The self-help industry brings in roughly 11 billion dollars per year. For most people that amount of money is incomprehensible, so, to put it into perspective, Jay-Z and Beyonce’s Malibu mansion costs only a measly 200 million dollars. The most expensive thing that humankind has created so far is the International Space Station, costing 150 billion dollars. That means that if we take all the money that the self-help industry has made over the last 13 and a half years, we could build another 150 billion dollar International Space Station. Instead, that money goes towards businesses capitalizing on our society’s dissatisfaction with our lives. I’m sorry to say that the reason you didn’t lose 10 pounds in a week, and you didn’t make your first million this year, and you don’t have a mansion in Malibu by now, isn’t because of your own faults and flaws. The reason is because all of those things are unrealistic for the grand majority of people. “Self-help” comes in many forms-classes, books, podcasts, so on- and very few of these things are free, they can actually be quite pricey. The self-help industry has a very special trick, their target audience is everyone. Specific products can be marketed towards specific people, but in general, everyone wants to live the best, happiest, healthiest life they can. Everyone wants to achieve their goals. Alongside the general drive towards happiness and success that is biologically hard-wired into humans, there’s also our perception of our own flaws, our downfalls, and what we believe our life is lacking. It’s something that some people learn the hard way, but self-help products usually have very little evidence to show that their claims are true. Corporations are identifying societies weaknesses and the strengths we desire to have, and they have found ways to capitalize on them. Look at it this way- either “reading this book will change your life, and make you a successful, wise, multi-millionaire”, or, it will transfer 20$ from your bank account to someone else’s. Which outcome do you think is more likely?
The amount of money the self-help industry pulls in on a yearly scale is huge no matter how you measure it, but especially when compared to the service that it provides, which is usually little to none. Most self-help products make big claims that are meant to be attention-grabbing and boast results that are desirable for a wide range of people. Not only that, but they come with big promises, promises that they can solve problems that some people suffer with their whole lives. They target insecurity, and people’s desires to be wealthier, to be smarter, to be healthier, to live longer, to be more successful and meet whatever requirements they believe necessary to be better people. Self-help products will make promises that they can change your life in massive ways, and that they can put you places you’ve been trying to get to your whole life.
So if you could imagine that all of these products were real 3-wish-genies that would grant you the life you’ve been waiting for, you’d probably be pretty compelled to buy it. All a business has to do is sell it. It’s not difficult to find out exactly what people need and what would make a great product. However, with that being said, you might still find that your blender jams a little too often, or your hair-dryer isn’t doing the job fast enough. That’s because products like that need to have certain materials, designs, and so forth to ensure proper function and durability. Their results are also measurable. The same can’t be said for self-help products. The “evidence” that they work is usually based on anecdotes, personal stories of success spun by people involved in the production of self-help books and videos and whatever else, to make their industry seem like the place to put your money. However, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. There is typically very little evidence based in science or logic that these self-help products will work for you.
If you’re looking for financial advice and you stumble across a book stating it will make you rich in 30 days, it’s probably going to be a one-time 30 dollar loss with no real positive outcome. If you really want to be rich in 30 days, then perhaps you should produce your very own self-help products, because the corporations pushing them benefit significantly more from their consumption than their consumers do.
