I'm going to take a look at a highly controversial book and film called The Secret. It is written by Rhonda Byrne who seemingly was a financial failure until she wrote this book and made the film of it. I watched the film of this about a year ago. The book and film have become a phenomenon, selling millions of copies worldwide. A check on Amazon.co.uk show that it is still in the best sellers list, and is likely to remain so for years to come.
The book and film talk about how thoughts create things. It is made up of contributions and short examples related by many prominent self-help gurus such as Jack Canfield, (who I recommend). It is actually quite a small book, but it has a nice front cover. It discusses The Law of Attraction, which basically means that whatever we think about, is attracted into our life. Much of it covers wealth, and attracting abundance into our lives.
The premise of the book is that you can have anything you want, just by wishing for it. It says your thoughts create your reality. I agree in a way with the underlying theme of the book, as I have seen that the way you think has a definite effect on your level of wealth, and lifestyle. I believe it takes more than thought to actually produce results.
The good thing about this book is it's positive attitude, as it says a human can create his or her own life by thinking about how they want to be. It says we attract good or bad things into our life because of our thoughts. It has many good contributions from prominent New Age people, and makes it clear that a man becomes whatever he thinks about.
The Secret is naive in its extreme positivity, in reality you need to utilise some negativity as well. For example the film shows a man locking his bike as he was worried it might get stolen, then the bike did get stolen. That example is meant to prove that if you take precautions to protect your assets, then your fear of loss will cause your assets to be stolen anyway. This is ridiculous, as in real life you need to lock your bike, your house door, your car, etc. Doing these things would reduce the chance of something bad i.e. theft happening to you. I have a bicycle, which I have had for 7 years now. I have four locks for it, and that is why it has never been stolen. This is why I cannot believe in this part of The Secret, as I have disproved it in my own life. The book overemphasises positivity, but negativity is important too, as taking precautions and safeguarding yourself from loss needs to be taken into account. Look at things such as taking out an insurance policy, which means planning for the worst, but which is always a good idea.
Also, it has the example of a boy wishing for a bicycle, then he simply gets one, almost by magic. This greatly downplays the importance of hard work, planning, and sacrifice, which play a major part in the real world of success.
Overall, I give The Secret 1 star out of 5, for its positive attitude. It overcooks this premise due to including absolute rubbish, by saying stuff like we can cure cancer simply by thinking about it, and that we should not bother planning for the worst.
The following true stories illustrate results from other people which I have so far witnessed, who have practised The Secret. About a year ago, one of my millionaire mentors, Mr Piper, took on two amateur hairdressers to run a salon in one of his shops. He generously said they only had to pay rent for the shop, and could keep all of the profit for themselves. Instead of working and recruiting customers, the two hairdressers spent all day watching the DVD of "The Secret". Every time I went in to say hello, the shop would be empty of customers, and they would just be watching this film, no doubt dreaming of the millions of pounds headed their way. They made no money whatsoever, and Mr Piper eventually evicted them due to their laziness. He bought in a new professional hairdresser who worked hard, and started to make a profit immediately. The real secret appeared to be that you actually have to work for money.
Here is another example from recently, that showed me that this book does not produce guaranteed results. 6 months ago, I spoke to a local businessman who talked only of The Secret, and said it had made him into a big success. He was also an avid fan of the wealth and success guru Anthony Robbins. This month I discovered that he has just declared himself bankrupt. He did not pay his staff, and swindled his clients, who are actually now submitting reports to the police, as this businessman has disappeared off the face of the earth! I was amazed by this, as he seemed like such a nice guy.
The results I have seen in real life by people who are into The Secret have been terrible. Obviously not everyone who reads the book, or watches the film, will end up like this, but my observations of the entire phenomenon of this book and video, are that it promotes laziness. The problem is that the concept is all about wishing for things. The book "Think and Grow Rich", says: "Every man desires riches, but merely wishing will not make it so". If you want anything in the world, you have to go out and work for it.
Duncan Bannatyne's business book "Wake up and change your life" lists one of the most important components of success as hard work. The Secret, maybe unintentionally, does not promote this concept very much.
It seems that there is always a new "craze" or "fad" hitting the financial and success circles. First it was "Robert Kiyosaki, and Rich Dad Poor Dad", then "What the bleep do we know", now it's "The Secret". All appear to be more concerned with creating a cult around wealth, rather than ensuring followers actually get wealthy.
If somebody says they are into "The Secret", or "Anthony Robbins", or "MoneySeeker3000", it means nothing. All that matters are results. How have your finances improved as a result of the information you have learned?
On the road to wealth, many people will come at you with a new idea or scheme. You will be presented with lots of top secret formulas for success. There are no secrets to being wealthy, there are many millionaires and billionaires who have written books, and told on the Internet, newspaper articles, and on TV programs exactly how they did it. Rich people do not have secret knowledge. Becoming wealthy is not easy. It requires hard work and dedication.
Sitting around all day talking, and dreaming, and thinking about wealth and success will not make it so. You have to go out and work for it. The aging billionaire (and second richest man in history), Andrew Carnegie said "The older I get, the less I listen to what people say. I just watch what they do". You can read Andrew Carnegies autobiography for free on Project Gutenberg. He has not kept his vast knowledge about wealth, "secret".
