New
York’s attorney general has sued Donald Trump this past month for $40 million,
claiming the real estate big-shot failed to make good on promises to make
students rich. The AG says Trump’s expensive seminars were useless and the
delivery of apprenticeships fell short. Some of the 5,000 students had paid as
much as $35,000 and thought they’d meet the Trumpster. Instead all they got was
their photo taken in front of a tourist-like life-size cutout of the man famous
for his casinos, bankruptcy and reality TV show.
What’s
interesting about all of this is not whether Trump is a hustler who sticks his
name on anything, regardless of quality control, but that so many people (a)
buy into the instant-riches gurus out there and (b) that people think they can
hold these bullshitters accountable.
The
book industry is guilty in that it keeps publishing books that propose easy or
unrealistic paths to wealth. Not all books about making money are bad or even
inaccurate-but too many propose that readers do nothing more than wish for
something to make it so. Not everyone can buy and flip real estate and make a
killing.
Do
publishers have a moral obligation to tone down the rhetoric espoused in their “achieve
overnight success” books -- or is it simply
“Buyer Beware?”
Not
all of these books are bad. They seem to make sense but they fail to show the
downside or drawbacks to their get-rich philosophy. Sure it takes a positive
attitude, persistence, opportunity and luck -- but it also takes certain skills,
resources and knowledge to really make it in the world. Many of these books
play up the potential and the positives only.
It’s
like someone talking about how you can win the lottery if you play often enough
and pick the right numbers. All true -- but they fail to disclose that based on
the odds, one has to buy millions of lottery tickets in order to have a
strategic advantage. And even then, there’s no guarantee of a victory.
Book
publishing releases many books that are filled with more hype than reality,
more hope than truth, more possibility than probability. This includes books
about weight loss, life extension, or age reversal and other changes to one’s lifestyle. But isn’t that the
reason people buy such books -- they know they can’t change their lives but they
want to try. Books give them hope, direction and at least a feeling of optimism.
Trump
may be a fraud but even if he is, we need something like a Trump University to
give us not the secrets to wealth, but hope to hold onto.
Just don't expect to get rich!
Just don't expect to get rich!
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Brian
Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and
not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow
him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He
feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2013
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