Beware of copy-and-paste gurus

It’s not easy to break out of the ‘rat race’, and grow a business of the size that gives you the type of freedom that many of us are looking for. My first three attempts ended up in failure, before I committed to learn from people who had went before me and achieved significant success in the area I was interested in.

This process was eye-opening and showed me not only what I didn’t know, but how wrong many of the things I thought I did know were. Bullshit and noise from self-proclaimed ‘gurus’ is easy to find, and often stuffed down our throats through social media, or a friend of family member who once attended a discounted, one-day, how-to-change-your-life seminar. I’m sceptical of knowledge coming from people who appear to never have achieved any notable level of success, if they’ve discovered some get-rich-quick formula, why haven’t they used it?

When Leanne and I got serious about changing our lives, and pursuing entrepreneurial success, we knew we wanted a mentor, but with thousands of them on the market, how do you pick one? I’ve seen people bounce from one guru to the next, the ‘seminar-junkies’, seemingly more interested in the social aspect of it than actually doing any deals to achieve their goals. Recently, whilst appearing as a guest on a podcast, Leanne and I were asked how we picked our mentor, or whether we took a bit from different ones. For us it was simple, find the most successful person in our area of interest, and listen to what they’ve got to say. We learned from the guys who created the theories, not from the many "disciples" that came after them. The best mentors, the top people, they end up spawning hundreds of ‘re-sellers’, who spread there learnings around the World. We went to the source, rather than accept a watered down version. I also believe that mentors should be reflective of your own needs, therefore be prepared to seek out a new one as you change as a person, or your level of success changes, or your needs change.

In August 2022, Leanne and I travelled to Surrey to record an episode of our TV series, Business Success, with Ann Summers CEO, Jacqueline Gold. Although she is one of the most successful British retail entrepreneurs, Jacqueline told us how she believes naivety was one of her personality traits that led to her success, and I couldn’t agree more. All too often I hear people telling me why some else is wrong, why the uber-successful business leader whose podcast they listened to doesn’t know what they’re talking about, or how it wouldn’t work that way here, or now. I call these people “askholes”, people that come to you for advice, listen to what you have to say, then either do nothing, or do the opposite! When Leanne and I started our financial education journey, we simply accepted everything that our mentor was telling us, and put it into practice immediately, we didn't argue, or spreadsheet it. By picking only those mentors who are way ahead of us, we can listen to their advice, knowing it comes from a place of experience, and not just some made-up nonsense. We’ve met ultra-smart people, some who’ve read every book ever written on entrepreneurship, or financial freedom, yet they’ve still done fuck all, because they are obsessed with having to know, in great detail, how all of it works, and it’s self-sabotage, because they never get around to actually doing anything and it’s only them that loses out. We made a commitment to put it all into practice, immediately, and wouldn’t return to another seminar, or workshop, until we have made significant progress, we just took the advice at face-value and got to work.

The copy-and-paste gurus, who’ve seemingly collected some knowledge by attending a few event themselves, of reading a few books, like cutting out the tokens on the back of a cereal box to win the prize, have no value in my opinion because they are just regurgitating content, most of it they don’t even understand, whilst the real learning comes from context in my opinion. I want to know the backstory of my mentors, what have they achieved, and what makes them qualified to dish out advice. Success leaves clues, and those that have achieved success, are able to offer the right?mentorship. Be careful who you listen to, the wrong mentor can hold you back, and cause you big problems.