The book and film talk about how thoughts create things. It is made up of contributions and short examples related by many prominent self-help gurus such as Jack Canfield, (who I recommend). It is actually quite a small book, but it has a nice front cover. It discusses The Law of Attraction, which basically means that whatever we think about, is attracted into our life. Much of it covers wealth, and attracting abundance into our lives.
The premise of the book is that you can have anything you want, just by wishing for it. It says your thoughts create your reality. I agree in a way with the underlying theme of the book, as I have seen that the way you think has a definite effect on your level of wealth, and lifestyle. I believe it takes more than thought to actually produce results.
The good thing about this book is it's positive attitude, as it says a human can create his or her own life by thinking about how they want to be. It says we attract good or bad things into our life because of our thoughts. It has many good contributions from prominent New Age people, and makes it clear that a man becomes whatever he thinks about.
The Secret is naive in its extreme positivity, in reality you need to utilise some negativity as well. For example the film shows a man locking his bike as he was worried it might get stolen, then the bike did get stolen. That example is meant to prove that if you take precautions to protect your assets, then your fear of loss will cause your assets to be stolen anyway. This is ridiculous, as in real life you need to lock your bike, your house door, your car, etc. Doing these things would reduce the chance of something bad i.e. theft happening to you. I have a bicycle, which I have had for 7 years now. I have four locks for it, and that is why it has never been stolen. This is why I cannot believe in this part of The Secret, as I have disproved it in my own life. The book overemphasises positivity, but negativity is important too, as taking precautions and safeguarding yourself from loss needs to be taken into account. Look at things such as taking out an insurance policy, which means planning for the worst, but which is always a good idea.
Also, it has the example of a boy wishing for a bicycle, then he simply gets one, almost by magic. This greatly downplays the importance of hard work, planning, and sacrifice, which play a major part in the real world of success.
Overall, I give The Secret 1 star out of 5, for its positive attitude. It overcooks this premise due to including absolute rubbish, by saying stuff like we can cure cancer simply by thinking about it, and that we should not bother planning for the worst.
The following true stories illustrate results from other people which I have so far witnessed, who have practised The Secret. About a year ago, one of my millionaire mentors, Mr Piper, took on two amateur hairdressers to run a salon in one of his shops. He generously said they only had to pay rent for the shop, and could keep all of the profit for themselves. Instead of working and recruiting customers, the two hairdressers spent all day watching the DVD of "The Secret". Every time I went in to say hello, the shop would be empty of customers, and they would just be watching this film, no doubt dreaming of the millions of pounds headed their way. They made no money whatsoever, and Mr Piper eventually evicted them due to their laziness. He bought in a new professional hairdresser who worked hard, and started to make a profit immediately. The real secret appeared to be that you actually have to work for money.
Here is another example from recently, that showed me that this book does not produce guaranteed results. 6 months ago, I spoke to a local businessman who talked only of The Secret, and said it had made him into a big success. He was also an avid fan of the wealth and success guru Anthony Robbins. This month I discovered that he has just declared himself bankrupt. He did not pay his staff, and swindled his clients, who are actually now submitting reports to the police, as this businessman has disappeared off the face of the earth! I was amazed by this, as he seemed like such a nice guy.
The results I have seen in real life by people who are into The Secret have been terrible. Obviously not everyone who reads the book, or watches the film, will end up like this, but my observations of the entire phenomenon of this book and video, are that it promotes laziness. The problem is that the concept is all about wishing for things. The book "Think and Grow Rich", says: "Every man desires riches, but merely wishing will not make it so". If you want anything in the world, you have to go out and work for it.
Duncan Bannatyne's business book "Wake up and change your life" lists one of the most important components of success as hard work. The Secret, maybe unintentionally, does not promote this concept very much.
It seems that there is always a new "craze" or "fad" hitting the financial and success circles. First it was "Robert Kiyosaki, and Rich Dad Poor Dad", then "What the bleep do we know", now it's "The Secret". All appear to be more concerned with creating a cult around wealth, rather than ensuring followers actually get wealthy.
If somebody says they are into "The Secret", or "Anthony Robbins", or "MoneySeeker3000", it means nothing. All that matters are results. How have your finances improved as a result of the information you have learned?
On the road to wealth, many people will come at you with a new idea or scheme. You will be presented with lots of top secret formulas for success. There are no secrets to being wealthy, there are many millionaires and billionaires who have written books, and told on the Internet, newspaper articles, and on TV programs exactly how they did it. Rich people do not have secret knowledge. Becoming wealthy is not easy. It requires hard work and dedication.
Sitting around all day talking, and dreaming, and thinking about wealth and success will not make it so. You have to go out and work for it. The aging billionaire (and second richest man in history), Andrew Carnegie said "The older I get, the less I listen to what people say. I just watch what they do". You can read Andrew Carnegies autobiography for free on Project Gutenberg. He has not kept his vast knowledge about wealth, "secret".
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