On Entrepreneurship Coaches
Last week, I read this article: 'I Will Teach You To Be Rich.' Here's How One Man Continues to Make Good on That Promise.
If you don't have time to read, the tl;dr is that it gives three examples of people who succeeded using Ramit Sethi's course.
By reading in diagonal, it looks great. But looking closer, they all became coaches and that's how they make money.
Sounds like:
— Give me 1000$ and I'll teach you how to make money.
— OK, here's your 1000$.
— See, that's how I make money.
What Have YOU Done?
When you start a business, one of the things people do is networking. Not like Linkedin networking, but meeting real people in cocktails and events. You soon realize that some people play the game of looking successful in the hope of bringing success.
This type of people, I'm sure there's a name for them, are also often involved as judges and mentors in startup competitions, hackathons, etc. They can be very convincing when giving tips.
But, how can they teach something useful if they have never been successful themselves?
If you are starting in business, it's important to be aware of that type of people. They may look like they can help you, but in reality, they will just consume your time.
Asking the opinion of prospect clients is probably 1000x more productive than to ask those coaches.
To be clear, this is not a rant against Ramit Sethi. I have not read his book nor taken his course. I don't even know how successful he was before being coach. As far as I know, his book is about personal finance and not directly about entrepreneurship.