Did you say scam? I heard Self-Help stuff. In the present time, more than drugs, what’s the worst addiction is the Self-Help scam that is rapidly growing at an unstoppable speed. As per the survey, the Self-Help Industry is expected to reach the revenue of $45.2 billion and is still growing. Self-help refers to the biggest paradoxical society in which we live, where, rather than working on ourselves, we give our lives’ trail to someone else emotionally, which never stops. Yes, this addiction is real, and to be frank, one of the most difficult to detox from, too. This Blog will uncover how Self-Help is the biggest Scam, but how I am still addicted to it even after knowing the truth.
How Self-Help is a Scam?
Self-help is filled with hopes, transformational stories, podcasts, seminars, and the coaches who teach the secrets of life at their convenience. There’s nothing but the promises of having a better life if you attend this session, your relationship will be on another level if you can connect with us for the one-on-one counselling sessions, your salary will be boosted if you are with us since the 4 am club, and whatnot. Many fake promises and fake narratives of how your world will be are included in Self-Help scams. You will be shown a different world where you will be the hero, rescuer of yourself, and whatnot.
Even after knowing everything, we, including me too, will be sipping again on the gurus who used to tell us that he would fix our bank balance with his session, because we all took a drug, that drug is called HOPE.
How HOPE is the Self-Help Industry’s USP?
What is HOPE? Hope in humans is a term we use to expect things to happen according to our wishes and expectations. We tend to see a world where we will play our preferred character, which includes our love life being the inspiration for others, no family melodrama, job success, and business at its top-tier self. To be frank, is it real? Is it possible? A big no, nothing can be perfect in all segments, and that’s the rule, that’s the truth, but we still HOPE for them, why? Because we are Humans and we cater to such stuff.
That’s when such a Self-Help Industry comes in and utilizes our fears in the form of HOPE as their major USP. Everything has a track record, and so does the self-help industry. You can see how coaches are growing in numbers just like grass on land after the rains, gurus releasing their albums every year, even after every month with different aspects of life, and everyone, including me, gets attracted towards it, even after knowing the truth, why? Because we fucking want that particular life for which we have a HOPE for, and that’s the reason why this industry is a $40 million industry. They don’t have any physical products; they have our FEAR and HOPE as their products.
How Self-Help is their Business Model?
Self-help is a business model that runs with our hopes, Wishes, and cravings for a specific ideal character we want to be in the future. Listing some of them that, under my understanding, are the basics –
- Providing Blueprint or a Framework –
You will be provided an itinerary of sessions, seminars, books, or podcasts where step-by-step solutions will be given based on your issues. For example, you will be informed about the session dates that will be aired in the upcoming days, where you will get updates on the issues driving you crazy.
- Our Pain-Points –
Whatever your pain point is, they will have sessions and seminars structured around it. Typical examples are Procrastination, Anxiety, Financial, Emotional, and Relationship issues. They will have sessions on all of them.
- Making us Dependent –
The process of your transformation is slow, so you will have to wait for your next dose of transformation, and that will be the process that will make you dependent. For example, you are dealing with stress, and after the stress management module, you will buy the financial freedom module, and that’s how you will depend upon them for your life pleasures.
- By Delivering Relief that’s temporary, not permanent –
Each of these solutions will be temporary, not permanent, because these will not be the transformation, but a dose of insights and a glimpse that will take time to convert into a transformation.
Why am I still Addicted to Self-Help Hope Scam?
Even after knowing everything, why am I still addicted to this Self-Help? The answer is simple: HOPE. I, too, have high hopes with my imagined character, where I am not ready to compromise with anything, so it revolves around the same loop. But from my experience, several of them are doing well and providing transformations in those who visit them with their pain and sorrows. We must be wise and clever enough to choose the right Self-Help Group. Please share your views on this, and don’t forget to mention your experience with any of the Self-Help Groups.
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