many books.